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Practicing Leadership: Principles
and Applications
Chapter 8: Power and Leadership from the Top:
Leadership Lessons from Political Science
Power and Influence
• Power – The potential influence over the attitudes
and behaviors of one or more target individuals.
• Influence - The degree of actual change in a target
individual's attitudes or behaviors.
• Influence Tactics – Behaviors an individual uses
to affect another person's attitudes or behaviors.
• Ask before seeking to influence others: Is it
legal? Is it balanced? How will it make me feel about
myself?
Robbins’ seven most common tactics
used to obtain influence
Reason
Friendliness
Sanctions
Bargaining
Higher authority
Assertiveness
Coalition building
Sources of Power
Legitimate
Power
Referent
Power
Expert Power
Informational
Power
Power
Reward or
Coercive
Power
Position Power
Personal Power
Etzioni’s Power Analysis
Social Power
• Social power – The positive expression of power
when a goal is achieved
• McClelland, managers are most successful when
they combine a high need for social power with a
relatively low affiliation need.
▫ They believe in the validity of the authority system
from which they draw their power. They believe in the
organization.
▫ They enjoy their work and bring to it a sense of order.
▫ They are altruistic, believing that their well-being is
linked with the corporation. They put the company
first.
▫ They believe in seeking justice above all else and that
justice should extend to the workplace.
Sources of Presidential Power
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Act as commander in chief of the military
Serve as head of state
Veto acts of Congress
Convene Congress
Appoint executive branch officials
Make treaties
Grant pardons
Evaluating Presidential Leadership
• Six types of skills that influence a president’s
effectiveness:
Skills as a public communicator
Organizational capacity, which is defined as the “ability to
rally colleagues and structure their activities effectively”
Political skill
Vision, meaning a president’s ability to organize the
administration around a clear set of public-policy goals
Cognitive style, which is the way in which presidents
process all the information they receive
Emotional intelligence