Let me share Unveiling Expert Power – Conceptualizing. In leadership, the power of position, the power to punish, and the power to control information can be terrific, and risky to wield. They push those you’re leading into a position of weakness and while leaving you looking autocratic and out of touch – near inapproachable. Your following or people naturally will likely not enjoy being lorded over and may even attempt to undermine you if you use your power as a show of strength.
Incidentally, there are three types of power that are much more positive: they’re charismatic power, referent power, and expert power. Of these three, the 3rd, the expert power has to be earned and requires a great deal of energy and focus to sustain. But it tends to be longer lasting than the other two forms of power and more rewarding as a result. Charismatic power is as a result of uncommon gifting. 
Expert power is as much about maintaining your expertise as it is about showing/flaunting it off. Period. Unveiling Expert Power – Conceptualizing is real.
You gain expert power when you show a high level of knowledge or a great level of skill that people around you see, know, need, and want. They will likely come to you for advice and will want to follow your lead or leadership.
A professor who heads a team of MSc and PhD and is a thoroughly baked academician enjoys expert power, neither charismatic nor positional.
Many years ago working in broadcast media as a System Manager, I had a boss, a Chief Information Officer, and later a Chief Technology Officer who enjoyed expert power more than any of us in the Technology and Engineering Departments which formed the division he was heading. My boss worked for Hewlett Packard for 22 years as a Network and System Engineer before returning to Nigeria to set up 4 successful Network Companies as of then, before joining our media conglomerate. He knew the stuff and had expertise above us all – expert power.
Unlike power that depends on your formal position, expertise is personal to the bearer – just like to my former boss. Anyone can possess it, no matter what their level or grade within their organization. You might be the sole member of a team who understands a particular software program, or the go-to person for industry knowledge. In the course of my working career in an oil service company in the ’90s, I had software only I could implement companywide, I collected an MCA (Manpower Comparative Advantage) allowance as a palliative because of my expert power. This statement leads me to the next heading.
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What is your comment? What do you think?
