There are three types of power in organizational life: role power, expertise power, and relationship power. Role power is the power you have because of your position. The second, expertise power, is the power others give you because of your ability and knowledge. Finally, relationship power is the power you have because of the strength of your relationships with others. There are other lists that include others like legitimate power and reward power, which are both just subsets of role power. We will focus on those three any others are just a variant on the main three.
Role Power
Role power is the power you have because of the nature of your position. This is sometimes called “legitimate power”. While that phrase is not meant to imply anything, it can lead people astray. Other power is not illegitimate. Moreover, role power is not somehow better than other types of managerial power. It is in fact a weaker form of power. Any time you have to rely upon a dressed up version of “because I said so” you have given up on getting any commitment from your direct report. You still have this power as a manager, and you should not completely avoid using it. However, this is the type of power you should use most sparingly. When you do use it, you want it to be effective.
Expertise Power
The next type of power is expertise power. This is the type of power others give to someone who has shown extreme competence, or expertise, in a particular subject. This is why people trust their doctor concerning their health. If you are trying to learn how to get new clients, you will naturally turn to the top salesman in your company. You turn to her because she has shown that she is good at getting new clients and that is what you need assistance on. When developing a new product for manufacturing, the experts on the manufacturing side will have a great influence on how the product is designed because of their expertise in the relevant area.
Relationship Power
The final type of managerial power we are considering is the most effective one, relationship power. This is the power or influence you have based upon the strength of the relationships that you established and maintained. The strength is the key component here. The better you know your direct reports and the more you foster a relationship with them, the more effective you will be. When you can get others to do what you want because they value you and you have demonstrated that you value them, you will get more effective work out of them.
Conclusion
All three types of power have a purpose and can be used effectively. An effective manager uses them all, but does not use them all equally. Resorting to role power the first time every time is to embark upon the short path to resentment. Your direct reports might respect your position, but they sure won’t respect you. Relationship power talks the longest to develop as it requires frequent investment over a long period of time, but it can be the most effective as getting your direct reports to do what you want them to do.