Power Play

Soft power

at a glance

• Soft power is influence based on trust, with its main focus on relationships. It uses attraction, connection and persuasion rather than coercion to create influence.
• Soft power is ‘smart power' because it recognises that people make the difference between success and failure. It is strong power without the sharp edges.
• But soft power is also slow, subtle and hard to do well, and some leaders fear that it will make them appear weak.
• At the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup in Johannesburg Nelson Mandela walked onto the pitch to a rapturous welcome. He wore a Springboks jersey (a potent symbol of white South Africa) and raised his fist in a symbol of black liberation, and in that one soft power gesture united black and white South Africans.

Focus	Attitude
Cooperation	Consult
Impact	Action
Relational	Collaboration

Chapter 4 Soft power … take it slowly

In the 1990s, along with high-waisted ripped jeans, the Spice Girls (remember them?) and The Simpsons, we discovered soft power. The term soft power comes to us from the work of Harvard business professor Joseph Nye.

Nye saw soft power as the use of co-option and attraction, rather than force, to influence. The theory was first applied to international relations, where hard power is represented by the military and soft power relates to trade, diplomatic negotiation and building friendly relations.

Soft power influences through persuasion rather than coercion. In organisations it involves ...