Three Things Every Leader Needs to Know
Even the most experienced leaders face moments of powerlessness. It’s a consistent human experience. Hard situations trigger emotional reactions, unsettling our sense of power and agency. When our sense of power is shaken, it feels dangerous, and sometimes even existential.
I’ve been thinking about this a great deal lately after watching Portobello, the Italian miniseries directed by Marco Bellocchio. It is based on the real story of Enzo Tortora, an Italian television host who was wrongfully arrested in 1983 on charges of mafia membership and drug trafficking. The series is a portrait of a man whose professional reputation, personal dignity, and sense of self were systematically dismantled by a system with enormous power over him. Tortora spent years fighting to clear his name, and his story is a striking example of what it looks like to navigate profound, prolonged powerlessness.
Tortora’s story offers three lessons that I see as directly relevant to leadership and conflict, particularly for those of us who work in complex, high-stakes environments.
- Expect to Feel Powerless
The first thing to say is simple, but it bears stating plainly: you will face situations where your sense of power is diminished. Not might. Will.
It may not be as extreme as what Enzo Tortora experienced (a false arrest, public humiliation, years in legal limbo). But there will be a version of that test that comes for your leadership character. The question worth sitting with before that moment arrives is: Who do you want to be when it does?
Leaders who have thought about this in advance (i.e., who have acknowledged the inevitability of powerlessness rather than treating it as an anomaly) are better positioned to respond from their values rather than react from their wounds. Expecting powerlessness means building psychological resilience to meet difficulties without being destroyed by them.
- Anger Is Not a Strategy
Enzo Tortora’s anger was completely justified. It was righteous, sincere, and understandable to anyone watching. And it did not help him. In fact, at several points in the series, his anger made things harder (e.g., closing off options and undermining his negotiating position).
This is one of the most important distinctions in conflict work: honouring an emotion is not the same as leading with it. Your anger in a difficult situation is valid. It carries real information about what you value and what has been violated. But anger as a primary strategy tends to blur your focus, escalate dynamics, and reduce your access to the very options you need most. The better approach is to make space for the emotion (genuinely, not performatively) so that you can clear your head and return to strategic thinking. Give yourself permission to feel what you feel. Then come back to the question: What does this situation require of me right now?
Strategic focus is what moves you toward where you want to be. Use your energy accordingly.
- Play the Long Game
The most difficult situations rarely resolve quickly. If you are looking for fast wins, they will be scarce. Further, chasing them can increase your frustration, distort your expectations, and deepen your sense of powerlessness rather than relieve it.
Tortora’s exoneration took years. The vindication, when it came, was real. But it arrived slowly, and only because he stayed anchored to something larger than any single moment in the process.
That is the invitation of the long game: to locate your power not in the immediate outcome, but in your values, your conduct, and your consistency over time. When you look back on a hard situation, the questions that matter most are “Did I show up the way I wanted to? And “did I stay true to what I said was important?”
If the answer is yes, you have more power than the situation may have made you feel. That kind of power (grounded, durable, values-aligned) doesn’t depend on the outcome. And it cannot be taken from you.
You have More Power Than You Realize
Power is not a single thing. In her research on power intelligence, Julie Diamond draws a critical distinction between external power (conferred by social status, institutional role, and systemic privilege) and personal power (the internal sense of agency, capability, and purpose that a person carries regardless of their circumstances).
Enzo Tortora’s story makes this distinction clear. At the height of his arrest and public disgrace, his external power collapsed almost entirely: his career was suspended, his reputation destroyed, and his freedom taken away. And yet the series reveals something remarkable: that his internal power, his sense of who he was and what he stood for, remained a resource even when everything around him was stripped away. That tension is not unique to Tortora. It is the central challenge facing any leader who has encountered a situation where the system, the institution, or the politics has moved against them.
External power can be granted and taken. Internal power, cultivated deliberately, is far more durable. For leaders navigating feelings of powerlessness in their work and lives, the most important question is rarely How do I get my power back? It is “which kind of power am I using?” And “which kind do I actually need?”
Experiencing periods of powerlessness is not the exception to leadership. It is part of it. The leaders who navigate it best are the ones who expect it, feel it clearly, stay strategic through it, and keep their eyes on what matters over time.
You have more power than you realize. The true work is learning to access your internal power when the stakes are highest. In doing so, you shape outcomes, relationships, and your own leadership legacy. The moments when external power slips away can reveal your greatest strengths. Lean into them, trust your preparation, and let your values guide you. That is how experiencing powerlessness becomes a new source of leadership strength.
________
If you’re in the middle of a difficult situation right now, or you want to build the capacity to lead through the next one, I’d love to talk. info@productiveconflict.us
