[Music] welcome back our dear viewers and now we are going to talk about the social and power dynamics at the workplace and we are very much delighted to have our dear guest in the studio mr abdulrahman and our entrepreneurship expert to shed light about that topic good morning good morning good morning mr mcd first uh between being desirable and negatively negatively perceived the why is a power such controversial topic yeah i think like power would be a very controversial topic because it’s something desirable i think all of us would like to be more powerful and i think all of us also do have negative experience with powerful people so there is always like a dissonance internally when people talk about power is it do you want more power because they equate power with freedom though they also have experiences where is the responsibility and also sometimes having to face other powerful individuals who are not allowing them to do what they want so that’s why there is always like a dissonance and approach of power some people really want to go for becoming more powerful and also they are shy away from getting into the stage of becoming powerful mr magati mentioning three different types of powers we have character position knowledge and resources what at uh what are the common traits among people with these different types of powers from your point of view yeah i think as you mentioned like uh power and powerful people the kind of common different brackets that are people who really have this power as a result of their possession so they have a specific position within the organization or the society and based on that they are powerful because they can practice their authority as part of this possession there are others who is interesting characters and insights and these people can also like influence others based on their character traits and the different abilities and i think what all these different characters have in common is their their ability to connect with other people and also their ability to be grounded in different situations so they are not they are not easily moved to a specific direction they have their own thinking their own strategy and basically they when they have a person-to-person interaction they know exactly how to deal with different characters and with different types of people so i would say that being powerful is having a lot of self-understanding understanding self and the ability to profile others and understand their needs and accordingly relate to them individually and as groups properly and we most likely by then that’s what people in different like possessions of power would would be able to sustain the power uh based on these traits so sir what is the difference between approaching interactions from status and likability perspectives yeah i think in a recent book called popular there have been a lot of research especially when with teenagers during the like adelsine stage that actually uh classifies people into five like categories there are people who are like highly accepted or like the ones who are popular during like the high school uh like stage of everyone’s life we could relate whether during high school we were very popular we were very accepted we are very liked or were very controversial some yeah we can all always relate to profiles of people who had been like controversial here they are like sometimes very well liked and sometimes also it’s kind of hard to relate to them and also there have been like others who are like uh ignored or neglected uh from the group so looking at the um the part of either being accepted and being popular or being controversial i think that’s actually um gets with us as we grow from the auto scene stage into like our like current positions and what we’re doing so uh getting back to your your questions in terms of like um what was the uh like like the the common traits or uh like like how this affects the uh the actions of people and and society uh i would say that that we come at the current stage with the same mentality uh that that gets from this stage and accordingly uh we could see that uh some people year into status status is by then is something that you gain as a result of actions that could be aggressive so status is like i would say that i’m able to force people to do something based on my own social status so by then status is something that reflects authority and actions that could not be always positive though that likability is uh people who are mostly have been in accepted category as during their unseen stages that they are used to being part of community so it gets down to uh cooperation versus authority some people look at leadership possessions and like being powerful from the perspective of actually having status so being able to control people and manipulate them and moving in your direction versus being likable in terms of like dealing with people in a fair way so individuals will start liking you and based on that you grow your power accordingly and i think we can see some examples even like with some of the football players experts like musa for example if you look at musa we see that he seems to be a very nice guy and actually people like him so this is more like he gains power based on likability so he’s able to perform his job properly properly and based on that he uh actually gains a lot of likability versus a status others who might become a president of a specific club or they have a specific authoritative rule and based on that people have to follow them because of their authority and what they would do if they didn’t other than being likeable give us these examples of how a powerful behavior look like yeah i think like um we all can actually identify that uh normally like as human beings we could see the different aura of power that people are able to uh like a display i think i could relate it like to this while getting into the building because while getting into the building the security was because you have to enter the building with a card so you have to have an access card and i’m a guest so i’m i’m invited i don’t have access card so while actually accessing from the gate i uh did not even stop to kind of explain but rather i continued walking and told him that i have i’m a guest i have an invitation somewhere so being proactive in mentioning why you’re there and actually getting into a place as if you already know what what has to be done i think that’s actually could be seen as powerful behavior because you understand the rules and then you’re able to communicate that properly without having to kind of hesitate like another way to look at powerful behavior is uh response is that sometimes when people get like negative or positive response from others they change their attitude their ideas the even like they would change their facial expressions but rather powerful behavior and powerful individuals usually they are more still and they are more long-term thinkers other than having some immediate response to specific change on time which also displays that like whatever happens is not is not affecting me and there are philosophies that build around that for example stoicism is one of the philosophies that kind of promotes the idea of uh not being emotionally reactive to whatever happens rather looking at things on its long-term projections so i think this is something very apparent when it comes to powerful behavior no short-term reactions is knowing what they are doing they follow the rules but by then they do this uh very fluidly and very smoothly yeah so sir can you shed light on the social hierarchy and how can i detect my place in it yeah i think if we look at like studying how like the the social structure is um is set up is it we will always like within groups we see that there is someone in the leadership so what do you call it the alpha so whether the alpha male or the alpha females they are ones with some like strong leadership traits they are able to lead the group and um mostly influence where the group uh goes so offals are usually um like the the extroverteds they are very good with people they have a sense of direction and they are very good executives so these are the alphas who come into uh usually the leadership of different groups and usually the alphas are to a lot of extent uh assert their influence on others so usually an alpha would want others to follow them and want others to acknowledge that they are the leaders so here comes the difference with what we call it beta or like that whether the better males or the bit of females that they are the ones who acknowledge that the alpha is the leader of the group and then they work under the alpha so they are accepting the fact that in their actions within the group was going to have to be influenced with whatever the office says so these are also other individuals whose leadership skills and with quite some influence but they do not see themselves as like the deciders of their own destiny or the ones who take the absolute leadership of the group but rather they participate under the umbrella of the alpha and and then we get to the gomers who are actually happy to be part of the group they do nothing do not have skills or aspirations to uh get into the leadership of the groups and another interesting profile that usually coming from the controversial category is what we call the sigmas or the lone walls are the ones who actually cert like uh live in close proximity with the group but they are not necessarily um like following the alpha so usually uh they are ones who are highly independent uh usually they have an expert profile they have knowledge and insights they are able to survive on their own and in a lot of cases there might be some power struggle with the current alpha the current leader of the group or in some cases there could be some arrangements worked with um with them so i think looking at your situation in uh in the workplace and not necessarily in terms of possessions but in terms of group dynamics to what like extent are you able to influence the decisions you can actually see where do you relate are you an alpha are you the absolute leader are you asserting your dominance over others do you want others to like submit to you or are you following the leader so you’re getting your stuff done but you have a leader that you have to get back to while doing everything or you do not really care about that so for you it’s just about enjoying your time and doing your craft or are you someone who i do have your own agenda and uh you are slightly manipulative and you know how to get what you want and often the alpha does not like that because the alpha like people who uh follow them as they see so i think like relating to these different profiles we would be able to identify which category do we belong to mr um how to deal with someone who is exercising excessive unfairly power against us yeah i think this is um this is a very tricky part that all of us face in our careers and in our lives usually uh if we are within a group there has to be like if it’s an organization we have to have some uh rules and ethos for how the organization works and our commitment as individual would be going towards these like ethos of the organization of the um like probably the hr rules and etc and sometimes people uh based on like either like social circles or it clicks with any organization try to influence uh our possession with within the group uh based on how are we closely tied to them so uh the best like response to that is actually not a direct response direct immediate response but is actually becoming grounded as if not having a very immediate reaction to every specific um like like action that’s given to us from these powerful individuals and rather focusing on doing what we do very very well so becoming excellent and at what we do this is a core to be able to maintain our possession and then referring to the to the rules and regulations within the organization and also understanding that it’s grouped so usually there is someone who’s above this alpha within this group if we are a group within a larger group we’d understand that by doing what we uh what we’re supposed to do very well but then we’re serving like like a higher status individuals and like a much more powerful entity which is the organization and at some point in time we might have the opportunity to showcase our commitment and showcase like lots of unfair activities that’s happening to us like probably indirectly through our constant efforts so for example if we look at within a specific group uh there is someone that’s uh quite ignoring or putting aside someone who have qualifications to to move ahead because they are not like personally submissive to them for example like if we say that an alpha who is pretty much about over asserting themselves and someone who has to be like the lone wolf of the group because they do not think that they should submit to the same way things work at some point in time they might discover that this alpha you do actually have a leadership that’s mostly like they are sigmas who are actually directing that so usually in in social situations and in organizational situations we uh we judge quickly in terms of who’s in charge and sometimes the ones that looks to be in charge they are not an absolute power they are not the all-powerful but rather there are others who could be more powerful than them and usually those who are more powerful than them who does not want to get into the specific group dynamics they would be looking for other contenders to the level of leadership which also gives a lot of opportunities for sigmas and that’s why alpha is always fear signals because by then if they are not following them if there is someone who’s looking at the group they would understand that it’s not all following what i say but rather there are other directions of becoming more powerful so by then by doing what i what i do very well and by not being overreactive on a situation by situation basis but actually looking at this as a long-term strategy and transition eventually we will discover that there are like higher sources that’s going to notice the dynamics that’s happening than the group and sometimes it could be about exiting the group so if if this is the boundaries of this specific groups and i could not see any solution to that so one of the uh actions to be taken is actually becoming a sigma or becoming a lone wolf so if you used to be part of a group and by then you see that they are moving in a totally different direction eventually uh that’s how like people become sigmas is that they decide to be uh probably for a period of time close to the group but not necessarily part of it so uh in two minutes tell us quite quickly to what extent does social media and technology have affected the way uh we deal with power yeah i think like if we look at like modern interactions like whether socially within organizations we will see that like uh power have moved into like digital profiles so if you look about uh look at like facebook instagram twitter and all these social profiles like the the number of followers probably influence um like the uh the power that someone would have within a specific uh group and also it was kind of influenced people’s approach to power so people would would look at having probably more followers and much more intense interactions within a specific group would somehow get them obsessed about this idea of gaining status as we talked in like popularity the book that like compares the two different types of power like based on likability or status social media has like the um usually it puts matter in front of people so people would see themselves through the increasing numbers of interactions like expecting the likes and the engagements etc which which actually gets people to be more like status obsessed they always chicken out to what extent are they they’re gaining power and one of the things that comes as a result of that is that there’s a lot of people who have lots of followers and interactions online though they do not actually have any friends which is like one of the things that you would see is that they have huge followers but uh they have to have dinner alone or they do not have like any kind of uh intense social interactions compared to what we see uh online entrepreneurship expert thank you for being with us today yeah thank you always a pleasure thank you very much sir thank you and with that viewers we come to the end of this edition of the breakfast show you were in the company of myself my sirabi and my dear creature thank you very much thank you mahisti and see you tomorrow your viewers with a new [Music]
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