Page 458 - The Toyota Way Fieldbook

428 THE TOYOTA WAY FIELDBOOK

Politics is about power, and power is the ability to get things done even
against the will of others. Think of different people as having different pots of
power: Once the pot is empty, you’re done. That’s a gross simplification, but
power does need to be used sparingly. A wise leader knows when to give in,
when to attempt to persuade, when to call in a favor, and when to use the for-
mal hierarchy of authority to get official orders. Some leaders intuitively know
how to use power, and others bobble it continually.
Leadership is about power. A leader needs to lead and is only a leader with
followers. Getting people to follow you in a direction they are going anyway is
not being a leader. The challenge is to get people to follow in a direction they
might not otherwise go. Leaders must have a sense of direction. We sometimes
call that a vision. Then they must share the vision and get others to buy into it
and actively help achieve it. If they do this, especially when followers would
not have done it on their own anyway, this is the definition of power.
There are a number of sources of power as described in the classic typology
by the father of sociology, Max Weber :
1
1. Rational-legal. This is formal authority. You are the boss in the formal
hierarchy and can order things to happen, and others are supposed to
obey. You have the legal right to give the orders. Your position confers the
right onto you. This is often thought of as bureaucratic power.
2. Coercive. You can threaten negative consequences of failure to comply.
3. Reward. You control some type of reward and offer it contingent upon
being followed. This could be a tangible reward like money or an intangible
reward like praise. This was not included in Weber’s original typology
but it is the flip side of coercive power—instead of a threat, it is a promise
that certain behavior or results will yield a certain reward.
4. Charismatic. When you have charisma, people simply want to follow you.
There is some sort of animal magnetism that exudes a force that moves
people to do as you request.
5. Traditional. It is the way things are done. It is part of the cultural
heritage that on Sadie Hawkins day the girl asks the boy to dance and
he should agree. It is part of preservation of our values and social
norms.
A good leader is apt to use all of these sources of power at one time or
another. Generally we think of someone as being a leader, rather than merely an
administrator, if they have at least some degree of charisma. Any bureaucratic
manager can use the first three sources of power. Give them a title and access to

1 Max Weber. From Max Weber, translated and edited by H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1946.