I had a great opportunity this month to work closely with a country manager of multinational pharmaceutical company in South America. I was there to assist with a needs analysis of their sales organization. The country manager is relatively new in this position, yet is an experienced leader. He contracted our team to conduct the needs analysis in order to build a case for making some important changes in the sales organization.

This leader did not rely on his position power to make changes happen, even though he has a vision of what he would like to accomplish. He contracted a sales force analysis in order to identify the key areas that needed to be addressed and then either applied his expertise in addressing those needs or in helping his directors find the resources needed to address the issues. Without all three of these sources of power, he would not have been effective.

The three most important sources of power for a leader in an organization that can best be used to increase the effectiveness of an organization while enhancing empowerment and a sense of control of the employees are legitimate, referent and expert power.
Most organizations are hierarchical in nature. If the title of the leader reveals a higher level in the organization it is very likely that the employee will be greatly impacted by the comments and/or opinions of this leader. It would be a rare individual and perhaps one with a short career in an organization which would not pay any attention to the direction and or ideas of a legitimate leader in business organization today. In fact, legitimate power helps maintain order, the chain of command, and direction for the organization. Without it there would be chaos and diminished effectiveness.
However, legitimate power alone does not necessarily mean employees with maximize effectiveness or feel empowered. Legitimate power only helps to direct individuals to people in the organization who have been identified as those in power. However, legitimate power without referent and/or expert power is of limited help in empowering employees.

Referent power is needed to provide the sense of support and commitment the leader has to the individual and expert power as needed for those employees who need direction in their tasks. This helps to give team member the knowledge of where to go for resources, budget, ideas, materials etc... Without this ability a leader only using legitimate power is useless to team members and their effectiveness suffers. Expert power is the knowledge, experience and skills a leader brings to the team. By demonstrating knowledge in task of the teams the team develops stronger confidence in the leader's ability to teach and delegate tasks that the team needs to accomplish.

Imagine for a moment a leader who is lacking any one of these three sources of power. They cannot be truly effective without all three. Leaders would be wise to recognize that their position in the organization (legitimate power) is only the place where they start to exert influence. Legitimate power only provides the opportunity to utilize referent and expert power to fully empower employees, helping them feel integrated and valued members of the team.