0:01
Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of image group international, an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies and hacks for the new tech world. Here you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image and reputation.

0:30
Hello, everybody, thank you for listening to my podcast. Before we start our chat icon, we ask you to connect with me on social media. My Twitter is Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail. You can also find me as Image Group International on Facebook. So let's get started. Today I will share with you about the subject of personal power and positional power. And a question I have for you is, do you know the difference between them. And let me share with you what they are. As an introduction, positional power is the authority you yield by your position in the organization's structure and hierarchy. I guess if you're basically the CEO of an organization, that means you have positional power in the structure, no different to a supervisor, you know, in another type of organization, or of course, if you look at the hierarchy in a family, where you got positional power, their mum and dad, okay, that definitely is an indication of positional power, personal power is your own your own innate power that you have to influence people and events, whether or not you have any formal authority. So that means personal power is you can do a lot of interesting things as part of who you are, without necessarily having the formal authority. And the differences. Of course, typical example is, you know, you can look at a politician as an example. And of course, I've met a lot of politicians over the years and and worked with a lot of them were times, for instance, they lacked at times, you know, a lot of personal power, but certainly had positional power once they became a politician. And of course, that's a that's a good example, because it's a very common one today, especially in my experience in the last 30 years, where you've had a lot of conviction type politician disappear, and you've got a new breed come in, that were what we would call his career politicians, and of course, a career politician or a career type anything, okay? Is only this specifically, from a power perspective, as opposed to also making a difference on on a one skull, from the perspective also of the humanity aspect, you know, as opposed to just power for powers sake. So that's the difference between the two, a policeman, for instance, has positional power, you know, that's immediate, because of the uniform. And of course, what the uniform represents, and the role that he also has been given power with, I get to basically have a formal authority that the average person might not. So you can utilize that as a good example here. Now, when it comes to you, personally, of course, from the point of view of building your career, your business, etc, both matter. Okay, there's no question about that, again, I go back to the Union game that I talked about constantly. But in this case, the personal power is the ultimate because the personal power will drive everything long term. What's essential in all of this is that, you know, you get that balance, right, because the personal power is there action, the one that can never be taken away from you ever because it comes from within, where positional power is outside of you. It's something that can be taken away. In other words, your title can be taken away, your position can be taken away, even your reputation can be taken away, but no one can take the personal power from you unless you choose to give it away. However, if your positional power changes, also, it's something to consider or completely taken away. Okay? This isn't your current position, or let's say you've lost your job, or you know, you're deciding to reinvent yourself and go into a new position or a new industry, a new profession, etc. Then you can actually use your personal power to of course, attract whatever you're going to attract, moving forward. Okay, so you can rely on your personal power, it's the only thing you can rely on long term. But that doesn't mean that positional power doesn't have its purpose. Okay, it has, as I've mentioned earlier, everything has its purpose the ying and yang, but positional and personal power, when they are combined, they certainly increase your influence, motivate others and fully engage your team, you know, to change the the objectives of the organization. And if you have a look at examples of that, now, you can look at the prime minister as an example you can look at present Shorepower the title of Prime Minister your personal power? Well, you know, the Prime Minister must have some personal power, right? Doesn't matter what your politics are a nice to get to that role, you know and be sustainable over a 30 year period. So it's a combination, but you're sometimes in the world that we live in, especially with politics, right now it's coloring a lot of our concepts, but I think you're going to call a spade a spade, you know, and recognize when there is positional power there. And of course, when there is a distinction with personal power, and generally, you would hope that somebody that has reached a stage of influence, especially on in the public domain also has personal power, but in my experience, not always true, again, because in politics, especially, you know, rewards are handed out, not so much on personal power, but the games that have gone on along the way to get you there. So positional power offers you what we would call as the legal authority, okay? Especially if you're not part of government, or institution that you need to veto, you know, make choices and lead your team forward as a unit, while your personal power drives you to inspire others, okay, have settings by yourself, give yourself energy. As I said previously, in other episodes, you know, when you wake up in the morning, you're energized to go out and create that day, but also to inspire others, and I think inspire others is the excellent leverage, because then that gives you influence with a wider group. And we know that that's essential if you want to make a difference in the world. The fact is, though, that both matter, and like I've already noted, and the case, the you know, the aspects of position of personal power together allows you to exert influence to impact other people's behaviors as well. And the two big questions I have for you right now, are these, which one do you have? More or less, more personal power, more positional power, and this is something for you to reflect again, and you might have both, by the way, but it's important just to reflect on that. Because if you do want to make a difference out there, well, this particular aspect is essential here, especially in building your personal and business brand. When you answer these questions, or ask yourself, what do you intend to do? If you had more arm, personal and positional power? What are you going to do, you're going to influence more your clients, your stakeholders, the media, or you're going to promote a new policy, or you're going to start a new community campaign. You see, this is the relevance of why we're sharing what we're sharing with you today. Whatever your cause, you need either personal power, positional power, or both, if you are to make the difference that you want. So this is the essential bit when it comes to personal branding. You know, this is like part of the magic formula. Because unless you know why you want that power position or personal, then potentially what you're doing is you're not operating on first principles you're into, you know, airy fairy stuff that really long term, potential problems, even drain your energy. So it's important to think about that, you know, because when you're really clear on your values around that particular aspect of what you want to do, then it makes things so much easier. And your decision making becomes a lot clearer, as always have a few insights that sort of will help you develop both of these powers. So let's get into it. For your position of power, the most important actions you can take out and build your network. This is essential, your network, your connected network will be more valuable than any other thing that you do right now. Yes, because that's going to get you to collaborate, that's going to get you to talk to people that's going to get you to attract investors, this case, or employers or whatever, the network is essential. Of course, LinkedIn is also excellent from a technological point of view in building your network. And of course, something that we support, big time develop, and also your communication skills. Because of course positional power, you know, you need to be able to communicate your ideas, your thoughts, your concepts. And of course, leading with more initiative, and leaving with initiative basically means is okay, what do I have to do, as opposed to always waiting for somebody to show you, if you're going to be doing that you're not going to be seen as a leader, you're going to be seen as a follower. And that potentially will do damage to your perception, position or power perspective and of course, from a personal power. So that's the positional power aspect of something for you to think about the next one. The next main insight for you is how to develop your personal power. Well, if you've been following my podcast For a while now you would know that values are very important to what we talk about. So first of all, I'd say take ownership of your feelings, your feelings, don't run your life, okay? You run your life, your feelings can't be running you, does that make sense? Think about that one guy, because if your feelings are running your life, specifically, then the feelings are running the show here, meaning, you know, they have control of your personal power. So take responsibility for your own behavior. And daily, live your values. And if you do that, okay, your personal power will show up for you. And also, it'll become very clear for you that that's the best way for you to show up in the world, because you're operating on a daily basis at your best form of contribution to the community. Okay, in this case, it could also be your business, family, etc. So this is very important. So let me share a story that involves personal power and positional power. The thing is, I mentioned in the last episode around personal branding, and how, specifically when I, you know, became young design of the year, all those years ago, over 30 years ago, I basically discovered the the power of positional power, and the position of power in that case was been on the front page of the age newspaper that really promoted my story promoted way award, and also, you know, presented this mini hero aspect of me winning this award against all the big guys out there, you know, the big established brands. And of course, that was like, you know, a David versus Goliath type of story. Of course, the media loves stories like that. And of course, I got the front page of the newspaper. And that also then established my position of power, because then people saw me as legitimate, I had some authority, because you get on the front page of a newspaper, even if it's negative, there's some authority there. So that's the aspect from a position of power, but personal power. It look, it's something that I've always believed in all my life, as a young kid, teenager, right through because, you know, some things are just innate in us. And if you sort of reflect in your own life, you'll know deep down, you know, you want to be more confident, you want to be more innovative, you know, you want to have more engaging conversations, etc. These are fairly common traits that we all have. And of course, I looked at, you know, how am I going to do that, and, of course, how I did that, in building my personal page, do not have workshops, associated associating with a lot of public speakers, motivational speakers in the early days, you know, including that rah rah rah variety that, of course, I'm not into today, you know, but it was all part of the journey, learning more, doing a lot of programs, a lot of study been mentored along the way that was super powerful. And, of course, then going out there trying things, toughen up, coming back, given an another shot, to evolve and get better at what I was all about. And, of course, what I represented as a, as a human being, basically, that's what I did, in improving, you know, too little example, of course, had been stuck small winning awards, of course, that followed, for the next 20 odd years after the first one, been on boards, you know, leading organizations starting new businesses that also of course, have positional power, but of course, that was driven by my personal power. So what I'd like you to do is reflect on that story and think about how you also had your personal positional power either enhanced previously in your life or at times depleted, okay? And the times, specifically, where you've used either personal position or power to really make an you know, make a difference out there by influencing stakeholders. That's something for you to think about. Because we all have it at times, it just needs to be drawn back out, especially if it's become dormant for a while. And that's obviously part of what we offer in supporting you to do that. But that's all for today. I trust this episode was useful for you. Please remember to contact me by email. If you need support guidance to elevate your personal and positional power. The email address is on the description of the episode. Thank you all and I look forward to see you again next week. And in the meantime, have a great week. Cheerio.

14:13
Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass" Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence and authority in the business world. To learn more and apply for your personal coaching, seminars and group workshops, please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.