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Leadership Power and Influence

To the crash of applause, Bill Strickland strides to the podium. Then he says
softly, “Over the next few minutes, I’m going to show you some pictures
of what I do for a living.” The attention of every person in the audience is
focused on this big, graceful black man and what he has to say. The excite-
ment of the crowd might lead you to think Strickland is a football hero or a
music star. Instead, he’s a man who used the force of his personality to build
a center of hope in a crumbling Pittsburgh area neighborhood and is now
spreading his vision across the country.
Strickland was a rootless teenager about to fl unk out of high school
when he met a special teacher, Frank Ross, who changed his life by turning
him on to the power of art and music. When Ross took the 16-year-old to
see Fallingwater, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house that has
a creek running through the middle of it, Strickland’s life changed forever.
“It was a very interesting way of looking at water,” Strickland tells people
in the audience, “and a very interesting way of looking at light.” His husky
voice a mixture of salesman, CEO, and preacher, Strickland draws out the
last word, making the audience feel its—and his—power. “I said to myself,
if I could ever bring that light to my neighborhood. . . .”
Thus were planted the seeds of a vision that turned into Manchester
Bidwell, a nonprofi t corporation that provides after-school and summer
programs for at-risk middle and high-school students, along with job train-
ing for low-income adults. The way Strickland built Manchester-Bidwell’s
state-of-the-art greenhouse for the center’s horticultural training program is
a lesson in the power of vision. Rep. Melissa Hart, a U.S. congresswoman
from Pennsylvania, recalls: “Ten years ago, he and I stood together in this
bombed-out industrial area, and Bill was saying, ‘This is where we’re going
to have the irrigation system, and this is going to be the computerized con-
trol room, and we’re going to sell our orchids to [supermarket chain] Giant
Eagle.’ I said, ‘Sure, uh-huh, Bill.’ But he actually saw that greenhouse stand-

ing in that bombed-out field. He was absolutely convinced it was a done
deal.” Today, Manchester-Bidwell students grow and sell top-grade orchids
as they learn new skills.
Strickland has now helped establish smaller Manchester Bidwell centers
in San Francisco, Cincinnati, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. His long-term
goal is to open 25 more centers in inner-city neighborhoods around the
country. Strickland isn’t shy about admitting that he’s out to save the world.
Practically every member of the audience hears the passion in his voice and
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wants to help him do it.
When you think of powerful people, you may think of politicians,
top business leaders, or highly paid sports and entertainment fi gures. Bill
Strickland reminds us of a different kind of power, the power that comes
from being deeply passionate about an idea or vision and believing it can
become a reality. An associate of Strickland says his power is that he doesn’t
just overcome obstacles, he refuses to even recognize them. Leaders such as
Bill Strickland see beyond current realities and problems and help follow-
ers believe in a brighter future. Not everyone has the personal charisma of
Bill Strickland, but all leaders use personal power and infl uence to have an
impact on their world.

This chapter explores the topic of leadership power and influence in detail.
The chapter opens with a consideration of charismatic and transformational

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