The Four Modes of Leadership: Brené Brown’s Guide to Power and Connection

Power is a design choice.  

When Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded Hewlett-Packard in the 1930s, they quietly rewrote the rules of corporate leadership. Instead of centralising power, they distributed it. Managers walked the floor, asking questions and inviting ideas. Employees were trusted to think, to try, and to improve. 

They called it “The HP Way”. It wasn’t a slogan – it was a design system for power. Trust flowed both ways, and innovation followed naturally. For decades, HP became a case study in how empowerment builds not just great products, but great people. 

That same principle plays out in every organisation today. Whether you’re running a team of five or five thousand, how you distribute power decides how fast you move, how much trust you build, and how creative your people feel. 

 The Four Modes of Leadership 

Brené Brown maps leadership through four modes of power: Over, To, With, and In. 

Think of them as a diagnostic of how trust or fear flows through your system. 

1. Power Over – Control by Command Fear keeps things tidy. Decisions sit at the top; information travels up and down, never sideways. It feels safe – until initiative dies.  👉 Signal: Your team waits for permission.  👉 Cost: Speed and creativity collapse. 

2. Power To – Unlocking Individual Agency This is where leadership shifts from control to capability. You equip others with the authority, skills and confidence to act.  👉 Signal: People step forward with initiative, not requests for permission.  👉 Gain: Capacity multiplies – your team grows stronger than the sum of its parts. 

3. Power With – Shared Ownership Collaboration replaces control. Decisions happen closer to the work; you frame the constraints and trust the judgement of others.  👉 Signal: Meetings feel like design sessions, not status updates.  👉 Gain: Energy, ideas and accountability multiply. 

4. Power In – Grounded Self-Leadership The most overlooked mode. It’s your inner architecture – self-trust, boundaries, clarity of purpose. Without it, every other mode slips back into control.  👉 Signal: You lead from conviction, not comparison.  👉 Gain: Calm authority that others borrow confidence from. 

When Power With and In Take Hold 

At one engineering client, senior managers complained about slow projects and disengaged teams. Their instinct was to tighten control. Instead, we re-designed meetings: each project lead came with a decision pre-made and three options for peer challenge. Within six weeks, approval cycles halved and morale rose.  Nothing mystical – just a redesign of who held the power to move. 

Leaders who practise “with” and “in” discover that empowerment isn’t chaos; it’s clarity distributed. Teams move faster because trust replaces micro-management, and culture shifts from compliance to commitment. 

Spot Your Default Mode 

Run this quick diagnostic: 

Question	Yes / No
Do most decisions wait for your sign-off?
Do people edit themselves in your presence?
Do meetings end with your plan or our plan?
Do you feel exhausted keeping everything aligned?

Three or more yes answers? You’re likely leading over. Time to re-design for power to, with and in. 

Three Moves to Redesign Power 

1. Decision Design Assign decisions where knowledge lives. Say, “You lead the work. I’ll keep us anchored to the bigger picture.” This shifts accountability without surrendering alignment. 

2. Meeting Rewrite Start every session by naming constraints, not commands. Ask, “Within these guardrails, what’s the smartest move?” It forces ownership where it belongs. 

3. Credit Economy Publicly link outcomes to the people who made them happen. Recognition is the fastest way to reinforce empowered behaviour. These small rewires build trust and speed simultaneously – the twin currencies of modern leadership. 

Why Power Design Matters 

Command feels efficient, but it’s an illusion. Every decision routed through you adds friction, delay and fatigue.  

Empowerment looks slower at first, but it compounds. You don’t scale control; you scale ownership. And when ownership spreads, resilience does too. People who feel trusted recover faster from setbacks, speak up sooner and solve problems you’ll never even see. 

That’s what we mean by “Build the Team” and “Excel in Self-Leadership.” It’s not soft; it’s structural. 

Try This Today 

Take one recurring decision you normally approve. This week, delegate it – fully. Next week, debrief only the learning, not the result. 

 You’ll feel the discomfort of letting go, then the relief of shared responsibility. That’s the moment you stop managing power – and start designing it. 

Closing Thought 

Power isn’t earned once and held forever. It’s a living system you design, distribute and renew every day. When you lead with others – and in alignment with yourself – you don’t lose control. You build the kind of trust that moves faster than fear. 

Want to redesign how power works in your team? 

 Our leadership programs hard-wire power to, power with and power in into everyday systems  –  so trust compounds and results accelerate. 

 👉 Find out more →  https://www.neonleadership.com/leadership-development