Power, Authority & Influence - Essay Example

Power, ity & Influence Introduction: It is a popular belief that if you have talent or money, you are bound to be successful in your career. However, time and again history has taught us, whether it is politics, business or sports; leadership, power and influence play a bigger role than possessing only talent or money (Becker). This write-up dwells upon the ways in which I would exercise power, authority and influence at my workplace. Exercising Power, Authority & Influence at workplace: 1. Create a political map of the organization: The foremost thing that I would do on my first week at the office is to create a political map of the organization, which is organizational heirarchy chart, overlaid by informal channels of communications.

The map would also contain information on the kind of power your bosses and peers possess, whether it is expert power or legitmate power (French & Raven). 2. Identify gaps or cracks in the present system: Every workplace has a certain gap that is currently not fulfilled by the present set-up such as a small congress, a sports fan club or an organized document management system that noone else is paying attention to. I would find that gap. 3. Build a platform: As a new entrant in the organization, I am bound to have only expert or referent power.

By creating a need in the system, I would use my expertise such as events management or developing a code for effective document management in order to be the best of something and interact with players of my political map. 4. Network: I would use this exclusivity that I have build in the form of club or group or expertise in order to network more inside the workplace. This would increase my referent power quotient. 5. Learn and Grow: Gradually as I would grow my network, I will learn the behaviors of key players in the political map, how they behave in situations, their style and interests.

This would help me learn to adapt within their presence and hence would help me understand the workplace, gain more power and influence. Conclusion: By following French and Raven’s model of sources of power, I would gather enough expert and referent power through networking and building an expertise. This power could be used to influence people through rational persuasion, inspirational appeal, consultation, ingratiation and coalition building. Works Cited Becker, R. (n.d.). Power and Leadership.

Retrieved June 19, 2011, from CLEMSON UNIVERSITY: http://www.strom.clemson.edu/becker/prtm320/notes/power320.pdf French, J., & Raven, B. (n.d.). French and Ravens Five Forms of Power. Retrieved June 19, 2011, from Mind Tools: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_56.htm