When I think about power and influence an article that I have recently read comes to mind. This article was about a member of the Chicago Cubs championship team. Although he never played one pitch, Theo Epstein was a very, if not most, important part to their championship. Theo is the president of baseball operations in Chicago. He is known for doing the impossible…twice. First he was the president of the Boston Red Sox when they won their championships and then with the Cubs.
An influence is defined as the change in a target agent’s attitude, values, beliefs, or behaviors as a result of influence tactics (PSU, 2018). This was a strong tool for Epstein, allowing him to change the values of the team to be more goals oriented. Epstein was not looked at a leader because he was appointed as the president; he was a leader because of his reputation and influence tactics. Although Theo used all of the five ways he is known for using expert referent and legitimate power the best because of all his accomplishments in the past. His time winning championships with the Red Sox gives him more than enough expertise, while it also puts him in place of a role model to the players and staff. Legitimate power means the leader has authority because of the role assigned by the organization (PSU, 2018). When Epstein came he promised a world series and the entire organization backed up all of his decisions.
Epstein did things differently than most leaders. He thought outside the box when it came to baseball. Most of all he looked past baseball skills and wanted good people who wanted to win. He made many sacrifices of great players and staff to accomplish his goal. The presence of his socialized power showed how he would do anything to get the right team to win. This meant he had to get rid of the people that did not have a good character and poor attitudes.
Epstein was a very rational and inspirational person. When he first came to the Cubs he told everyone involved with baseball operations his ideas for a five-year plan. The first three days he talked about baseball while the final day was all about character (Verducci, 2017). His speech about his future plans of changing the organization and winning a world series not only got the players excited but also the managers, staff, and owner. He made everyone believe he could do the impossible again. He did just that within the five years he said he would.
When you have the type of leader that Theo Epstein is, there is not much that an organization could not achieve. His leadership style utilizes his power and influence in such a way that people respond in positive ways. It seems he is liked by everyone but still has the authority to put his own touch in place. Theo is a very intelligent person and knows when and where to use his power, which in turn allows him to be the type of leader that wins championships.
Penn State University. (2018). PSYCH485: Leadership in work settings. Lesson 7:Power and Influence. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1925331/modules/items/23786570
Verducci, T. (2017). Why Theo Epstein and the Cubs Are Fortunes MVPs This Year. Retrieved February 21, 2018, from http://fortune.com/2017/03/23/theo-epstein-chicago-cubs-worlds-greatest-leaders/
aek5366 says
Hi Edward,
Thank you for your thought provoking thought. You do a great job here! Indeed, when we look at the prominent people in power we can view how it is being used. Theo Epstein delivered results of winning to owners of the team, members of the team and the fans of Chicago Cubs and Red Sox. He used his power and influence to achieve the goal of winning, which is what he was hired for. His power came from conceptual skills, his ability to deliver results and subsequently, his position. “Power is the capacity to cause change and influence is the degree of actual change in attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors. This means that influence can be measured by the behaviors or attitudes of followers” (PSU, 2018, para. 5). Theo Epstein achieved it by the expense of people who were not committed to success of his endeavor, the endeavor of all the people who vested in him. Theo realized that in a competitive sport where all preselected players already showed some great potential as skilled players, there is another criterion. Winning spirit was a differentiating factor, so he cut off the rest. He reshaped values seeing a winning character as a premium. He promoted the behavior of winning in the members of the team. It is interesting to find out why he chose to cut some members of the team and stuff versus trying to cultivate the winning spirit in them, what do you think?
Overall, we learn an important lesson, where an individual can learn to stand up and reclaim power in order to use it to a worthy cause (Pfeffer, 2011), in this case winning championships.
References
Pfeffer, J. (2011). How to win power and influence people. YouTube. Retrieved March 16, 2018 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWjdQgRiG28
PSU (2018). Introduction to power and influence. Lesson 07. Retrieved March 16, 2018 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1925331/modules/items/23786571
Kirk says
Hi Edward,
First thank you for your post. As a Dodgers fan recently experiencing the heartbreak of losing a World Series game 7, yours was a difficult post to digest. You did an excellent job relating Mr. Epstein’s success with his ability to use each of his bases of power. Power bases exist in many forms. A power base is “the sum of the resources that you can use to control or influence others” (Beebe & Masterson, 2012, p. 108). Beebe and Masterson (2012) list five bases for power: “legitimate power, referent power, expert power, reward power, and coercive power” (p. 109). Mr. Epstein was able to use each of these when the occasions presented themselves to be successful. I think another important factor to note, which you did, was Mr. Epstein’s ability to motivate the entire organization. Northouse (2016) states “for the leader, the imperative is use a leadership style that best meets followers’ motivational needs”, it’s also important that “leadership generates motivation when it increases the number and kinds of payoffs that followers receive from their work” (p. 115). The payoff of winning a World Series with the Red Sox certainly may have been a motivational factor he was able to use when joining the Cubs’ organization, and he was able to use that to his success also.
Thanks for the great post!
Kirk
References:
Beebe, S. A., & Masterson, J. T. (2012). Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and Practices (10th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications