“Power is not a power which one man has; power is a relation in which one man stands to other men.”Lev Tolstoi · Război și pace · 1869 · volumul 3, partea 3, capitolul 1
Power doesn't live in a person but between people, lasting only while others recognize it.
No one carries power inside, like a physical trait. A man seems powerful only while others act as if he were. A king abandoned by his army on a battlefield can do nothing. Tolstoi used this idea to dismantle the great-man theory of history: Napoleon seemed to move armies, but the movement came from thousands of small decisions by the people following him. When the relation shifts, the power vanishes.
Why it matters It helps anyone in an organization see that a title commands nothing without the consent of those around, and it reminds subordinates that their compliance is what sustains the boss's power.