Leadership Training That Ignores Power Dynamics Is Set Up to Fail
- LMSPortals
- 6 hours ago
- 6 min read
Leadership training is big business. Companies spend billions annually on workshops, coaching, and seminars to shape the next generation of leaders. They teach communication, conflict resolution, delegation, innovation, and team-building. But amid the buzzwords and frameworks, something critical is often missing: a real, hard look at power.
Too many leadership programs treat leadership as a neutral skillset — a list of best practices anyone can apply. They avoid the messy, uncomfortable terrain of power dynamics: who has power, how they use it, who doesn't, and why. This omission isn't just naive. It's dangerous. Leadership without an understanding of power is like handing someone the keys to a car without teaching them how brakes work. Eventually, something crashes.
Why Power Dynamics Matter in Leadership
Leadership Is Power in Action
At its core, leadership is the ability to influence others. That means power is always in play. Every decision a leader makes — from promotions to pay raises, team structures to strategic direction — shifts power in some way. To lead without acknowledging this is to act blindly.
Ignoring power doesn’t make it disappear. It just makes it harder to see — and easier to abuse. Leaders who don't understand how power functions are more likely to replicate inequities, reinforce hierarchies, or dismiss valid concerns from those below them.
Power Shapes Behavior — Often Quietly
Power distorts how people interact. Subordinates are more likely to defer, self-censor, or play along even when they disagree. Without training that highlights these dynamics, leaders might mistake silence for agreement, compliance for commitment, or politeness for trust.
This misreading is not just a failure of perception; it can lead to flawed decisions and toxic cultures. Leaders who believe they’re being “collaborative” or “inclusive” may actually be shutting down dissent without realizing it.
The Myth of the "Neutral Leader"
Leadership Models Still Center White, Male Norms
Many leadership frameworks are built around assumptions rooted in dominant cultural norms — often white, male, Western, and corporate. These models prize assertiveness, control, and charisma, framing leadership as an individual trait rather than a social relationship influenced by race, gender, class, and history.
By presenting these models as "universal," leadership training erases how different people experience power. A woman speaking assertively may be seen as "aggressive." A man doing the same may be seen as "confident." If training doesn't address this, it sets some leaders up to fail — and lets others skate by without self-awareness.
Power Doesn’t Flow Equally
Pretending leadership is just about "skills" ignores the uneven terrain leaders operate within. A first-generation immigrant manager may be leading a team of legacy hires from elite schools. A woman may be trying to lead in a department where decisions still happen on the golf course. A queer leader may navigate constant microaggressions while trying to gain influence.
When training ignores these realities, it puts the burden on individuals to “fit in” rather than challenging systems that marginalize them.
Symptoms of Power-Blind Leadership Training
Overemphasis on Personal Style
Too many programs focus on personality assessments, communication styles, and behavioral tweaks. While self-awareness matters, this focus sidelines deeper structural issues.
A leader who scores high on “empathy” might still avoid addressing pay disparities on their team. A “collaborative” leader might still monopolize decision-making. Leadership training must go beyond style and teach people to recognize how power is distributed and used.
Conflict Avoidance Disguised as Harmony
Many programs teach leaders to manage conflict with tools like active listening or "finding common ground." These are useful — until they become ways to silence real grievances.
When someone raises a concern about systemic bias or unfair treatment, it’s not a communication issue. It’s a power issue. Training that frames all conflict as a misunderstanding misses the point — and often protects those with more power.
No Accountability Mechanisms
Without addressing power, leadership training often fails to create structures for accountability. Leaders might be taught to “be inclusive” without ever learning how to share decision-making power, redistribute resources, or be held responsible for harm.
Leadership training must answer: How do we make sure power is used responsibly? Who gets to say when it isn’t?
What Power-Aware Leadership Training Looks Like
1. Explicit Conversations About Power
Real leadership training must start by naming power — not just the positional power of a title, but social, cultural, and economic power too.
This means helping leaders map where power lives in their organization: Who has access to decision-makers? Who gets credit for ideas? Who gets second chances, and who doesn’t? What are the unspoken rules?
Leaders must learn to see power not as a dirty word, but as a constant — and a responsibility.
2. Intersectionality as a Core Principle
Any leadership training that ignores race, gender, class, and other identity factors is incomplete. Effective training helps leaders understand how these identities intersect with power.
It’s not enough to say “treat everyone equally.” Leaders must understand why some people face systemic disadvantages and how to lead in ways that counteract, not reinforce, those dynamics.
This includes challenging unconscious bias, but it also means confronting policies, traditions, and systems that benefit some and harm others.
3. Psychological Safety as a Leadership Skill
Leaders must be taught to create environments where people feel safe enough to speak up — especially when it’s uncomfortable.
This isn’t about being “nice.” It’s about recognizing that power makes people afraid to be honest. Training should teach leaders how to invite criticism, respond without defensiveness, and build trust that isn’t performative.
4. Tools for Sharing and Ceding Power
Leadership development must include practical strategies for power-sharing. This could mean:
Rotating leadership roles in meetings
Opening budget decisions to team input
Sponsoring underrepresented employees for stretch opportunities
Transparently communicating decision-making processes
Good leadership isn’t about hoarding control — it’s about enabling others to lead too.
5. Accountability That Goes Beyond Performance Reviews
Power-aware leadership training builds in mechanisms for accountability that are ongoing, not episodic.
This includes 360-degree feedback from team members, external audits of equity practices, and consequences for harmful behavior — even if it comes from “high performers.”
Leaders must be accountable not just for results, but for how they get them.
Case Studies: When Power Is Addressed — and When It’s Not
Failure: The High-Performing Manager With a Toxic Team
A tech company promoted a star engineer to team lead. He hit every target, but morale plummeted. Junior staff said they felt micromanaged and ignored. Two women on the team reported sexist remarks but were told the manager was just “direct.”
The company had invested in leadership coaching focused on communication style and project management. No one talked to the manager about how he used power, how gender played into his behavior, or how fear shaped team dynamics. The result? Two people quit. The manager got another promotion.
Success: A Nonprofit Reimagines Leadership Development
A large nonprofit revamped its leadership training to focus on equity and power. Leaders were required to attend facilitated sessions on organizational privilege, implicit bias, and anti-racist leadership. They were taught to examine how they held power — and how to give some of it up.
Leaders began hosting open forums on policy decisions, creating mentorship circles for staff from underrepresented groups, and submitting to anonymous feedback from their teams. Morale improved. Retention of BIPOC staff increased. And leadership became more diverse.
The Business Case for Power-Aware Leadership
Ignoring power isn’t just an ethical failure — it’s a strategic one.
1. Innovation Demands Dissent
Teams that can’t safely challenge authority stagnate. Power-aware leadership creates cultures where dissent is seen as a contribution, not a threat. That’s where real innovation happens.
2. Equity Boosts Performance
Studies show that diverse, inclusive teams perform better. But diversity without power redistribution is cosmetic. Leadership that ignores power ends up reinforcing the same dynamics that drive exclusion.
3. Reputation and Risk Management
In the era of social media and employee activism, leadership missteps can go public fast. Organizations that fail to address power imbalances risk backlash, lawsuits, and lasting reputational damage.
Summary: Teach Power or Teach Failure
Leadership training that skirts around power does more harm than good. It produces leaders who don’t know how to listen, don’t recognize when they’re causing harm, and don’t understand the systems they operate within. These leaders may feel confident — but they’re dangerous.
Power isn’t a side topic. It’s the core of leadership. Any training that ignores this is not just incomplete — it’s complicit.
The solution isn’t easy. Talking about power means confronting privilege, discomfort, and systemic inequity. But if organizations want leaders who are effective, ethical, and future-ready, they need to get serious about teaching power — or be prepared to keep failing the people they lead.
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