Here is an interesting piece that I read some two decades or so ago. It was originally published in the Harvard Business Review in 1979.

In a nutshell; the author makes a strong case for a powerful CEO and demonstrates that, contrary to popular opinion, power does not corrupt, it is POWERLESSNESS that corrupts.

Download the pdf file here: www.ils.unc.edu/daniel/131/cco4/Kanter.pdf

No no no Wazuans! How many of us really read what is put up here. As life gets faster and faster, noisier and noisier, the act of glossing over takes over.

I've been dragging a print out of this article all over town as I crunch thru and it's very insigthful - thanks @mukiha. Admin, as it's a business article, move it to the SME section and we can chew it properly.

Okay another interesting bit. You know how often in organizations things are classified top secret; or you're not allowed to speak on behalf of the company; or you have to follow the rules - can't break them.... it's all about power.

COZ POWER COMES FROM...

1. Lines of supply. Influence outward,
over the environment means that
managers have the capacity to bring in
materials, money,
resources to distribute as rewards, and
perhaps even prestige.

2. Lines of information. To be effective,
managers need to be "in the know" in
both the formal and the informal sense.

3. Lines of support. In a formal
framework, a manager's job parameters
need to allow for non-ordinary action,
for a show of discretion or exercise of
judgment. Thus managers need to know
that they can assume innovative,
risk-taking activities without having to
go through the stifling multi-layered
approval process.

@muganda; I came before the railway line!! The first time I read this article, there was not internet in Kenya!!

@Wazua; I posted this under "Politics" because it was timely. We were all debating whether to have a powerful president or not.

BTW: I want a very powerful president for our nation. We can't get anywhere with a weakling who can't even suck the guy who sweeps his office without parliamentary approval!

Until I read this article, power was indeed a dirty word in my vocabulary.
"It is easier to talk about money--and much easier to talk about sex--than it is to talk about power. People who have it deny it; people who want it do not want to appear to hunger for it; and people who engage in its machinations do so secretly."

And that's why I fell for the whole Prime Minister debate. The concept of positive power had completely eluded me. Surprising how FEAR creates funny outcomes.

Why were we all so afraid of Moi and his power? Maybe it was because when negative power is used poorly you almost have no recourse. So maybe what Moi exhibited during his positive years was power and when he was scared he exhibited powerlessness.

Conclusion: Even as I type, it's a mind shift, but am with Mukiha. Let's give it up for the leaders and revolutionaries of 20th century (in no particular order):
David Ben-Gurion
Ho Chi Minh
Winston Churchill
Mohandas Gandhi
Mikhail Gorbachev
Adolf Hitler
Martin Luther King
Ayatullah Khomeini
V.I. Lenin
Nelson Mandela
Pope John Paul II
Ronald Reagan
Eleanor Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Teddy Roosevelt
Margaret Thatcher
Unknown Rebel
Margaret Sanger
Lech Walesa
Mao Zedong

YES!!!

Thanks