Leadership and the Positive Use of Power

When I ask people to identify the traits and characteristics of a leader that they admire or who had influence on their leadership style the following responses are usually given:

Trusting, Supportive, Motivated, Firm but Fair, Motivating, Helpful, Knowledgeable, Humorous, Caring, Ethical, Decisive, Articulate, Encouraging, Visionary

I have posed this question to literally hundreds of people from East Hanover, New Jersey to Singapore in South East Asia; from Spokane, Washington to Berlin in Germany and never once have I been given the response, powerful. It seems that there is a disdain, or I might say fear, of associating power as an admirable and modeled trait of effective leadership.

Yet the essence of leadership is power; that is, the power to influence others in followership, and thus I believe that we need to find ways of understanding what power is, and how it is used appropriately and effectively in leadership.