A new study published in Harvard Business Review explores the effects that power has on leaders, and how the feeling of power can change the way executives feel not only at work but also at home.
Management professors from University of Maryland and University of Florida studied 108 managers across different industries, including healthcare, for 10 consecutive workdays. Five days were control days and five were "power days," in which participants completed exercises that enhanced their sense of authority and influence. Participants then completed surveys in the morning, afternoon and evening, by which researchers gauged managers' behaviors and moods.
Below is a list of four takeaways from the study that every executive needs to keep in mind.
- Leaders who were made to feel powerful in the beginning of the day often abused subordinates or spoke condescendingly.
- Executives with a heightened sense of power often feel disrespected and slighted by their coworkers because of the inflated expectations that power creates.
- Power hangovers are often felt at home by leaders who exert dominance at work, with symptoms including regret and shame over how they previously treated coworkers.
- Distance and paranoia are also more heightened when leaders felt they've wronged coworkers, because they may fear retaliation.
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