Does Power Corrupt? Now 314 Responses on LinkedIn

The thoughts and comments at LinkedIn keep rolling in,
and I am a bit surprised by the large number, I am even
more surprised by the thoughtfulness and depth of most of the comments here about whether
power corrupts and how to reduce the risk.  Here is the
latest one, from David C., who is an “artist, entrepreneur, and brand manager.”

Power magnifies. It gives leverage to
every impulse, good and bad. Power in and of itself does not corrupt, but
because of that leverage it can accelerate corruption. A cycle of actions
without consequence can suppress the impulse for remorse – subsequent abuses of
power become easier as the internal mechanisms for recognizing abusive behavior
become calloused. To avoid this requires a blend of discipline, vigilance, good
institutional checks and balances, and perhaps most importantly, establishing a
trusted peer group that will promote accountability.

To build on this argument, I think that power magnifies what the leader does, in large part (as a host of experiments show) because people around the leader begin to focus great attention on every detail of the leader’s behavior.  Indeed, that is one of the odd effects on power: it causes leaders to devote less attention to their followers and it causes followers to devote more attention to leaders.  This asymmetry isn’t always healthy, but it is well-documented. Think of how closely the press examines the micro details of everything done by Steve Jobs and President Bush.  So the magnification that John is talking is likely caused in part by those who scrutinize and try to adjust to tiny things that the leader does, or at least seems to be doing.  And David C.’s points about ways that organizations can suppress and reverse this
natural tendency are on target –- wisdom that organizations and leaders in
almost any industry can benefit from.