The road to a successful career is a long and arduous one, but is a journey that can produce many rewards. When people begin their careers, they focus first on mastering foundational skills, however as they climb the ladder, their responsibilities grow along with their power and influence. Managers often are required to provide strategic counsel, deliver effective presentations and encourage teams to achieve revenue goals.
It is no surprise that these higher-level responsibilities require very different skills than the ones needed to perform entry-level duties. However, one concept that many professionals fail to consider as they move into senior leadership roles is how to build and use power effectively. If leaders are going to be successful in achieving their goals, they need to understand power, learn when to use it, and how to build or overcome a shortage of it.
Amy Cuddy, the author of Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges, explains there are two types of power: social power and personal power. According to Cuddy, “Social power is characterized by the ability to exert dominance, to influence or control the behavior of others.” She explains that individuals earn and express social power through “disproportionate control over valued resources.”[i]
Consider for instance, a VP in a PR firm. The VP is going to have control over more resources —such as staff and direction of client budget – than an intern does. According to the model provided by Cuddy, a VP has more social power than an intern does.
On the other hand, personal power stems from the ability to control one’s inner resources such as thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Personal power provides us with the ability to control our emotions, relate to others in a meaningful way, create intimacy, and project confidence.
In summary Cuddy explains, “… Social power is power over – the capacity to control others’ states and behaviors. Personal power is power to – the ability to control our own states and behaviors.”
Clearly, senior leaders need to understand and harness both types of power, but the way to build social power differs from how one builds personal power. According to the article “How to Overcome a Power Deficit,” by Jean-Louis Barsoux and Cyril Bouquet, power at work comes from three things: legitimacy, access to resources, and the strength of one’s network.[ii]
Inspired by Barsoux and Bouquets’ research, here are three ideas on how PR professionals can increase their social power to improve their relationships with not only managers and co-workers, but also with clients, journalists, analysts and others.
Continually Build your Skillset and Expertise for Legitimacy
To design and implement effective PR or communication campaigns in a world where the pace of innovation continues to accelerate, it is critical to stay up to speed on the latest trends and technologies. If you do not do this, you risk losing legitimacy since your base of knowledge is no longer relevant.
In the past 10 years, we have seen the introduction and growth of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as new marketing automation tools such as Marketo, Hubspot and Pardot. Social media platforms and marketing automation tools are just two types of technology innovations that have a huge impact on communication and PR programs, that ultimately impacts engagement with consumers.
To stay current, PR and communication professionals need to stay informed, and they need to experiment with new approaches to learn what works and what does not. Finally, depending on their specific areas of expertise, and as technology changes, they need to evolve their skills in areas such as storytelling, customer engagement, writing, video production, and A/B testing of content.
Consistently Measure and Merchandise Results to Grow Resources
In the fields of public relations, communications, and marketing, people often perceive you (and your firm) to be only as good as your latest campaign results. This means you need to be continually self-evaluating your work and its impact. You must know what tangible results you have generated and you must proactively share these results with managers, clients, and other stakeholders.
When sharing results, use your marketing communications expertise to package them in a contextually and visually compelling manner, and be sure to explain why the results are significant.
By routinely improving your results, you will be in a much better position to demonstrate value and grow your marketing communications budget, which is essential to maintaining a power position. Conversely, if you are not demonstrating a return on investment, you must consider recommending, and making changes.
Develop a Broad Network and Nurture Relationships
Relationships are valuable. By building strong ones with reputable, well-regarded people on whom you rely – journalists, bloggers, consumer advocates, board members, academics, and other influencers – you can significantly increase your position of power. Through relationships we learn and grow, we gain access to information, we secure customers, we help clients gain customers, and much more. Given this, the well-informed marketer or communication professional must look for ways to connect and be socially engaging with a wide range of people.
When working to grow one’s networks and build relationships, it is important be avoid being sycophantic. Instead, look to add value by sharing information, offering to help with connections, or providing advice. A great way to expand one’s network is to look for opportunities to do volunteer work, join boards, or form your own group. For instance, I have made a number of valuable professional connections through my neighborhood-walking group.
While this advice may seem basic, I recently have spoken with a number of senior-level marketing leaders who have experienced issues at work. These issues have not stemmed from a lack of ability to do the actual work, but from a lack of power and their ability to influence change or build consensus for specific projects. By taking the time to think about how to grow their legitimacy, resources and networks, they can regain some of their social power, which will make them more effective and successful.