[Informational Power] We are at the very end of a six-part series
on the types of power by French & Raven,
sometimes called the power bases,
and we're going to look at the sixth
and final type of power, informational power.
(uplifting music)
Hey there, welcome back, Alex Lyon here.
This channel is called Communication Coach,
and we are here for emerging leaders,
providing you with professional development,
insights, tips, tools and resources,
and we are at the very end of a six-part series
on the types of power by French & Raven.
We're gonna get into informational power in a second,
but I wanted to first define power
the way French & Raven do.
They talk about it as influence, social influence.
So, a leader, person A, does or says something
to person B, the follower,
which makes person B want to change their beliefs,
their attitude, or their behavior,
and in this case, we're looking at informational power.
Sometimes French & Raven call this informational influence,
and it's not actually in all of the books
that you'll see on this.
They sort of added it on a little bit later
to the original five,
and, really, it is a little bit different.
So, let's look at how this is similar
or different than the other.
First of all, it's similar because it still has a lot
of influence over people,
and the leader is in, in some ways, a unique position
to have this kind of informational influence.
But it's different in almost every other way,
so let's first look at the definition.
The supervisor carefully explains to the subordinate
how the job should be done differently
with persuasive reasons
why that would be a better and more effective procedure.
This becomes informational power and influence
when the second part happens,
when the subordinate understands,
and accepts the reasons and changes his or her behavior.
So, in other words, the influence happens here
when I, as a follower, I as a subordinate,
understand what you're saying and get the information,
internalize it, and I am convinced,
and then I put those ideas into practice.
So this is different than expertise or expert power.
With expert power, I don't need
to understand medical advice
or fully understand the law
to realize that, oh, I trust that lawyer or that physician,
and I'm taking the expert advice, and I'm gonna go do it.
Informational power is different.
Informational power occurs
when I understand the information, I change my mind,
I change my behavior based upon my appreciation
with the information provided to me,
and then I go take action based upon my new understanding.
So there's understanding that's involved here,
and that's what separates it from expert power.
But it's also what separates it from the expert,
him or herself.
So, in the definition French & Raven,
they talk about their supervisor,
but really, this power can come from anywhere.
We're talking about it as leaders,
as emerging leaders and as potential supervisors,
but you can get information from anybody,
and that can have an influence over you.
In fact, one of the key distinctions
is that this type of power
is no longer connected to a person.
Once I've understood it on my own,
I don't need to go back and clarify it,
or look for approval or double check with somebody.
I understand the information, I've been persuaded on my own.
And so, in that way, there's no need for surveillance.
Like coercive power, you require surveillance
to keep track of who's complying and who's not,
and even reward power to some extent to make sure
they've actually done something to earn a reward.
But informational influence
has nothing to do with surveillance.
You simply give them good information,
and they change their mind or not,
and put it into practice or not,
so there's no surveillance required.
And I want to give you an example of a time
that this happened to me in a very powerful way,
and it really fits this description where the person
was detached from me, but I was still very convinced.
I once watched a presentation about sugar.
This faculty member, that I only knew a little bit about,
gave a presentation about diet and things,
but specifically about sugar.
And she had a whole bunch of sugar as visual aids,
like how much sugar is in an actual Coke can, a Coke bottle,
how much sugar is in a week's worth of this,
a year's worth of.
She had these huge containers, massive containers of sugar,
and she gave statistics and information
about how much sugar people consume,
and then she went into information
about how bad sugar was for you.
And, by the end of this presentation,
I had accepted this information,
internalized it, and made it my own,
and here's why this is informational power.
To this day, I can't tell you the name of that presenter,
I can remember her face, and I could probably figure it out
if I looked her up, but I really don't remember.
She wasn't my supervisor, she didn't have any authority
over me, but I was so convinced by the information,
that it persuaded me to change my mind,
to change my behavior,
and I really do eat a lot less sugar now
and drink a lot less soda now than I did back then,
and that's where I want to get to a final takeaway here.
Unlike expert power, where we're still connected
and dependent upon the expert, informational power
has a great appeal to me as an emerging leader
because I can become more of an expert.
But I can also get better at communicating
and spreading those ideas in a variety of ways.
So I can give good visual aids
or give white papers on a topic, I can do presentations,
and I can convince people of a cause, of a direction,
of a kind of decision I think a group could make
for themselves or for an organization.
Now, I can have a lot of power,
even though I may not be
in an official position of authority.
And, once you're detached from a position of authority,
you, as an emerging leader, can do lots
of other kinds of things with good persuasive information.
And so, that's why French & Raven keep it in there
because it really has a lot of influence.
But, really, it's a world unto itself.
And so, before we depart,
I want to give you two final things to consider.
First of all, we're at the very end of this six-part series.
So, if you want to look at any of the other videos,
we have a video on all the other six types
that you can check out.
And I'll link all of that in the description below.
I'll put a whole list in the description below the video.
I also want to offer you a free resource.
I have created a PDF download
on the five essential, professional communication skills
that I believe every emerging leader should get better at.
I've compressed that down into a PDF download
and, by clicking on that link in the description below,
you can enter your email through that link,
and then I email you that resource.
So, you're welcome to check that out,
if that sounds like something that would benefit you.
So, thanks, God bless, and I will see you sometime soon
on the channel in a future video.