Bertrand Russell defines power as the ability to produce intended effects. Robert Vecchio defines it as the ability to change the behavior of others. Dacher Keltner defines power as your capacity to make a difference in the world by influencing the states of other people. If Russell is right, then your every need, want, passion, cause, and ambition demands power. If Vecchio is right, then power inhabits every act of teaching, encouraging, parenting, storytelling, leading, and mentoring future leaders. If Keltner is correct, then my power changes your world, for better or worse. What if they're all right? What if power is all of the above? Then, at the very least, we'd all benefit from a better grasp of power.

An occasional leader and a constant student of leadership, Schuyler Totman is the founder of Same Door Resources, an organization that works with leaders and groups to manage conflict by understanding it before it happens. He also helps to prepare expectant fathers to become excellent dads through several hospitals around Denver, CO, where he lives with his patient wife Michelle and their two precocious children.