Influencing People:!

Building Your Base of Informal Power!

Scott DeRue, PhD!
Associate Dean and Professor!

Ten Most Powerful People in the World

Source: Forbes, 2014

Quiz: Bases of Power!

Most / Least Effective for Influencing People

___
___
___
___
___
___

Source: French and Raven, 1959

Reward power ability to reward for performance!

Coercive power ability to punish or force compliance!
Legitimate power formal right to influence (the boss)!
Referent power personal connection or identification!
Expert power having expertise that is valued or rare!
Information power having info that is valued or rare!
Rank order:
1 = Least Effective
7 = Most Effective

Influencing People: !
What You Will Learn in This Course!
How to!
Build and leverage your power!
Influence people without relying on authority!
Build and leverage relationships for greater influence!
Protect yourself from others influence!

Reflecting on your own team

experiences

Identify a particularly powerful person
from your team.

What made this person powerful?
To what extent (and how) did this persons power 
help or hurt your team?

What is Power?!
Power as Outcome
Control
The power to control or
influence the other resides in
control over things (s)he
values.
Emerson (1962)
asymmetrical control over
another persons outcomes.
Depret and Fiske
(1993)

Power is relative.
Power is contextual.
Control varies in
how formal, stable,
and legitimate.
Valued outcomes
vary by person.
Power can be actual
or perceptual.

Power as the Potential

for Influence
The ability for an actor to
carry out his own position
despite resistance.
Weber (1914)
the maximum potential
ability of A to influence B.
French and Raven
(1959)

Do you agree or disagree with this

definition? Explain why.!
!
How do you define power?!

What are the benefits of power?!

!
How can power be used to create value
for your team or organization?!

Power Enables Action and Proactivity!

Blackjack: Percent of People
Who Hit on 16

The Annoying Fan: Percent of

People Who Take Action

100%

100%

80%

80%

60%

60%

40%

40%
Low Power

High Power

Source: Galinsky et al., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003

Low Power

High Power

Power Reduces Feelings of Burden!

Effects of Power on Weight Perceptions:
Estimated Weight Minus Actual Weight

1.5
1
Before

0.5

After

0
-0.5

Low Power

Source: Lee and Schnall, Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2014

High Power

Power Has Health Benefits!

Effect of Power on
Cardiac Output

1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0

Effect of Power on
Vascular Resistance

300
150
0
-150
Low Power

High Power

Source: Scheppers et al., Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2012

-300
Low Power

High Power

What are the risks of power?!

!
How can power hurt your !
team or organization?!

Power Leads to Overconfidence!

Confidence Interval:
95% Certainty

40

Distance From
Correct Answer

45

35
30
25
20
Low Power High Power

Trivia Gamble: $1 Per

Question (+/-)

40

0.5

35

30

-0.5

Low Power High Power

Everyone in
formal
supervisor roles

-1
No Expert
Source: Fast et al., OBHDP, 2012

Expert

Power Reduces Advice Taking!

Power

Confidence

Found to be true in 4 different experiments!

Advice
Taking

208 incoming graduate students, 36% female and 50% U.S.!

63 undergraduate students, controlling for age, gender, nationality, affect!
254 working adults, 61% female and average age of 27!
126 undergraduate students!

Source: See et al., OBHDP, 2011

How have you seen power affect the

degree to which people listen and take
the advice of others?!

Power Makes People More Self-Focused!

Source of Inspiration:
Do People Write About Others or Themselves?

5
4.5
Other

Self

3.5
3
Low Power
Source:Van Kleef et al., Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2015

High Power

and all of this can hurt your team.!

Leader Power

Increase in
Leader Talking
Less Open
Communication
in Team
Lower Team
Performance
Source: Tost et al., Academy of Management Journal, 2013

Percent of Teams Who Identified the

Correct Answer on Team Task

80%
60%
40%

Neutral Power

20%

High Power

0%
No Formal
Power

Formal
Leader

Assessment: Bases of Power!

Your Boss

___
___
___
___
___
___

___
___
___
___
___
___

You
Source: French and Raven, 1959

Reward power ability to reward for performance!

Coercive power ability to punish or force compliance!
Legitimate power formal right to influence (the boss)!
Referent power personal connection or identification!
Expert power having expertise that is valued or rare!
Information power having info that is valued or rare!
Rank order:
1 = Most important
7 = Least important

What are beliefs or stereotypes that

enhance your psychological power?!
!
What are beliefs or stereotypes that
constrain your psychological power?!

What are ways you can

communicate legitimate
power?!
!
Share best practices.!

Closed
Low Power

Open
High Power

What are the most High Power body

positions?!

Body postures and physiology!

Cortisol Change
(pg/ml)

Testosterone Change

(pg/ml)
12

0.05

0.025

20% increase in
energy

0
-0.025

-4

25% decrease in
stress

-0.05

-8
High Power

Low Power

Source: Carney et al. Psychological Science, 2010

High Power

Low Power

With Power Comes Responsibility!

The guards appeared to thoroughly enjoy

the power they wielded, yet none of our
preliminary personality tests were able to
predict this behavior.

Does Power Corrupt or Enable?!

Self-Interested Behavior:
Keeping Value for Oneself

8
7.5
7
6.5
6
5.5
5

Low Moral Identity

High Moral Identity

Control

High Power

Source: Decelles et al. Journal of Applied Psychology, 2012

Moral Identity:
The extent to which a
person holds morality
as part of his or her
self-concept
Your boss?
Your next hire?
Yourself?

Recap: Building Your Base of Power!

Defining power!
Benefits and costs of power!

Proactivity, confidence, creativity, and health!

Overconfidence, not listening, self-focus, and
undermining open team communication!

Bases of power: personal, cognitive,

and structural!
Developing your bases of power!
With power comes responsibility!