7. How to Use Your Positional Power for Good (vs. Evil!)

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Hello and welcome to this episode of Ways to Change Your Workplace. This one is gonna be a really good one to help you uplift your leadership game. How excellent was that last episode with Elaine Bennett about how to turn your internal culture and external brand around after a case of corporate corruption or fraud. Now if you haven't listened to that episode, do so after listening to this one. Elaine Bennett is based in Cape Cod and she talked about her experience of working at the Solomon Brothers and the fraud case that happened there and how the interim CEO, who turned out to be Warren Buffett, turned the internal culture and external brand around. She's got some amazing practical lessons for you that you can take away as well. But before you go ahead and listen to that episode, I want to talk to you today about the concept of positional power and how leaders can use their positional power for good. But before we begin, I want to explain the concept of positional power. Putting it simply, positional power is the use of your power to get things done. This type of power is something that you exert over others. It is the use of your authority. Positional power is a preordained source of power given to a person as a result of their position. So let me give you some examples. Your manager can use their positional power to allocate tasks to you. Your leadership coach could use their positional power to hold you accountable to the actions that you committed to during your coaching session. That's exactly what I do for my coaches. It can also be used in a forced way. Dictatorial rulers can use their positional power to ensure that their people do as they say. But today I want to talk to you about how you can do good using your positional power. So the ways in which you can use your positional power for good. I've got some practical examples for you. So the first point I want to talk to you about is the fact that the higher you are in the hierarchy of an organization, the further you are from real life, the further you are from grassroots and what's really happening on the floor, so to speak. So when explaining this, I like to use the analogy of an orchestra. You once used to be a musician on the ground with your peers. However, now that you're a leader, you're more of a conductor of the orchestra. Your time is also now limited. Yet you still have to ensure that your orchestra does not miss a beat. You are focused on the end goal, but you often don't have the full picture. So talking to this, I've got an example. I worked with a CEO who, after working with me to address the fact that she didn't have all of the information from the grassroots and she was missing a lot of real life intel from the horse's mouth, she decided to meet with her staff informally. So this one CEO that I've supported held monthly CEO coffee catch up sessions with a small cross section of her organization. She brought along a hot drink and stuff that she wanted to share, and she asked the attendees to do exactly the same. This resulted in her, the CEO, learning far more of what was happening at that individual level, their achievements, their challenges, and their pain points. It allowed this CEO to continually improve the organization's processes, their systems, and to challenge behaviors that needed to be changed. By keeping her coffee catch ups to a loose agenda, she never knew what to expect. But that's a good thing, because people were free to raise whatever the current burning issues they were that they may be facing. Now if you relate to this in relation to the higher you are in the hierarchy, the further you may be from the grassroots. What kind of things can you consider to hear from your grassroots? I love the fact that this CEO had CEO coffee catch up sessions, so it was an informal setting already, and people felt comfortable to bring whatever they wanted to to the conversation. What could you do at that grassroot level to tap into the information that you might be missing out on? The other point that I want to raise also is that now that you're a conductor of the orchestra, you may well be feeling lonely at the top. Many leaders do. And this is because you hold a lot of confidential information, and you may have now also had to place clearer boundaries between yourself and your employees. That is a natural fact. So, tip number two, this is where a good network helps. Do you meet with your peers at the same level or similar level as you regularly to share your experiences and insights? What is your network like? Are you learning from them? Are you giving as well as taking? Are you sharing information? Are you debriefing? Are you learning from your network? Another tip is to get a leadership coach. A good leadership coach is an excellent source for you to bounce ideas off, and it's someone who will ask you challenging questions. Often, those are the questions that your staff might be avoiding as well. And if it's a good coach, they'll call you out on your BS if needed. As a result of your senior level, you might be getting piecemeal information. You may not always have the full picture. Now I liken this to the story of the Emperor's New Clothes. It's a classic tale of positional power, and it talks to the fear that the people had of being honest with the emperor. So if you don't know about the story, I've added it to the show notes, but in essence, Emperor's New Clothes. The Emperor walks down this huge street with nothing on. But none of the Emperor's people have actually said to the Emperor, Hey, you're in the nude, you don't have anything on. And that's because people feared this Emperor. Now I don't want you to be like this naked emperor. No way, never ever. So the final piece of information I want to leave with you today is to conduct formal engagement or culture surveys every two years. Yes, every two years. Why do I say that? Number one, because I don't want you to waste your money every friggin' year. And number two, because there's an alternative to it. So before I give you the alternative, I want to talk to culture surveys. Yes, do your culture surveys. But then please do something about your results. Celebrate the positives, address your quick wins, and then commit to longer-term actions to improve your culture. Transparency is so key when you hold culture surveys, sharing your results, honestly, holding everyone to account. Everyone in your organization owns the culture, treat it like so. Companies are now moving towards a culture of having formal surveys every two years, like I said, and now adapting post checks in between those surveys. And post checks are amazing. I have rolled out so many for many organizations, and you can do them at any time, either with your internal culture team or an external consultant. You have to have that neutrality because you're trying to find out what's happening on the ground at that point of time. So these pulse checks can be really simple. These pulse checks can be as simple as asking people to come prepared with their honest thoughts on what's working well and why. What's not working, why, and what solutions do you have? Hello, empowerment to employees to propose solutions for their own problems. What a great question to ask. And then a final open question you could ask is Is there anything else that you wish to raise in relation to our culture? Open questions, yes, require far more analysis and work, but there's such value in asking open questions as well as close questions during your pulse check surveys. So, you know, with great power comes great responsibility. I want to ask you how you are using your positional power. Are you meeting with your people to find out what's really happening on the ground, face to face or conversationally? Number two, do you have your own good network or your own good leadership coach to hold you accountable and to keep you honest to ensure that you use your positional power for good? And then point number three, are you running formal surveys, whether it be culture or engagement surveys biannually, and then post check surveys in between, as and when you need to, and then are you doing something about it? Let me know what you think. I'm keen to hear what your experience is of how you manage your positional power for good. Because remember, once you lose the trust of your team, it is so difficult to regain. Trust me, I have helped many a leader to try and regain trust, and it takes years of hard, hard work. All details about this episode are in the show notes. If you like this episode, I'd like you to take a moment and think about at least two people who might enjoy it. And please share the episode details with them too. Also, don't forget to connect with me on LinkedIn and on Instagram. I am QuinaTotcha. See you there too.