The Three Levels of Leadership – Scouller Leadership Blog June, 2015 | The Three Levels of Leadership - Scouller Leadership Blog

The First Quality of Leadership Presence: Personal Power

Posted on June 7, 2015 by James Scouller

In my book, The Three Levels of Leadership, I’ve written about “leadership presence”.  In chapter 5, I described the seven qualities of presence, the first being Personal Power.

Personal power is control over your mind.  It recognises that although we can’t always control outer events – including others’ behaviour towards us – we can always choose our response to those events.  Thus, it’s power over oneself; it’s not a drive to gain power over other people.  It doesn’t spring from a need to gain the status, prestige or visibility that power over others brings or an urge to impose your viewpoint through force.

The importance of personal power is this: if you can’t direct and lead yourself, you’ll find it hard to direct others because they’ll sense your lack of inner command.  Thus, personal power (as opposed to the power that impressive job titles offer) is crucial to anyone wanting to be a successful leader.

Why am I writing about this now?   Continue reading →