The Seventh Power: One CEO’s Journey Into the Business of Shared Leadership
Kevin Hancock
Post Hill Press (February 2020)

“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” Margaret Mead

With all due respect to C-level executives, every organization needs effective leadership at all other levels and in all other areas of the given enterprise. As I began to read this book, I was again reminded of my favorite passage in Lao-tse’s Tao Te Ching:

“Learn from the people
Plan with the people
Begin with what they have
Build on what they know
Of the best leaders
When the task is accomplished
The people will remark
We have done it ourselves.”

What we have in this volume is a detailed account of Kevin Hancock’s “journey into the business of shared leadership” during which he learned about and then applied tribal wisdom from the Lakota Sioux at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

For example, one young man explained that “The Seventh Power is you. The Seventh Power is me. The Seventh Power represents the individual human spirit. Each of us is a gift of the Great Spirit. Every person’s thoughts and actions change the world.”

As Hancock explains in the Introduction, “This book is about the potential for unleashing an unprecedented wave of organizational excellence through the recognition and embrace of the Seventh Power.” Hancock remains convinced that the sacred energy of the Universe is dispersed. “It lives within us all. Strengthening a sense of power in others is the true calling of a great leader and can become the new mission of free enterprise. A tribe is made strong one individual at a time.”

It is noteworthy that Hancock built a great company one worker at a time. With 525 employees, it is a six-time recipient of the Best Places to Work in Maine Award. It is possible but highly unlikely that any member of the Lakota Sioux nation ever read an essay by Robert K. Greenleaf, “The Servant as Leader,” first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf observes:

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”

Greenleaf goes on to explain, “The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?“

As Kevin Hancock continues to exemplify, a servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible.

Almost anyone can nourish their Seventh Power if they embrace the idea that they and everyone else is “a gift of the Great Spirit” that “dwells within us all.” Your own journey of personal growth and professional development awaits. Bon voyage!