People Strategies: Personal power begins with awareness of its nature

Linda Bower is a speaker, executive coach and human performance improvement consultant in Rogersville.

A lot of business energy is spent on the question of power in organizations. We ask, "Who has it?" "Who is moving toward it?" "Who wants it?" and "Who abuses it?" This seems reasonable because, after all, power is the primary influencer of organizational decisions.

Most people recognize that positional power is very different from personal power. Where positional power is a matter of title or rank, personal power comes from within.

This is the conundrum for many professionals. My clients often ask how they can get and keep personal power. My first response is to carefully choose a philosophy about power. The right actions will follow.

Choosing a philosophy about personal power is not a simple task. There are many available as demonstrated by a wide range of characters from Attila the Hun to Donald Trump.

By far the most intriguing is Tao Te Ching, the second-most translated book in history, after the Bible. "Tao" refers to the forces of nature, "Te" is the latent power in every individual and "Ching" means book.

Twenty-five hundred years ago, as the story goes, Lao Tzu worked as a custodian in the Imperial Archives during the Chou Dynasty. This was a time of great provincial strife as leaders competed for political supremacy throughout China. Lao Tzu perceived the era as hopeless, hostile and spiraling out of control.

Lao Tzu retired from the Imperial Archives to leave the civilized world. As he was leaving the capital, Yin Hsi, the Keeper of the Gate, would not let Lao Tzu pass until he wrote down everything he learned that would benefit those that lead others. He asked Lao Tzu to write his wisdom for princes, politicians, employers and educators. Lao Tzu was never seen again.

One of the most popular and revealing translations of Lao Tzu is by R.L. Wing, "The Tao of Power." In it, Wing describes Lao Tzu's perspective on people that lack personal power:

"Lao Tzu believed that when people do not have a sense of power, they become resentful and uncooperative. Individuals who do not feel personal power feel fear. They fear the unknown because they do not identify with the world outside themselves; thus their psychic integration is severely damaged and they are a danger to their society.

"Tyrants do not feel power, they feel frustration and impotency. They wield force, but it is a form of aggression, not authority It becomes apparent that individuals who dominate others are, in fact, enslaved by insecurity and are slowly and mysteriously hurt by their own actions. Lao Tzu attributed most of the world's ills to the fact that people do not feel powerful and independent."

Given any time in business, we can see the contrast between negative and positive power, regardless of a person's intent. Well-meaning people can use power inappropriately by not being aware of how they come across to others. The most powerful individuals are those, according to Lao Tzu, who are aware of themselves as a part of the larger natural world.

Again, relying on Wing's translation, Lao Tzu indicated that, "Powerful individuals never show their strength, yet others listen to them because they seem to know. They radiate knowledge, but it is an intuitive knowing that comes from a direct understanding and experience with the ways of nature."

They are compassionate and generous because they instinctively realize that power continues to flow through them only when they pass it on. Like electricity, the more energy, inspiration and information they conduct, the more they receive."

Tao Te Ching is a philosophy that is based on polarities. "Power continues to flow through them only when they pass it on." In other words, we receive by giving, we lead by following, and we succeed without taking credit.

Lao Tzu takes us on a path to the invulnerable self. It is a path, not a destination. Tao Te Ching does not prescribe, it stimulates thought and consciousness. There are no step-by-step guides or academic models.

Think about the people you know that seem to have a personal sense of power. Do they demonstrate a Taoist philosophy in some way? In my experience, they do, consciously or not. That is why I keep going back to Tao Te Ching to understand personal power.