CHAPTER 12
Leadership Power and Influence
Chapter outline
Four Kinds of Influential Leadership
Using Hard versus Soft Power
Increasing Power through Political Activity
Don’t Take Power Personally
In the Lead
Helen Dragas and Teresa Sullivan, University of Virginia
The Evans Family
Leadership at Work
Circle of Influence
Leadership Development: Cases for Analysis
The Suarez Effect
Waite Pharmaceuticals
Summary and interpretation
This chapter looked at how leaders use power and political processes to influence others and get
things done. Four types of influential leadership that rely strongly on a leader’s personal
characteristics and relationships are transformational, charismatic, coalitional, and
Machiavellian-style leadership. Charismatic leaders have an emotional impact on people. They
create an atmosphere of change, articulate an idealized vision of the future, inspire faith and
leader’s desired goals. To have broad influence, leaders develop relationships with others, listen
to others’ needs and goals, and promote cooperation. Machiavellian-style leadership is based on
the belief that leaders must often do tough, even ruthless, things in the spirit of protecting the
organization. Machiavellian leaders focus on acquiring individual power more than on
collaborating with others.
All leaders use power and politics to influence people and accomplish goals. Power is the ability
to influence others to reach desired outcomes. Power can be characterized as either hard power
or soft power. Hard power includes legitimate, reward, and coercive power, which are associated
with a leader’s formal position of authority. Soft power includes expert and referent power,
which are based on the leader’s knowledge, expertise, and personal qualities. Three distinct
Your leadership challenge
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
• Use power and politics to help accomplish important organizational goals.
• Practice aspects of charismatic leadership by pursuing a vision or idea that you care deeply
about and want to share with others.
• Apply the concepts that distinguish transformational from transactional leadership.
• Use coalitional leadership to build alliances that can help you achieve important goals for
the organization.
Key terms and concepts
Transformational leadership: leadership characterized by the ability to bring about significant
change in followers and the organization.
Transactional leadership: a transaction or exchange process between leaders and followers.
Charismatic leaders: leaders who have the ability to inspire and motivate people to do more
than they would normally do, despite obstacles and personal sacrifice.
Coalitional leadership: leadership that involves developing allies and building a coalition of
people who support the leader’s goals and can help influence others to implement the leader’s
decisions and achieve the goals.
Power: the potential ability of one person to influence other people to bring about desired
outcomes.
Influence: the effect a person’s actions have on the attitudes, values, beliefs, or actions of others.
Referent Power: authority based on personality characteristics that command followers’
attention, respect, and admiration so that they want to emulate the leader.
Compliance: following the directions of the person with power, regardless of how much
agreement there is with that person’s directions.
Resistance: the act of disobeying orders or deliberately avoiding carrying out instructions.
Commitment: adopting the leader’s viewpoint and enthusiastically carrying out instructions.
Politics: activities to acquire, develop, and use power and other resources to obtain desired future
outcomes when there is uncertainty or disagreement about choices.
Political frame: a leader frame of reference that views the organization as an arena of conflict or
tension over the allocation of scarce resources.
Symbolic frame: a leader frame of reference that perceives the organization as a system of
shared meaning and focuses on shared vision, culture, and values to influence others.
Introduction
As more than 100 current and former Warner Brothers executives watched a documentary
celebrating the studio’s 90th anniversary, something disconcerting happened. Not long into the
film, the audio sputtered and images froze on the screen as the digital projector malfunctioned.
“Well, this is a less-than-auspicious start,” joked new CEO Kevin Tsujihara, who had assumed
the top job three weeks earlier after a tense two-year power test among Tsujihara, Television
Group president Bruce Rosenblum, and Motion Pictures Group president Jeff Robinov. Tsujihara
candidate. The long stand-off makes Tsujihara’s job even more difficult because it damaged
morale and cohesiveness, straining the family feeling Warner Brothers is known for. He is likely
up to the challenge, though. The word is that Tsujihara, a Buddhist, got the job because he was
Annotated Lecture/Outline
Leadership Challenge #3: Apply the concepts that distinguish transformational from transactional
leadership
I. Four Kinds of Influential Leadership
Four types of influential leadership that rely on a leader’s personal style and relationships are
transformational, charismatic, coalitional, and Machiavellian-style leadership.
A. Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is characterized by the ability to bring about significant change
in both followers and the organization. One way to understand transformational leadership is
to compare it to transactional leadership. The basis of transactional leadership is a
transaction or exchange process between leaders and followers. The transactional leader
recognizes followers’ needs and desires and then clarifies how those needs and desires will be
satisfied in exchange for meeting specified objectives or performing certain duties. Thus,
Transactional skills are important for all leaders. However, in a world in which success often
depends on continuous change, organizations also need transformational leadership. Rather
than analyzing and controlling specific transactions with followers using rules, directions, and
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can act like a transformational leader by rallying
people around an inspiring vision, expressing optimism about the future, helping followers
develop their potential, and empowering people to make change happen.
Studies support the idea that transformational leadership has a positive impact on follower
development, performance, and even organizational profitability. Moreover, transformational
leadership skills can be learned as they are not ingrained personality characteristics.
Transformational leadership differs from transactional leadership in four significant areas.
• Transformational leadership paints a grand vision of a desired future and communicates
it in a way that makes the pain of change worth the effort. The most significant role of the
transformational leader may be to articulate a vision that is significantly better than the old
Effective leaders exhibit both transactional and transformational leadership patterns. They
accentuate not only their abilities to build a vision and empower and energize others, but also
the transactional skills of designing structures, control systems, and reward systems that can
help people achieve the vision.
New Leader Action Memo: Complete the questions in Leader’s Self-Insight 12.1 to learn how a
supervisor of yours rates on transformational leadership. Then, answer the questions for how
you would behave in a leadership situation.
Leadership Challenge #2: Practice aspects of charismatic leadership by pursuing a vision or
idea that you care deeply about and want to share with others.
B. Charismatic Leadership
Charisma has been called “a fire that ignites followers’ energy and commitment, producing
results above and beyond the call of duty.” Charismatic leaders have an emotional impact on
people and inspire them to do more than they would normally do, despite obstacles and
New leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can use aspects of charismatic leadership by
articulating a vision, making personal sacrifices to help achieve it, and appealing to people’s
emotions more than to their minds. Expand your charismatic potential by pursuing activities that
you genuinely love.
Charisma can be used for good or ill, but applied wisely and ethically, it can lift the entire
organization’s level of energy and performance. Charismatic leaders are engaging their
emotions in everyday work life, which makes them energetic, enthusiastic, and attractive to
others.
Exhibit 12.1: Distinguishing Characteristics of Charismatic and
Noncharismatic Leaders
Charismatic leaders articulate an idealized vision of a better future. They have an ability to
communicate complex ideas and goals in clear, compelling ways, so that people understand
and identify with their message. Charismatic leaders act in unconventional ways and use
unconventional means to transcend the status quo and create change. The leader’s influence is
based on personal qualities rather than the power and authority granted by the organization.
Discussion Question #3: What do you consider the most important difference between
transformational leadership and transactional leadership? Between transformational and
charismatic leadership? How is transformational leadership similar to charismatic leadership?
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Leadership Challenge #4: Use coalitional leadership to build alliances that can help you achieve
important goals for the organization.
C. Coalitional Leadership
Coalitional leadership is leadership that involves developing allies and building a coalition of
people who support the leader’s goals and can help influence others to implement the leader’s
decisions and achieve the goals.
Failing to build a coalition can allow conflict and disagreements to derail a leader’s decision,
particularly if the opposition builds a powerful coalition of its own.
In the Lead: Helen Dragas and Teresa Sullivan, University of Virginia
The showdown between the first female president and the first female rector of the University of
Virginia played out over a period of 18 tumultuous days in front of a cast of thousands. “Palace
coup meets grassroots rebellion,” one politics professor tweeted at the peak of the drama.
Teresa Sullivan was shocked when she was told in a meeting with rector Helen Dragas and vice
rector Mark Kington that the board was unhappy with her performance as president of the
University of Virginia after two years on the job and they wanted her to resign. Presenting her
with a separation agreement, Dragas informed Sullivan that they controlled 15 of the 16 board
resignation had been handled and tried to shore up support for her decision, but it was too late.
After two weeks of turmoil, Mark Kington resigned as vice rector and the governor of Virginia
was threatening to fire the entire board if they didn’t resolve the crisis. Six board members were
Leaders can be more successful if they follow four steps for effective coalitional leadership:
• Coalitional leaders do lots of interviews. Leaders conduct informal interviews with
people from all across the organization to gather information and get a clear sense of the
challenges and opportunities they face.
• Coalitional leaders visit customers and other stakeholders. Coalitional leaders solicit
the views and input of customers as well as other potentially influential stakeholders,
such as board members, government agencies, creditors, or others.
• Coalitional leaders develop a map of stakeholder buy-in. Leaders typically find that
Exhibit 12.2: Mapping Stakeholder Buy-In
Leadership Challenge #5: Call upon characteristics of Machiavellian-style leadership when
tough actions are needed to benefit the organization in different times.
D. Machiavellian-Style Leadership
The term Machiavellian is often associated with unscrupulous, even diabolical behavior
aimed at increasing one’s power for personal gain, but in reality Machiavelli’s essential
argument in The Prince is that the welfare of the state must come first and foremost and that
leaders must often do tough, even ruthless things in the spirit of the ends justifying the means.
Many types of leadership are used to influence people. Each style—transformational,
charismatic, coalitional, and Machiavellian—relies on different assumptions and behaviors.
With Machiavellian-style leadership, the leader is willing to use any means necessary to
preserve and protect the well-being of the organization. The characteristics of Machiavellian-
style leaders include the following:
• They are always on guard for risks and threats to their power. Machiavellian-style
leaders assume that people are basically fickle, greedy, and deceitful, so the leader is
always alert to shifting loyalties and is not above using manipulation or pitting people
against one another to retain or acquire more power to achieve goals.
• They don’t mind being feared. Machiavelli warned that striving to be the most-liked
New leader Action Memo: Do you have characteristics associated with Machiavellian-style
leadership? Complete the questionnaire in Leader’s Self-Insight 12.2 to find out.
Like coalitional leaders, Machiavellian-style leaders are highly political, but whereas
coalitional leaders focus on reaching out and working with others, Machiavellian-style leaders
typically focus on gaining and using individual power. They may strive to gain control over
information and resources such as jobs, rewards, financial support, and materials so that
In the Lead: The Evans Family
Suzanne Evans was newly married, finishing a dissertation for her Ph.D. in history, and caring
for four children under the age of 8. It was total chaos, but like many mothers dealing with
blended families, Evans was trying to be kind and generous to the children. “Yet as I read The
Prince,” she says, “I realized that the more things I gave them, the more they expected and the
less grateful they became.”
Evans decided that a tough Machiavellian-style approach might be just what was needed to
control the chaos that was threatening to tear her family apart. Here are some of the actions she
took based directly on maxims she read in The Prince.
• Guard against a reputation for being too generous: On previous shopping trips, if she didn’t
buy the children whatever they wanted, they would pitch temper tantrums. The next time
they went to Target, she gave each one $10 and told them they could spend it on whatever
they wanted but to use it wisely because it was all they were getting.
The strategies worked. Shopping trips went much more smoothly, and the children learned the
value of money. By the end of the school year, both Daniel and Teddy brought home excellent
report cards. The tough approach with Katie kept her from trying to sneak out of the house and
Although Machiavellian-style leadership appears to be the approach most motivated to gain
and use power, all leaders rely on the use of power to influence others and get things done.
Discussion Question #2. How do you feel about personally using Machiavellian-style
leadership? What do you see as some positive and negative aspects of Machiavellian-style
leadership?
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Discussion Question #4: Assume you are on a search committee to replace the CEO of a large
financial services firm that is recovering from problems related to the mortgage crisis. Which do
What about for a new top leader of a small private university? Discuss.
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Leadership Challenge #6: Explain the difference between soft power and hard power and
identify specific types of power in organizations.
II. Using Hard versus Soft Power
Power is often defined as the potential ability of one person to influence others to carry out
orders or to do something they otherwise would not have done. Power is the potential ability of
one person in an organization to influence other people to bring about desired outcomes. It is the
potential to influence others within the organization with the goal of attaining desired outcomes
for power holders.
A. Specific Types of Power
Most discussions of power include five types that are available to leaders. Hard power
includes legitimate, reward, and coercive power, which are defined largely by the
organization’s policies and procedures. Effective leaders don’t rely solely on the hard power
of their formal position to influence others. Soft power includes expert power and referent
power.
Exhibit 12.3: Five Types of Leader Power
Legitimate Power
Legitimate power is the authority granted from a formal position in an organization.
Certain rights, responsibilities, and prerogatives accrue to anyone holding a formal
leadership position. Followers accept the legitimate rights of formal leaders to set goals,
make decisions, and direct activities.
Reward Power
Power that stems from the authority to bestow rewards on other people is called reward
power. Leaders control resources and their distribution. Leaders with reward power can
use rewards to influence subordinates’ behavior.
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can expand your personal power by developing
Coercive Power
The opposite of reward power is coercive power. It refers to the power to punish or
recommend punishment. Supervisors have coercive power when they have the right to fire
or demote subordinates, criticize, or withdraw pay increases. Coercive power is the
negative side of legitimate and reward power.
Expert Power
Power resulting from a leader’s special knowledge or skill regarding tasks performed by
followers is referred to as expert power. When a leader is a true expert, subordinates go
Referent Power
This kind of power comes from leader personality characteristics that command followers’
identification, respect, and admiration. Referent power depends on the leader’s personal
characteristics rather than on a formal title or position and is especially visible in the area
of charismatic leadership.
In the Lead: Patricia Sellers, Fortune Magazine
She rubs elbows with Sheryl Sandberg, Indra Nooyi, and Warren Buffett. Never heard of her?
Maybe that’s because she’s the one sometimes writing the splashy articles that are featured on
the cover of Fortune magazine, rather than being the subject of them. Patricia Sellers, who is
Known for being somewhat shy early in her career, Sellers now charms conference attendees as
easily as if they are old friends (and by now, many of them are). “I get invited to a lot of things,”
Warren Buffett said, “but this is the one I clear the calendar for.” At the 2011 conference, Buffett
sat patiently waiting because a photographer wanted a shot of him with Sellers. Many people
would have dropped everything to do the photo shoot, but part of Sellers’s power comes from
Charismatic leadership, described earlier, is intensely based on the relationship between
leader and followers and relies heavily on either referent or expert power. However, all
good leaders make use of these types of power rather than using position power alone.
Consider This: The Ripple Effect
Do you want to be a positive influence in the world? First, get your own life in order. Ground
yourself in this single principle so that your behavior is wholesome and effective. If you do that,
you will earn respect and be a powerful influence.
Your behavior influences others through a ripple effect. A ripple effect works because everyone
influences everyone else. Powerful people are powerful influences.
If your life works, you influence your family.
If your world works, the ripple effect spreads throughout the cosmos.
Discussion Question #7. Which types of power would you rely on to implement an important decision
quickly? Which types would you consider most valuable for sustaining power over the long term?
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B. Follower Responses to the Use of Power
Leaders use the various types of power to influence others to do what is necessary to
Exhibit 12.4: Responses to the Use of Power
When people successfully use hard, position power (legitimate, reward, coercive), the
response is compliance. Compliance means that people follow the directions of the person
with power, whether or not they agree with those directions. The problem is that in many
cases, followers do just enough work to satisfy the leader and may not contribute their full
potential.
If the use of hard power, especially the use of coercion, exceeds a level people consider
legitimate, some followers will actively resist the attempt to influence. Resistance means that
employees will deliberately try to avoid carrying out instructions or will attempt to disobey
orders. Thus, the effectiveness of leaders who rely solely on position power is limited.
Discussion Question #10: A leadership observer said in an interview that most women leaders
view power differently than men do and prefer a collaborative, relationship-oriented use of
power. If this is the case, what does it suggest about women leaders’ abilities to accomplish
goals? What does it suggest about women’s ability to rise to higher organizational levels?
Discuss.
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Leadership Challenge #1: Use power and politics to help accomplish important organizational
goals.
III. Increasing Power through Political Activity
Acquiring and using power is largely a political process. Politics involves activities to acquire,
develop, and use power and other resources to obtain desired future outcomes when there is
uncertainty or disagreement about choices. Politically skillful leaders strive to understand others’
viewpoints, needs, desires, and goals, and use their understanding to influence people to act in
ways that help the leader accomplish his or her goals for the team or organization.
Leadership Challenge #7: Describe structural, human resource, political, and symbolic frames
of reference and identify your dominant leadership frame.
A. Leader Frames of Reference
The appropriate use of power and politics to get things done is an important aspect of
leadership. A frame is a perspective from which a leader views the world, and it influences
how the leader interacts with followers, makes decisions, and exercises power. The four
Exhibit 12.5: Four Leader Frames of Reference
New Leader Action Memo: Use each of the structural, human resource, political, and symbolic
frames of reference to maximize your leadership effectiveness. Complete the questionnaire in
Leader’s Self-Insight 12.3 to understand your dominant frame.
The Structural Frame
The organization as a machine is the dominant image in the structural frame of reference.
The structural frame places emphasis on plans, goal setting, and clarifying expectations
The Human Resource Frame
According to the human resource frame, people are the organization’s most valuable
resource. This frame defines problems and issues in interpersonal terms and looks for ways
to adjust the organization to meet human needs. The images in this view are a sense of
family, belonging, and the organization as a clan.
The Political Frame
The Symbolic Frame
To use full leadership potential requires that leaders also develop a fourth frame of
reference—the symbolic frame—in which leaders perceive the organization as a system of
shared meaning and values. Rather than relying only on the use of formal power or the use
of political tactics, leaders focus on shared vision, culture, and values to influence others.
Leaders are concerned with spirit and meaning, and they focus on harnessing followers’
Discussion Question #5: Which of the four organizational frames of reference do you most
admire? How do you think this frame of reference could be beneficial or detrimental to your
leadership capability?
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Discussion Question #6: A recent magazine article suggested that young college graduates just
entering the workforce are refusing to “play the political game.” Why might this be the case? If
politics is important for getting things done, can these people succeed as leaders? Discuss.
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Leadership Challenge #8: Know how to increase power through political activity and use the
influence tactics of appealing to a higher vision, rational persuasion, friendliness, reciprocity,
developing allies, and direct persuasion.
B. Political Tactics for Asserting Leader Influence
Leaders have to determine the best approach for using their power—that is, the approach that
Exhibit 12.6: Six principles for Asserting Leader Influence
Six principles for asserting leader influence:
• Appeal to a vision or higher purpose. One effective way to attract people to new
behaviors or to make significant changes is to frame the request in a way that
emphasizes the vision or higher purpose of the change. Providing people with meaning
can help them see that the effort of doing what you ask is worthwhile.
others to do favors for them in return.
• Develop allies. Reciprocity also plays an important role in developing networks of
allies, people who can help the leader accomplish his or her goals. A leader can expand
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can use political activity to achieve important
organizational goals when there is uncertainty or disagreement about choices. You can develop
connections with powerful people by volunteering for difficult projects and serving on
committees.
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can influence others by using rational persuasion,
developing allies, and expanding your expertise and credibility. Remember that people respond
to friendliness and consideration, and they typically feel obligated to return favors.
In the Lead: Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank
After former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz lost his bids to become defense
secretary or national security advisor in the Bush administration, he jumped at the chance to be
the new president of World Bank. But Wolfowitz doomed his career at World Bank from the
start by failing to develop relationships and build alliances.
Most World Bank leaders had been in their positions for many years when Wolfowitz arrived,
and they were accustomed to “promoting each other’s interests and scratching each other’s
backs,” as one board member put it. Wolfowitz came in and tried to assert his own ideas, goals,
Eventually, the board asked for Wolfowitz’s resignation. “What Paul didn’t understand is that
the World Bank presidency is not inherently a powerful job,” said one former colleague. “A bank
president is successful only if he can form alliances with the bank’s many fiefdoms. Wolfowitz
didn’t ally with those fiefdoms. He alienated them.”
Discussion Question #9: Which of the six influence tactics would you be most comfortable with as
leader of a study group? Of a work team? Discuss.
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Discussion Question #8: Describe ways in which you might increase your personal power.
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IV. Don’t Take Power Personally
Leadership is an opportunity to use power and influence to accomplish important organizational
New Leader Action Memo: As a leader, you can be ethical in your use of power and politics.
You can build long-term productive relationships to achieve important goals and benefit the
entire team or organization.
One consideration is the difference between personalized leaders and socialized leaders. This
distinction refers primarily to the leader’s approach to the use of power. Personalized leaders are
typically selfish, impulsive, and exercise power for their own self-centered needs and interests
A specific area in which the unethical use of power is of increasing concern for organizations is
sexual harassment. Sexual harassment and sexual abuse are not just unethical; they are illegal
and represent a clear abuse of power.