Life @ Work Series - Informal Power in the Workplace [5]

Life@Work requires your active participation. It’s where we are called to do more and be more. Living as we are into the new earth known as the golden age requires a change in disposition, a new attitude if you will. The foremost change is the living into your personal sovereignty. You are now being called to step up and lead from a place of integrity, given those with formal power have in many cases proven themselves unworthy. Similar to feminine wisdom in the work place, its a matter of being the change. And managing upwards, those whose values have fallen into decline.

Seeking out organisations who live their values, honour their words and genuinely want to bring out the best in their people is the challenge we all face, both in choosing to work for or engaging with an organisation. The realisation of the disconnect as between brand and reality is one of the key wake up calls that serves our age. Whilst disquieting, knowing who people and organisations actually are, assists us to navigate more deliberately  such that you discover a host of alternatives. Though in truth its always been the case where those in formal positions say one thing and do another. The difference now is that more people are prepared to call to account that which runs counterproductive to humanity et al. The times they are a changing …  

It is up to each of us to realise that that formal power exists only when you give your informal power away. Formal power has to be agreed with, in order to function. When you cease to consent to another exercising power over you, then your whole world changes. You become the directoress of your life and make conscious decisions, in contrast to automatically accepting what another or the organisations says is in your or humanities best interest.

Consent is a subtle energy of acquiescence. Acquiescence is something that is part of our every day life; its so subtle that we do not realise its occurring. It is an implied agreement. When we listen to others we are giving our implied agreement unless we pause with them to clarify their meaning, or respond to the contrary. Like anything, once we name the essence of a situation, we can make more deliberate choices. We can agree to disagree, we can navigate around the particulars of the situation or we can decide to act with certainty and make a stand. 

Our ‘stands’ first occur as between our self and our higher self. Upon making a stand silently or otherwise our expectations of ourselves and others changes. You begin to value your own opinion and decide for yourself what is or is not cricket.1 As a result of the faith you have in yourself you begin to lead. You decide what is appropriate and act upon your sense of what is right for you; what resonates as fair and reasonable in terms of how you engage with your work and other people. As you develop more certainty about who you are, your confidence in yourself grows, enabling you to comfortably question more. In doing so you are witnessing the emergence of your informal power. 

Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world such that it is important to distinguish for yourself if the discontent you feel toward the workplace (if any) is a deeper issue as between you and you. Where you enjoy your work but notice the culture has changed away from previously held values or the ethos has become more dominant, you can either stay in the game and be the change you wish to see, or leave. It’s up to you to make a decision and not be a bystander in an organisation whose essence is not in alignment with your own. 

Life@work has become more complex but also freeing as you let go of self imposed constraints and begin to use your informal power as necessary to bring about the change you wish to see. I invite you to stand for what is right and not comply with what is clearly unacceptable. “You are a pack of rogues “ said one employee to his colleagues in local council, yet this person continued to implement the untoward practices. On the face of it this makes him culpable. However he may have chosen to ‘stay in the game’ and keep his powder dry until right timing presents. We all have different ways of handling things and nothing is what it seems in these end of times when we are witnessing the dismantling of societies where ‘power over’ was par for the course.

Informal power is such that you might not recognise it in action. Consider this example. A large building organisation with consistently high turnover wanted to move a longstanding employee yet again to another department. Hold the line was the affirmation he repeated when engaging in the many conversations where the expectation was that he also resume weekend work. Exercising his personal will — his informal power, he accepted a shift of department on the proviso of not working weekends. He held the line.  

This is a clear example of living into ones personal sovereignty. Knowing you are worthy and acting as you are worthy is the bridge you have to cross alone. You are infinitely worthy however until you recognise this, your ‘will’ WILL be supplanted by those whose will is stronger. The adage ‘Where there is a will there is a way’ has served me well over the years. Willpower accounts for over 50% of achievement in my book.

Workplace change is often thought of in terms of who is running the show. Such that the possibility that you can play a greater part in your organisation may not have occurred to you. Our conditioning is such that we tend to think formal power is absolute. It is not. That many have woken up to the fact that informal power is infinitely stronger is clearly described by a word that has been accepted into the lexicon of everyday language — whistleblower. These are courageous individuals - I salute them.  

Informal power in the workplace is in effect your standing in your own power with the view to doing what is right by your own conscience. That others stand in their informal power and do what is right for them is their affair. Do not disregard your view because you are seemingly going against the grain. Hold the line. To see change we have to be the change. Hence, living as we are into the new earth known as the golden age requires a change in disposition, a new attitude if you will. The foremost change is the living into your personal sovereignty. Informal power is yours for the claiming. Use it wisely.  

Date: Wednesday October13,2021

Authoress: Carol Lorraine

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Footnote

1 . An informal English saying meanings it’s not fair.