Who Has the Power?

If you want to have a positive impact as a changemaker in an organization, you need to identify the most powerful people. Start with the organization chart, and create a power map. Power mapping is a technique to visualize the most powerful and influential people. On the organization chart, circle the CEO and the executive team. Then look within each organizational area to identify peers and influencers.

Michael Boyles wrote “Power Mapping: What It Is & How to Use It” for the Harvard Business School Online’s Business Insights blog. He said that you need to identify central individuals “within a network who are the main source of information and advice. They don’t necessarily hold the greatest authority or [the] most impressive job titles but have significant influence because of their control over company information.”

Once you identify the central people, you need to understand what they value. They may value tangible resources, such as space in buildings, or intangible qualities, such as experience, safety, status, and affiliation. Boyles says the two most common mistakes when building a power map are omission and commission: “Omission [is] neglecting to identify individuals who are as powerful when they’re central and highly influential. Commission [is] assuming people are more powerful and influential than they actually are.”

In one large enterprise, the chief of staff for the CFO was a central individual. She had worked in the enterprise for more than 25 years and had the complete confidence of the CFO. She built a vast network throughout the enterprise that would help her and the CFO solve significant issues relating to the allocation of financial resources. In a similar enterprise, the chief of staff for the CFO was relatively new to the organization and mostly worked on one-off projects. When I met with her to understand what she valued, she actually said that she was not very influential and advised me to not waste my time meeting with her. Great advice!