Power at its Best

Joan, who at one point started and grew a very successful and profitable company of her own, worked for a while in another large corporation. In direct contradiction to the president of the company she was working for, Joan said she would be leaving once she got the company up and going. He thought she would get addicted to the power and want to stay. But Joan said “power is at its best when everybody has some…you share it, and it grows” Her goal was to help the people in that company to be their best, and then she planned to move on to other things, rather than hold on to the power position she had achieved. Her boss thought that she was nuts.

Discussion Questions

1. How is Joan’s EoC attitude towards power unusual in business as it is traditionally practiced?
2. Is power necessary in a company or organization? What purpose does it serve?
3. Do you think it is practical as a leader to seek to have others gain power? Wouldn’t this undermine your own power? Why or why not?
4. Subsidiarity is the Catholic idea that we should encourage everyone to have a voice– particularly with those things they are particularly close to or aware of. Parents should naturally have a say about how their kids are raised, workers should naturally have some say in how their work is organized, etc. How could that approach be implemented in business situations?