The Leadership Shift Your Team Is Waiting For

There’s a leadership shift and conversation I wish more of us were having, especially women who care deeply, want to be better leaders, and are doing everything they can to build workplaces and homes where people actually thrive.

It’s the conversation about power.

Most workplaces (and homes and teams) still operate from one dominant model…

Power Over.

Wondering What Power Over Leadership Looks Like?

It comes from a thought error that says…

If I want people to perform at their best, I have to control them, correct them, micromanage them, or keep them in line.

I learned this early in my career from a boss who said, very proudly to our staff:

“Nobody will ever outwork me.”

At the time, a colleague pulled me aside afterward. She was trying to make sense of it, but what she really felt was this:

It didn’t matter how hard she worked, how thoughtful she was, or how much she contributed, she would never measure up. There would always be someone above her, outworking her, outlasting her, and reminding her of it.

As I got to know my boss, I understood his behavior better.

It wasn’t confidence.

It was fear masquerading as grit.

His leadership philosophy was built on the belief that power had to be protected. He was young, fast-tracked, and worried his age and lack of experience made him vulnerable. So he wore hustle like a badge of armor.

To protect his authority, he needed everyone to know he was the hardest worker in the room, even if it meant disempowering the people he was supposed to be leading.

The Culture You Create With a Power Over Style of Leadership

This is Power Over.

• Control instead of collaboration
• Dominance instead of communication
• Fear instead of psychological safety
• Compliance instead of creativity

It creates a culture where people shut down, stay small, or walk on eggshells.

And I’ve seen it over and over again:

Power Over doesn’t make people better. It just makes them afraid, stressed, disengaged, and distrustful.

It creates exactly what leaders complain about:

• Disengaged employees
• Low initiative
• Quiet quitting
• Burnout and turnover
• Surface-level effort and resentment

Not because people don’t care. But because they’re surviving a system that doesn’t believe in them.

And your top performers? They don’t stay in cultures like that.

They try to influence change until they realize the system has no interest in evolving. And then they leave for a place that does.

I see this with my clients often.

Just recently, one of my clients left a job she had dreamed of at a well-known global company she always wanted to work for. She didn’t leave because she couldn’t handle the work. It wasn’t because she lacked talent.

No. She left because the bureaucracy and hierarchy made meaningful change impossible.

Every decision was slowed, blocked, or watered down by someone above her… and someone above them. The unspoken message was clear:

“Protect the system. Don’t rock the boat.”

That’s what Power Over creates:

• Stagnation at the top
• Silence in the middle
• Exhaustion at the bottom
• And turnover everywhere

The good news? There’s another way to lead.

The Four Types of Power in Leadership (Including the One That’s Quietly Destroying Culture)

Brené Brown talks about four types of power: Power Over, Power With, Power To, and Power Within.

Most of us were raised in systems that only modeled the first one.

Let’s walk through each, focusing especially on the three that build strong leaders and resilient teams.

Power Over (The Old Model)

This is the model many of us grew up with at home, at school, in sports, and at work.

• Power is finite.
• Hold it tightly.
• Protect your position.
• Lead with fear.
• Stay in control at all costs.

On the surface, it looks like “strong leadership.” Underneath, it breeds fear, anxiety, resentment, and a culture where people do just enough to stay out of trouble.

This is the kind of leadership that quietly drives your best people away.

Now let’s talk about what healthy power looks like.

Power With: Leadership as Collaboration, Not Control

Power With is shared power.

It assumes that when people are invited in, they bring new ideas, perspectives, and solutions you can’t access on your own.

It sounds like:

• “Let’s get curious about this together.”
• “You see something I don’t. Tell me more.”
• “Your input matters here.”

This is where trust is built. This is where psychological safety lives.

When you lead with Power With:

• People are more honest with you.
• Problems surface earlier.
• Ownership spreads.
• Innovation increases.

You’re not giving away your leadership, you’re multiplying it.

Power To: Leadership That Builds Other Leaders

Power To is about agency.

It’s leadership that invests in people’s ability to lead themselves, make decisions, and shape their own work.

It’s the opposite of micromanagement.

It sounds like:

• “I trust your judgment.”
• “You’re capable. I’ll support you.”
• “Take the lead on this. I know you can handle it.”

Under this kind of leadership:

• People rise faster.
• Initiative becomes normal.
• High performers stay longer.

Because when people feel trusted, they stop working from fear and start working from ownership.

Power Within: The Foundation of Confident Leadership

Power Within is the deepest level of power.

It comes from identity, values, and self-worth. It’s the kind of grounded internal leadership that sounds like:

• “I don’t need to prove myself.”
• “I know who I am and what I stand for.”
• “I’m willing to make decisions that are aligned, even if they’re not popular.”

It’s the antidote to, “Nobody will ever outwork me.”

Power Within doesn’t hustle for belonging.

It doesn’t need to dominate or outwork anyone.
It doesn’t need to prove its value.

Instead, it leads with:

• Stability
• Clarity
• Courage
• Integrity

This is the kind of leadership people trust for the long haul.

Power Through: Moving Through Hard Things Together

Sometimes Brené Brown also talks about Power Through which is the ability to move through challenges with others instead of pushing over them.

It shows up when:

• You’re honest about hard seasons instead of pretending everything’s fine.
• You face problems together instead of finding someone to blame.
• You keep your standards high without weaponizing them.

Power Through says:

“We’ll figure this out together. It might be hard, but we’re capable.”

It builds resilience, not fear.

If you’re wanting to grow in your leadership and career, click here to learn more about building a high agency mindset to help you become the type of leader that creates more leaders.

So… What Kind of Power Are You Using In Your Leadership?

This is the question I want every woman in leadership roles to ask herself:

What kind of power am I using?

Not the kind you think you use. The kind your team actually feels.

• Are people shrinking or rising around you?
• Are they afraid or empowered?
• Are they complying or contributing?
• Do they feel trusted or watched?

Because leadership isn’t just a role or a title. It’s a culture you create on purpose or by default.

You’re creating culture every single day through:

• How you communicate
• What you tolerate
• What you model
• What you say yes or no to
• How you regulate your emotions
• How you treat yourself
• The standards you quietly uphold

And here’s the part most women are never told:

Your power doesn’t have to look like overworking, controlling, pleasing, micromanaging, or proving.

Your real leadership comes from:

• Power With
• Power To
• Power Within
• (And yes, Power Through when things get hard)

This is the kind of power that transforms teams, workplaces, families, marriages, and the women leading them.

Interested in learning more about different types of power and their impact? Click here to read this journal article entitled: The new concepts of power? Power-over, power-to and power-with.

Ready to Lead with a Different Kind of Power?

If you’re tired of:

• Carrying the weight of everyone else’s emotions
• Leading from fear of getting it wrong
• Feeling responsible for everything but not truly powerful in anything

And you’re ready to:

• Lead with more collaboration and less control
• Build a culture of trust and ownership
• Feel grounded, not frantic, in your leadership

That’s the work I do.

If you’re ready to build your leadership skills and build a mindset that lets you see what you’re really capable of, and create a career that reflects that, email me at hello@katrinaklooster.com. I’d love to support you in your next chapter of growth.

Ready to stop guessing what’s next for your career and start getting clear?

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