Power Over vs. Power With: What Brené Brown's Leadership Framework Teaches Student Affairs Professionals

I read Dare to Lead a while back as part of CREST, a leadership program in our Division of Student Affairs here at Georgia Southern. The new cohort just started reading Brené Brown's latest book, Strong Ground, so naturally I had to pick it up too. I'm listening to the audiobook during my commute to the Armstrong campus three days a week while I search for a new assistant director.

And here's what hit me: I've been thinking a lot about power lately. Not in the abstract, academic sense, but in the real, day-to-day decisions we make as student affairs professionals. When a crisis hits, when a policy needs enforcing, when a student challenges your decision, what's your instinct? Do you tighten control, or do you lean into collaboration?

Brown's power framework gives us language for something many of us have felt but couldn't quite name.

Drawing from the work of Just Associates and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s definition of power as "the ability to achieve purpose and effect change," Brown identifies four distinct ways we express power:

Power Over is dominance-based leadership driven by fear and control. It's the kind that hoards power like it's finite, that prioritizes being right over getting it right. It uses shame and blame to maintain order.

Sound familiar? Think about every crisis response you've seen that prioritized optics over people. Every decision made behind closed doors "for the good of the institution." Every time a student leader was told "this is how we've always done it" instead of "help us figure out a better way."

Power With builds collective strength by finding common ground among different interests. This is daring leadership: the kind that says "we're in this together" and means it. It recognizes that the synergy of a group is greater than any individual contribution.

Power To gives everyone agency over their own lives and work. It's about recognizing that each person has unique potential to shape their world. This is what happens when we invest in student leader development instead of just telling them what to do.

Power Within is the foundation: self-worth, self-knowledge, and the ability to respect differences while staying grounded in your values. It's where hope lives. It's what keeps you going when everything feels impossible.

Look, we're in a moment where higher ed feels heavy. Budgets are tight. Students are struggling with mental health crises. Administrators are making decisions in closed-door meetings. Many of us are exhausted.

I have watched student leaders shut down during a meeting because they felt their voice didn't matter. They had ideas, they had energy, but the message they received was clear: decisions had already been made. That's power over in action, and it doesn't just shut down one conversation. It teaches students that their leadership doesn't count.

Brown's framework gives us practical language for what's happening around us:

When you feel sidelined by leadership that won't include you in decisions? That's power over, and you can name it.

When you successfully build a coalition across campus to support students? That's power with, and you should celebrate it.

When you develop a student leader who goes on to transform their organization? That's power to in action.

And when you take time to question your assumptions and stay grounded in your values even when it's uncomfortable? That's power within keeping you steady.

Do you believe power is finite and should be protected? Or do you believe it expands when shared?

Because here's the thing: armored leadership that relies on power over might feel efficient in the short term. Make the decision, enforce the policy, move on. But it's what creates cultures of fear and compliance. It's what makes talented people leave our field burned out and cynical.

Daring leadership is harder. It requires vulnerability, transparency, and a willingness to normalize discomfort. But it's what creates the kind of campus communities we actually want to work in. It's what builds the student leaders who change the world.

Brown puts it simply:

So where are you right now? And more importantly, where do you want to be?

What power dynamics are you navigating on your campus right now?