LEADERSHIP ASSIGNMENT #6
Your Name
Department, University
Course number: Course name
Professor's Name
Date
           The reading "Power and Empowerment" by VeneKlasen (2007) reveals complementary information and details about my leadership ideas and the other readings. The discussion about power expressions in the VeneKlasen readings is closely related to the leadership styles, while empowerment is related to the readings on "Powering Up" in achieving social change. 
      My leadership ideas are more related to the common leadership styles, such as the autocratic, authoritative, democratic, and transformative styles that are well documented in many articles and books for the past few decades. For instance, when it comes to having "power over" others, that expression of power is related to the autocratic and authoritarian leadership styles. Autocratic and authoritarian leadership expects great obedience from their subordinates, where the decision-making powers are centralized on the leader or the authority, leading to only one person making decisions. Based on VeneKlasen's (2007) readings, power over is characterized by the authorities that have power over many things, including controlling material and decision-making resources over those that do not have that. Although, there are some positive insights when using the autocratic and authoritarian leadership, such as taking advantage of the commanding and controlling methodologies to create rapid decision making for the group, especially during times of great moral crisis or when making an on-the-spot decision, when the group is not as experienced as the leader in addressing the concerns and problems. However, as explained by VeneKlasen (2007), "power over, has many negative associations for people, such as repression, force, coercion, discrimination, corruption, and abuse (p. 45)." Another expression of power that VeneKlasen (2007) discussed is the "power with" expressio...