Thoughts on Power (Blog #6)

Do you think about yourself as a powerful person?

Relative to my work environment I enjoy a large amount of influence because it is a small business, and someone has to make the decisions. I have the ability to take on or dismiss workers, or decide pay increases, etc. Make new capital investments in equipments, plant, etc... I believe my freedom at work, could be viewed as power, but I view it more as freedom to make changes that affect the company in a positive way.

Relative to everything outside of work I feel like I am a normal person, I don't have any more or less power than an average everyday citizen would.

Do you think of yourself as someone who empowers others?

I sure hope I do... I always try to see when a persons abilities are not aligned with their tasks. A good example is that we had an employee who was in a certain position who performed poorly but worked really hard. I remember many some other managers thought he just wasn't good enough, I thought about it and realized that because he had glasses and that the environment he is was dusty and required heavy lifting, and he was a smaller guy with glasses. I thought about it, a and said to myself that this guy is in the wrong position. I wanted to move him and teach him how to be a machine operator, where pneumatic equipment can lift the heavy parts and dust is minimal. I made the change, which made sense for this employee and our company. He is working harder than ever and happier I can tell, because I think this new opportunity is working out very well for him and will allow him learn even more an program the machinery soon. Short answer is: I try.

We talked about how to be powerful, how to look powerful, and how to exercise power over the past few weeks...and many of you will be graduating in a couple of months...what kind of power do you feel ready to exert and what kinds of power would you like to cultivate?

Well, I want to definitely become better at delegating out the right functional area's and tasks to people that I believe will excel because what they are doing is more in line with who they are and their talents. I don't really believe in the whole dressing up to show power thing... "perception is reality"... I think this is an area that I am terrible in... I have a hard time giving up my jeans and t-shirt/polo relaxed work image. I chose not to have an office, but a cube like everyone else on purpose... I just don't like to stand out based on image, I believe peoples action and contribution to the company is more important. But it is an area I could work on if I want to create a more powerful image for myself.

How are going you to meet these power goals?

I definitely want to keep my eyes peeled in watching how people work, and using any power to realign them with things they want to do, or things they may be better at. I need to speak with employees more to collect more information on if they think they could empower themselves in any ways possible. I don't like to admit it, but I really should dress a little more formal for work to give me an image which would be perceived as more influential. I am going to try after I graduate... ;)