Principles of power

Power is often being taken advantage of. Be it at home,in the working place...it happens everywhere. But the question is..How do we define power? Power can be defined as a measure of a person's ability to control the environment around them, including the behavior of other people. The term authority is often used for power, perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can also be seen as evil or unjust. However, the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to humans as social beings. PRINCPLE OF POWER Some people are more powerful than others; some are born to power, others learn it. Power can be increased or decreased; power is never static. Power follow the princple of less interest, the greater the power. Power has a cultural dimension; power is distributed differently in different cultures. Power is often used unfairly, as in sexual harassment and power plays. TYPE OF POWER Power can be divided into 5 different points. Referent power: The influence that comes from members' liking and respect for one another.
Legitimate Power: The influence that comes from the authority of your rate and position in the chain of command.
Expert Power: Ability to influence someone regarding a course of action because of a specific knowledge, experience or expertise.
Information or persuasion Power: Having the ability to change people's attitudes largely through the skillful use of language.
Reward Power: Compliance achieved based on the ability to distribute rewards that others view as valuable.
Coercive Power: Authority or power that is dependent on fear, suppression of free will, or use of punishment or threat, for its existence.

Besides the types of power, we also learn the way to communicate through power. ->Speaking power includes, for example, avoiding hesitations, disqualifiers, and self-criticalstatements. ->Nonverbal power includes avoiding adaptors, using consistent packaging, and avoiding excessive movements. ->Listening power includes responding visibly, maintaining eye contact and an open posture, and avoiding interrupting. ->Compliance-gaining and compliance-resisting tactics enable you to influence others to do asyou want or enable you to resist compliance attempts of others. Compliance-gaining tactics include expressing liking, making promises, and threatening. Compliance-resisting tactics include using identity management and negotiation. ->Empowering others enables them to gain power and control over themselves and over the environment. Empowering others has numerous advantages, for example, empowered people are more proactive and more responsible. Empowering others involves such strategies asbeing positive, avoiding verbal aggressiveness and abusiveness, and encouraging growth, and especially helpful and most often greatly appreciated in cases of shyness or highcommunication apprehension.