Power Styles: An Individual’s Journey to Find Balance

What is a Power Style in Agile Leadership?

A leadership power style refers to a particular polarity continuum that presents itself in social interactions leaders face. On one side of the continuum there is the assertive power style which shows up as quick, confident, persistent, and focused stemming from a strong self-assuredness and a desire to share one’s perspective. On the other side, there is the accommodative power style, which displays as patient, humble and curious stemming from a strong respect for and a desire to hear and integrate the perspectives of others. Most leaders have an inherent bias towards one side or the other.

There are positive and negative attributes related to both power styles and neither one is “right” or “wrong”. Leaning too far one way or the other will likely not serve the leader well. Overly assertive leaders may overshadow others with their agendas and perspectives, being less likely to provide space for others to share differing perspectives. Conversely, an overly accommodative leader may not provide enough clarity around intentions to align a team to move forward together. 

Agile Leadership requires leaders to draw from both sides of the continuum and to live mostly in the middle space, exercising more assertive or accommodative behaviors based on situational awareness. Agile leaders must develop and practice both assertive and accommodative behaviors in order to be balanced in their power style. Deliberately employing power styles to engage with others rather than allowing their default bias to dictate their approach enables leaders to more effectively meet the needs of the occasion.

Below, we’ll explore how building an awareness of leadership power styles and deliberate focus on changing behaviors leads to increased leadership effectiveness through the experience of Rashmi Fernandes, a lead program manager and Agile coach at Target in Bangaluru in southern India who participated in ALJ’s Leadership Training and Coaching Programs. 

Rashmi’s Evolution in Balancing Power Styles

Rashmi Fernandes

“I come from a middle-class family where discipline, punctuality, being respectful, being a good person is really important. So, I learned early on to be accommodative all the time. But, as I walked into the corporate world, I soon realized that wasn’t enough. It was important to be assertive, to show that I was confident, to challenge the status quo, and to voice my opinions. 

So, I shifted from being an accommodative person to being an assertive person. And I thought I did very well in my career with that shift. I got promoted multiple times. I was recognized and well known for my work in the company.

But there was also a downside. I did burn a few bridges and I lost some relationships in the process. A decade later, I became a scrum master and Agile coach. During that training process, I learned about servant leadership. I embraced the idea that the primary goal of someone in a leadership position is to serve others, putting other people’s needs and priorities first to improve the effectiveness of my

teams. So once again, I made a drastic shift back to being accommodative.

During my journey through the ALJ Awareness and Practice Programs, the biggest “Aha!” moment came to me: I developed AWARENESS that though I was successfully adapting to the needs of the roles I was playing, I was living in extremes and I didn’t have to.

I realized I could CHOOSE to shift between the two power styles as needed in a balanced manner. 

This AWARENESS and INTENT has helped me better my relationships and effectiveness at work and, actually, at home.

But the realization of this and my good intentions alone weren’t enough as developing new behaviors takes time and practice. The ALJ practice program gave me the space and the environment to experiment with my behavior, try out a few things at work and share the learnings with my cohort who provided valuable feedback and helped me keep at it. My cohort was a small team of five people, tightly knit, engaged in each other’s growth and who have all evolved as better leaders and better human beings through the journey.

Today, I am able to choose consciously between being assertive or accommodative or both on a given day, for a given situation or even in a single conversation. This has helped me engage and empower people I work with in a positive and effective manner and I am grateful to have learned so much about myself.”

Want to Learn More About Your Own Power Style?

Answer our simple questionnaire to explore aspects of how your power style shows up in your thinking, behavior and other characteristics that others experience as your leadership presence. You’ll receive a report that provides the results of your assessment as well as additional insights into Agile leadership and balancing power styles.