Don’t be afraid to use your power

Realizing that you have real influence and power can be a scary thing.

If you have any sense of responsibility and ethics, you probably have mixed emotions about power. This counts twice for women, because we have been indoctrinated over centuries to believe that our opinions and actions don’t count as much as those of men. And it counts triple for women in tech and other male-dominated industries, where you are confronted with masculine authority in both presence and thinking style each day.

So when you realize that you have actual power and influence, it can be a strange moment.

You might be the facilitator of a workshop, hesitating to ask the pointed question because you know it will put someone in senior management on the spot. But you ask it anyway, because you know that the transparency their answer will provide is needed for the whole group.

You might be the project manager who de-prioritizes the obvious top priority, because you see the larger context and want to avoid a major risk further down the line. You know your decision will ruffle some feathers, but you are sure it is the right call.

You might be the consultant who is working closely with the top management of a company, and you know that your advice and input will have a tremendous effect on their decisions for the whole organization. You may tread lightly, but you don’t change your insights and include the critical parts in the feedback.

It is only when you have experienced some of those moments that you get more comfortable with exerting your power. That happens even if you have been dreaming about having a higher level of influence. You will not be able to have impact and create meaningful change if you don’t get comfortable with your own power.

So, don’t shy away from using it.

Let me know in the comments when you realized that you had real influence. And if you want to feel more comfortable with your own power, book yourself into a clarity call.