Why You Need Power Skills for Career Growth

Power isn’t just about titles or positions.   It’s a combination of personal, relational, and positional strengths.   To talk about these sources of power, I use a Harvard Business School case study I wrote that highlights the story of a remarkable leader: Mellody Hobson at Ariel Investments.   Through her story, we see how different sources of power can work together to shape success.   (a) PERSONAL POWER comes from within. It’s your skills, resilience, and determination. For Hobson, her adaptability, courage, and deep knowledge were critical to her success at Ariel Investments.   (b) RELATIONAL POWER is built through your connections with others. Hobson’s mentor relationship with John Rogers and her ability to build strong, trusting relationships helped her navigate the challenges of her career.   (c) POSITIONAL POWER is tied to the roles you hold. Hobson’s leadership as Co-CEO and her membership on corporate boards gave her the platform to influence important decisions and guide her firm’s strategy.   What we tend to miss is that power isn’t static—it’s something we can build and expand, but only when we understand it fully.   It’s not just about who you know, nor is it purely about your talent.   It’s the synergy between your personal strengths, your network, and your position that truly gives you power.   We often focus on one area and overlook others, but power is most effective when we draw on all three sources.   When we acknowledge how identity and personal experiences shape our ability to use power, we can turn potential disadvantages into opportunities.   Hobson’s story teaches us that power comes from a combination of factors, and we must be deliberate in nurturing each of them.   💡 True power comes from understanding the dimensions of power and actively develop them. #power #leadership #relationships #work #learning #growth

🌟🌟🌟ATTENTION HIRING MANAGERS🌟🌟🌟 The traditional approach of choosing the right person for the job leans heavily on specific #experiences and direct background in a particular role. It's time to shift the focus towards a more holistic understanding of a candidate's capabilities, particularly emphasizing #TransferableSkills, power skills (#SoftSkills), and intrinsic qualities like #drive and #passion. ✅In today's fast-paced #work environment, the ability to adapt is crucial. #Candidates with strong transferable skills can quickly acclimate to new roles and #challenges, bringing an invaluable level of #flexibility. Skills such as #ProblemSolving, #CriticalThinking, and #adaptability aren't tied to a specific job but are essential in almost every role. ✅Power skills, like #communication, #teamwork, and #EmotionalIntelligence, are vital to the success of any #organization. These skills enable #employees to #collaborate effectively, navigate #workplace dynamics, and contribute to a positive work #culture. Unlike hard skills, which can be #learned and perfected over time, power skills are more innate and reflective of a person's #character and #attitude. ✅Focusing on what a candidate can achieve rather than what they have done before opens doors to a broader #talent pool. Candidates with the right attitude and a drive to learn can often outperform those with more direct experience but less enthusiasm. ✅When #promoting internally, organizations sometimes choose individuals without direct experience in the new role. These decisions are based on the understanding of the individual's broader skill set and potential. This same principle should apply to external #hiring. If an internal candidate can succeed with a learning curve, so can an external one. ✅Candidates from different backgrounds or #industries can bring new #perspectives and #ideas. This #diversity of thought fosters #innovation and creativity, helping #businesses to evolve and stay #competitive. A diverse workforce, in terms of skills and experiences, is a key driver for innovation. ✅As technology advances and industries transform, the nature of work changes. Focusing on transferable skills prepares organizations for future changes and challenges, as employees with these skills can more easily shift and grow with the company. So, while direct experience is valuable, it should not be the sole determinant in hiring decisions. Transferable skills, power skills, and personal attributes are equally, if not more, important. By broadening your perspective, you can fill the positions and contribute to building a robust, adaptable, and innovative workforce. It's time for a paradigm shift in hiring that values potential and adaptability as much as past experience.

If you’re serious about building a high-performing team; the kind that actually delivers in volatile, stretched, multi-market environments, you need to stop defaulting to hard skills or soft skills. What you need are power skills. These are the capabilities I see separating the high performers from the high-maintenance. I’m talking about the real difference-makers: → Strategic judgment in messy, fast-moving situations → Stakeholder alignment across functions, markets, and egos → The ability to lead transformation when there’s no template → And enough resilience to stay steady when things get hard (because they will) Most teams fail at the top not because the leaders weren’t experienced…but because they lacked the range to operate in today’s complexity. You can’t “hard skill” your way through cultural misalignment. And you can’t “soft skill” your way into transformation. According to McKinsey, companies led by “adaptive” leadership teams are 4.2x more likely to outperform peers on revenue growth. But, you can’t teach power skills at onboarding. You hire them. One of my clients, a global food brand navigating its third pricing strategy in 18 months, said it best: “We’ve hired plenty of smart people. We now need the ones who can handle chaos with clarity.” They didn’t need another commercial director with 20 years of category experience. They needed someone who could align markets, fix the margin gap, and rally teams behind a new direction, all without waiting for perfect data or full control. That’s a power skill. So if you’re hiring into your top team, here’s what I’ll ask you: Are you hiring for performance in stable conditions… Or for resilience, reinvention, and reality? Because soft skills sound nice on paper. But they won’t carry you through a pricing crisis, a culture reset, or a global expansion sprint. Power skills will. Follow me for more on building high-performing leadership teams in FMCG. #ExecutiveSearch #PowerSkills #HighPerformingTeams #FMCGLeadership #CPG #CEO #CCO #CMO #TalentStrategy