Leading in Life

Among the personal lessons I learned in my leadership experience is

determining the source of power in leadership.

John French and Bertram Raven published “The Bases of Social Power” in 1959
where they proposed five (5) sources: 1) Legitimate, 2) Reward, 3) Expert, 4) Referent,
and 5) Coercive. In later years, Raven added the 6 th power base as 6) Informational.
Some authors still added to the list some more sources making it to 7, 8, or 10
leadership power.

However, in my experience, I propose a different set of five (5) leadership power

sources: 1) Physical (beauty, physique, demeanor); 2) Financial (money, equipment,
property); 3) Positional (location, connection, rank/title); 4) Expertise (experience, skill,
knowledge); and 5) Character (values, attitude, ethics). I also counter-theorize that
Reward or Coercive leadership power is not a “source” of power but merely a “use
case” of the sources. That is to say that rank/title, as a leadership power source, can be
used either as a Reward or Coercive power base of a leader and this holds true with
money, or knowledge, or attitude. I have learned that rank or title or a high position in an
organizational structure is not a requirement to be a leader. But it is best to have several
of the leadership power sources at your disposal to be a more effective and efficient
leader.