What really gives you power? In this episode we explain the five inner sources — knowledge, voice, history, rapport, and character — which you can build yourself.
Power does not only come from titles or positions. This episode explores the internal resources that allow people to influence others and build effective relationships."What if the biggest source of your power was never your job title — but something you could start building this afternoon?
In this episode, we introduce the “power battery” — five internal sources of personal power that anyone can develop, independent of rank: knowledge, expressiveness, history, attraction, and character. Through stories from coaching, therapy, and our own lives, we explore why so many of us outsource our sense of power to circumstance, and what it actually takes to charge each of these five sources up.
• The five internal sources of personal power: knowledge, expressiveness, history, attraction, character
• Why knowledge is more democratized than ever — podcasts, free courses, and AI
• How expressiveness helps you find your voice, and other people's
• The double-edged power of relationship history
• Building rapport and attraction even without natural charisma
• Why character and consistency earn long-term trust
• A real story of blended-family cooperation in action
RESOURCES & LINKS MENTIONED
• Joseph Heller — Catch-22 (novel, referenced as an illustrative example) — https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168668.Catch_22
Next time: the 150% Principle — why the person with more rank always carries more than half the responsibility for a relationship, and what to do when you get it wrong.
Dr Steve Vinay Gunther
Therapist · author · organisational consultant · founder of Gestalt Therapy International.
A practicing therapist since 1986, his life experience includes street theatre, clowning, community activism, and a range of businesses — including a vegetarian cafe, printing press, sign-writing business, and food coop.
He founded the Northern Rivers Gestalt Institute in Australia and has been running professional therapy training in China since 2012. He has taught in many countries over the last 25 years, is director of Gestalt Therapy International, and founder of Learn Gestalt.
He has practiced meditation since 1973 and was Professor of Spiritual Psychology at Ryokan College in Los Angeles. He is author of the bestseller The Woman In Your Life — A Man's Guide to a Happy Relationship, published in four languages.
An accredited career counsellor since 1993, he developed a unique system called Career Decision Coaching. His PhD explored the interpersonal dynamics of power with managers across three countries.
Organisational consultant and trainer · executive coach · author
Owner and director of The Change Company, founded in 1999. He specialises in working with senior executive teams — facilitating team building and strategy, coaching, and leadership development.
That work often involves Paul assisting executives to pause their transactional and familiar conversations and examine the individual and collective tensions that are not being discussed. His research suggests these "undiscussable" topics are often among the most strategic for the organisation.
Paul has worked across sectors including property development, higher education, pharmaceutical, defence, food manufacture, high-technology medical, government, consulting, and finance. He has published several research articles including a chapter in the award-winning Realising Critical HRD — Stories of Reflecting, Voicing and Enacting Critical Practice.
He wrote the popular book Bosses Behaving Badly, exploring how power can be applied skilfully by those in leadership positions.
HowToBuildPersonalPower #SourcesOfPowerAtWork #PowerWithoutAuthority #PersonalPowerVsPositionalPower #SelfConfidenceAtWork
