Course Project

Referent power refers to the ability of a leader to influence a follower because of the follower's loyalty, respect, friendship, admiration, affection, or a desire to gain approval. Referent power is gained by a leader who has strong interpersonal relationship skills. Referent power, as an aspect of personal power, becomes particularly important as organizational leadership is progressively about teamwork and inspiration rather than command and control. This power is more important to me personally because at the end of the day it gets you a lot further that being Coercive. This type of authority or power is dependent on fear, suppression of free will, or use of punishment or threat, for its existence. When people around you fear you chances are they will not respect you. They will not be loyal to you and what you stand for. They are only doing what you say simply because they fear the consequence and not so much because they feel it is a good idea and they want to. Referent Power When a teacher has referent power students act as the teacher wishes because they like the teacher as a person. There are two requirements for the real use of referent power: teachers must observe that the students like them and teachers must communicate that they care about and like the students. The teacher will also be able to get the students to go above and beyond because the students respect what the teacher has to say and what the teacher is telling them to do. I use my referent power more than any other power that was listed. I was taught that when you put your best into something that the best will come out of it. I believe that being nice to people around you and everyone that you deal with because you never know when you have to come across that person again and what the situation may be. You never burn bridges because you never know when you have to cross them again. You should always be nice to people on your way up and at the top because you never know when you will meet...