Power: Leadership and Laddership :)
"Power without love is brutality, but love without consideration of power is sentimentality. How to make power express love, and love humanize power, is the distinctive task for the next hundred years." --Reinhold Neibuhr
Power is often seen as a force of control, something used to shape institutions, relationships, and entire systems. Yet research reveals a striking paradox: the very qualities we seek in great leaders—empathy, integrity, and social intelligence—are often eroded by the experience of power itself. In traditional organizations, power and virtue rarely go hand in hand. Studies show that over 20% of corporate executives exhibit psychopathic traits, the same percentage found in high-security prisons. Meanwhile, 75% of employees leave their jobs not because of the work itself, but because of their managers. When power is unexamined, it can become addictive, blinding us to the subtle harm we may cause in its name.
But what if power was not something to hoard or impose, but something to share and cultivate? What if true leadership was not about controlling outcomes, but about creating the conditions for others to step into their own agency?
Like great conductors, the most generative leaders do not micromanage every note. Instead, they tune into the rhythm of the moment, knowing when to step in, when to guide with a light touch, and when to step back entirely, allowing the intelligence of the whole to emerge. Some offer clear structure to ensure alignment and flow. Others lead through presence alone, offering only a glance or a shift in energy so the group learns to listen to itself instead of relying on authority.
True power is not about dominance but about orchestration. The most skillful leaders move between guidance and trust, holding the baton when needed and releasing it when the music carries itself. This is not leadership through force, but laddership that invites others to step into their own power, align with collective strength, and orient the group toward deeper emergence.
How do we balance leadership with laddership in a way that allows power to express love and love to humanize power? How do we hold accountability without control, structure without rigidity, and influence without ego? At what point does centralized power weaken collaboration, and when does decentralization create a vacuum that can be misused? In nature's ecosystems, small hierarchies exist within a web of self-organization -- power is not concentrated at the top but flows through interdependent networks. Can we design social cultures the same way, where power is generative rather than extractive, and leadership nurtures rather than dominates? If power is inevitable, how do we choose to wield it?
Today's theme invites us to reflect on our relationship to power—how we experience it, how we share it, and how we might reimagine it for the world we wish to create.
Start with a song by Rachelle Jeanty, whom we met in the orientation call. Recently at a retreat, she opened this song with the following invocation:
I invite you to think of someone in the world who lacks a voice—someone you know personally or someone you've heard about but may not know directly. Hold this person, or this group of people, in your heart.
Last year, I composed this song for women who live without freedom of speech, unseen and unheard. Tonight, I want to extend it to all human beings who endure these conditions.
We are fortunate to be here, to have the freedom to express ourselves. At some point, I would love for you to sing with me—not just for the music, but to send them strength, to give them soul force.
This is Deep In Me.
[Bonus: reflect on a couple paragraphs by Gary Zukav -- Authentic Power -- and close it out with a 90-second video with examples of people who blended power and love: Power of One]
Start with a video on meaning of power (6 mins)
Then, soak in this stunning (and humorous!) display of "laddership" from the world of music: Lead Like the Great Conductors (20 mins)
Now familiarize yourself with a short summary of useful distinctions: power-over, power-with, power-to, power-within (10 mins)
Close it out with the goosebump-raising story of Leaving Prisoners In Charge of the Prison (10 mins). A true story!
For a bonus read, try one of these three distinctly unique pieces:
- The Power Paradox (12 mins): excerpt from UC Berkeley researcher, Dacher Keltner's book and research.
- Intersection of Love and Power (23 mins): Preeta Bansal, formerly Obama's general counsel, on why love movement need power.
- Leadership to Laddership (7 mins): an impromptu dinner conversation between Nipun and Otto Scharmer
[For more, see today's bonus bibliography.]
Flip the power script with someone today. Engage with someone you typically have more authority over, but speak with them as if they are your spiritual mentor.
This could be a child, an animal, a younger sibling, a student, a mentee, a colleague, a staff member you manage, or even someone living on the streets. As you interact, pay attention to their nonverbal cues and the unspoken perspectives that emerge.
Reflect on the difference between power-over—where authority is imposed—and power-with—where connection and mutual respect create true understanding.