Trust is Power

Information can be used for good, but the power of secret knowledge can corrupt just as well. We have to guard against the allure of misusing it.

It is difficult to think of power in any other terms than that of “hard power.” Most power is wielded and felt in that way. The military has power. Buildings are powerful. The economy has power. A car has horsepower. These are all hard power kinds of power. My fist has a certain amount of power, although I’ve punched a few people in my youth when tempers flared, and they can tell you that my fist didn't have as much power as I thought it had.

Photo by Eren Li

400+ years ago Francis Bacon helped us reclassify our thinking on power when he said, “Knowledge is power.” Indeed, a whole realm of “soft power” terms could be tossed about. Connection is power. Education is power. Relationship is power. Reputation is power. But knowledge of information is one of the greatest powers of all, especially in leadership.

Leadership Information

Leadership is largely a matter information and knowledge. A leader gains information, creates knowledge, communicates both to the right people at the right time in the right place and the magic of leadership happens. Followers are created by information transfer. This is why it is so tempting to try and gain more and more information, because that information becomes power for leaders. I say this because information is a kind of knowledge, a more nuanced sense is that information is something that is not broadly known, it is "intel", and often carried as a secret. A leader might say, "Information is power." And that's where the dark side of leadership power can rear it's ugly head. Information can be misused, as you know.

…A whisper in a moment of indecision lets another person know that we know something they do not, and we appear more powerful. This is a tempting thing to throw around, stoking the superiority part of our leadership egos.

…By sharing a secret with someone else, we not only show that we are in the know, we also hold that secret over them, and say, “tell no one.” This can entice the controlling and manipulating parts of our leadership egos.

…When we have information others did not expect us to have, it shows we are more powerful than they expected, and we gain status. This can be motivating to darker parts of our leadership egos.

Information can be used for good, but the power of secret knowledge can corrupt just as well. We have to guard against the allure of misusing it.