What is the Personal Power Model?

The Personal Power model, proposed by Janet Hagberg, distinguishes six stages of personal power and leadership in organizations divided by Externally-Oriented and Internally-Oriented Power:

Externally-oriented Power is primarily sought and obtained from outside the person, from titles, positions, or other symbols or status 

1. Powerlessness 

2. Power by Association 

3. Power by Achievement 

Internally- oriented Power is primarily sought and obtained from the inner journey of the person 

4. Power by Reflection 

5. Power by Purpose 

6. Power by Wisdom 

Assumptions of the Personal Power Model

Hagberg mentions the following assumptions:

• The stages of personal power are arranged in a developmental order.
• Each stage is different from all the others.
• People can be in different stages of power in different areas of their lives, at different times, and with different people. However each of us has a home stage which typically represents us.
• One can move through the home stages only in the order from one to six.
• Power is described and manifested differently at each stage.
• Each stage has positive and negative dimensions as well as developmental struggles within it.
• Women are more likely to identify with certain stages and men with other stages.
• You do not necessarily proceed to new stages merely with age or experience, although both are factors.
• The most externally- and organizationally-oriented power stages (1-3) show a marked contrast to the internally-oriented power stages (4-6).
• The development of the ego and then the release of the ego are central tasks inherent within this model. Cultural rituals are necessary in order to do that successfully.
• The stages primarily describe the development of individuals who live and work in the USA in the first half of the twenty-first century.