Power Motive

Using what you have learned from this unit and your own life experiences, explain your interpretation of the statement by Weiss, Tilin, and Morgan (2018), “power motive is often misunderstood as a negative trait” (p. 85).

Weiss, D., Tilin, F., & Morgan, M. (2018). The interprofessional health care team: Leadership and development (2nd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. 

During the next few units, we will be spending some time discussing the role relationships play in the effectiveness and efficiency of teams. At the core, the conversation will be around your role as the leader of those teams. In our fast-paced world, too often we get wrapped up in all the tasks we are responsible for, and we overlook the most important asset our organization has at its disposal—the people. Weiss, Tilin, & Morgan (2018) are quick to point out (in Chapter 5) that when we survey the most recent research on leadership, it becomes obvious that there is an interaction between leadership traits, a leadership style, the context in which the leader functions, and the specific behavior any group might have as a result of the interaction that takes place by members of the group. Earlier researchers seemed to focus on individual characteristics of leadership. Weiss et al. (2018) take a slightly different approach and ask us to view leadership thorough a different lens. One of the differences in perspective in any organization is the comparison between a telescope and a kaleidoscope. The telescope is like our frontline team members. They know their job, and they are very good  at their job. They focus in on the specifics of their own personal responsibilities. Leaders view the larger picture; they see the amazing collage of shapes, sizes, colors, and complexity of the overall organization. Both the telescope and the kaleidoscope are important perspectives. In our organizations, we need to see details, but at the same time, we need to see the bigger picture. The challenge for leaders is that one eye needs to be focused on the colorful kaleidoscope picture, and the other eye needs to look well into the future.
200 word minimum with cited references.