Episode 187: How Power Actually Works in a Business — and Why Leaders Often Solve the Wrong Problem
Episode Summary
What if the problem you’re trying to solve in your business… isn’t actually the problem?
If you’ve ever found yourself thinking you need to be more productive, refine your strategy, or improve a system that already “should” work, this episode looks at a different possibility. Sometimes the issue isn’t inside you — and it isn’t inside the structure either. It’s something happening underneath both.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
Why capable leaders often try to solve the wrong problem when their business starts feeling harder to run
How power quietly disperses inside a growing business—and how to call it back in
Learn the subtle moment when a company’s center of gravity shifts away from the leader (and how to bring it back)
Press play to see how power actually operates inside a business — and why recognizing this dynamic can instantly change what you focus on next.
Who This Episode Is For
This episode is especially helpful for women entrepreneurs who:
Feel like their business has suddenly become harder to run even though they are highly capable
Keep trying to solve problems with productivity, strategy, or systems but the friction keeps returning
Notice themselves either overworking to keep the business functioning or constantly refining tools and processes
Suspect their leadership influence has become diluted as their company grows
Want to understand how leadership power actually stabilizes decisions, teams, and business momentum
Core Concepts in This Episode
Founder Psychology in Scaling Businesses
The common ways founders interpret and respond to friction as companies grow. This often appears as over-internalizing problems (“I need to work harder or be better”) or over-externalizing them (“I need a better system or strategy”), when the deeper issue is how leadership power is being accessed and directed.
Power Consolidation in Scaling
As businesses grow, leadership power either consolidates or diffuses. Clear decisions, defined authority, and aligned structures consolidate power and allow the company to reorganize around the founder’s leadership.
Center of Gravity in Business
Every company has a center of gravity — the place where authority, decisions, and direction ultimately come from. When leadership power diffuses, that center shifts toward clients, teams, or operational structures. Strong leadership brings it back inside the founder’s authority.
Founder Authority
The clarity, decisiveness, and leadership command that organizes a growing company. When founders access their authority fully, conversations, standards, and decisions begin reorganizing around their leadership.
Leadership Capacity in Business
A founder’s ability to hold increasing complexity, responsibility, decision pressure, and visibility as the company grows. Leadership capacity allows founders to stay self-directed and steady under pressure.
Structural Scaling
Business growth supported by upgraded systems, delegation, and operational design rather than increased personal effort from the founder. When leadership power is directed into the structure, the business becomes simpler and easier to run.
Key Takeaways
Why capable leaders often try to solve the wrong problem when their business starts feeling harder to run
How power quietly disperses inside a growing business—and how to call it back in
Learn the subtle moment when a company’s center of gravity shifts away from the leader (and how to bring it back)
Full Episode Transcript:
In this episode, you'll see how power actually works in a business and why leaders often solve the wrong problem.
Welcome to The Uncommon Way, where high-achieving women entrepreneurs and leaders pitch the rulebook and design success on their own terms. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, a top-ranked business coach sharing business growth strategies, mindset mastery, and power moves to help you attract ideal clients, leverage your unique genius, and scale with freedom. Let's dive in.
Welcome, welcome back to The Uncommon Way. First thing today, I want to dedicate this episode to my client Brooke in Tel Aviv. She is a living example of what it means to regulate your emotions and stay grounded under extraordinary pressure. I can't imagine many situations that would test those skills more than raising small children while living in a war zone. Brooke, our thoughts are with you. We're sending so much love and hope for peace to you and your family. Now let's get into today's conversation. In many ways, what we're talking about connects to the idea of steadiness under pressure. So let's dive in. I have spent a lot of time on this podcast talking about power, how your company becomes simpler, stronger, and easier to run when you can access it and direct it. But you've probably been wondering, okay, Jenna, that sounds good, but what does it actually look like when I'm running my company on Tuesday? Recently, I had two conversations with business owners whose situations are perfect examples of what we're talking about here. And in both cases, they were trying to solve the wrong problem. One thought she needed to become more productive. The other thought she needed to improve her sales process by changing its structure. And in reality, neither of those things was the issue. What was actually happening was that power was dispersed and it needed to be called back in. That's what I call power consolidation.
So today, I want to walk you through these two situations. You will see why capable leaders often try to solve the wrong problem when their business starts feeling harder to run and understand how power quietly disperses inside a growing business and how to call it back in. Plus, you'll learn the subtle moment when a company's center of gravity shifts away from the leader and how to bring it back. So let's start with the first example. The first woman runs a podcast production company. Very high end for podcasts that have a lot of storytelling and interviews. You've probably heard some of these shows. She's very talented, knows her stuff, sharp, her clients love her. But when we spoke, she was completely overwhelmed. She worked all the time, taking on so much of the work herself, but still saying yes when new clients came along. She'd recently injured her hand from overworking and it wasn't the first time. And she also told me she felt like her business was a ticking time bomb. If she became even more injured, if her family situation changed, if anything came along and keeps her from working the crazy hours she works now, her business collapses. It grinds to a halt without her. So she decided to hire a coach to help her be more productive so she could organize herself better and get more done and not drop balls. She was doing what many capable women do when they encounter friction. They try to make themselves better. Trying to become more efficient with her time, experimenting with batching, setting timers and focusing on the most important things first.
But as she walked me through the business, something else became obvious. The issue wasn't really productivity. It was external to her. It was how the business itself was structured. The current structure couldn't support that many clients. She was still doing work that should have been delegated months ago. But deep down, she didn't fully believe she could hire strong talent. So she kept absorbing the pressure herself. None of those things are character flaws. They're just leadership decisions. But because she believed the problem was her productivity, she kept trying to fix herself and never got to the core issue.
This is what I call over-internalizing the problem. You assume the issue must be you. You focus inward. How can I work harder? How can I become better? How can I be more disciplined?
But the real move wasn't increasing her personal capacity. She had so much. The real move was directing leadership power into the structure of the business. Clarifying standards and limits and holding those boundaries until the business starts meeting them. Making stronger hires that could support a better workflow. And then later on, a scaled workflow. Once these things start happening, suddenly you feel much more productive and on top of things. Not because you suddenly 5x'd your output. Because the power that had been leaking through an unsupportive structure could finally be directed to help the business run simpler, stronger, and easier. Businesses change when leaders change how they think, behave, and operate. Because that's when power can finally be directed intentionally. Now the second conversation was almost the mirror image, and it shows the opposite mistake. This client came to me about sales because she wanted to raise revenue by increasing conversion rates during her discovery calls. She had already done a lot of work on her sales process. She had sales scripts and call structure and worked on handling objections. From a structural perspective, there was plenty there. But the calls still felt heavy. Sometimes downright awkward. And she knew people were walking away that definitely needed to become clients. So she assumed that the sales structure needed more refinement. Maybe tweak the script again. Maybe adjust the order of questions. Maybe come up with better things to say to counter objections. But luckily, this woman was a client, so I could tell her something else was going on. The structure wasn't the issue. The issue was she wasn't fully accessing her power during those conversations. The script was distracting her so she couldn't bring her laser insight. She was in her head about the money, making that outcome the decider of whether she was worthy and powerful, rather than owning her gifts and talents autonomously. And she was subtly giving power away to the person in front of her, rather than showing up the way I've seen her show up in other situations. Situations that seemed lower stakes, of course. So this is the opposite mistake of what I described before. Instead of over-internalizing, this is over-externalizing the problem. You assume the issue must be the system, the structure, or the strategy. So you keep adjusting tools and processes and structures. But the real shift needed to happen internally. Once she accessed her authority again, you know what we saw? Her social media content engagement skyrocketed.
An event booked out and people showed up at all sorts of odd hours to hear her speak. People booked discovery calls who were already a yes. They came onto the call knowing they wanted to work with her. She didn't even need any kind of script or structure. And then she realized she could be exactly the same in conversations where people did have hesitations. And sure enough, people started saying yes there too. But that's not all. She then goes and pitches herself for a consulting gig she has never had any direct experience with before. She never would have done that previously. But she told me there was no doubt in her mind. She knew what she needed to do and would figure the rest out. And she ended up landing it at over six times her normal rate. She just went for it. Because that's how it is when you're locked into power like that. The structure didn't need to change. The whole conversation reorganized around her authority once she was leading in that way. In most cases, I see businesses don't become challenging because leaders lack competency. They do so because leaders disperse their power. Luckily, that's fixable. It changes when leaders change how they think, behave, and operate. Because that's when they're able to access power intentionally. These two examples, they show something very important. When a business feels harder to run, leaders often start solving the wrong problem. When really what's happening is that power is breaking down in one of three ways. One, you can't access it. Two, you can access it, but pressure knocks you out of it. Or three, you can access it and hold it, but you're not directing it into the company. Accessing power is internal. It's the moment you become self-directed again, when you lock into the woman who's at the top of her game. It doesn't mean you're 100% sure or never failing. It means you're self-directed and fully resourced even when you're only 51% sure. Holding power means staying in that state even when something uncomfortable happens. A team member pushes back. Revenue fluctuates. A decision feels risky. Directing power is where leadership becomes visible. Those are the decisions that get made, the standards that get raised and communicated, the structures that become intentional frameworks. Then the business begins reorganizing or restructuring itself around those decisions, around those behaviors and those communications. And when that happens, something subtle but powerful shifts. The center of gravity of the company returns to the leader instead of sitting with the client or the team or the structure. That's how power actually works inside a company.
Most entrepreneurs interpret problems in one of two ways. Either something is wrong with them or something's wrong with the business. So they either try to fix themselves or they try to redesign the structure or the strategy. But often the real issue isn't either. It's that leadership power isn't fully accessible, stable and directed. And that's why things start feeling harder as companies grow. Because you can't direct a company if you are not self-directed first. So the next time something feels hard in your business, pause and ask yourself, am I trying to fix myself? Am I trying to fix the structure? Or is power simply not being accessed, held or directed? That question alone can redirect your attention very quickly. Because once your power becomes clear again, the more powerful behaviors follow. And that's when you start seeing new results. Once you start seeing this dynamic, you will notice it everywhere, in your own business and in other people's. Over time, this is what makes businesses easier to run. Not because challenges disappear, but because leadership becomes steadier and the business stabilizes around that leadership. This is the central idea behind the Uncommon Way. The Uncommon Way helps leaders evolve how they think, behave and operate so they can access and direct powers in ways that make businesses simpler, stronger and easier to run. Because the more power you can access, the less you react. And the more momentum you can create. And hey, if someone came to mind while you were listening to this episode, send it to her. Sometimes the most helpful thing a friend can hear is, it's not you. It sounds like this might be what's going on. Alright, have a wonderful rest of your week and we'll talk to you next time.
Work with Jenna
Decisions on Demand — A practical mini-course designed to help you make cleaner, higher-quality choices — the kind that unlock momentum, authority, and follow-through. The framework mirrors decision-making principles used in high-stakes environments, adapted for real life and business.
The Clarity Accelerator Mastermind — If you want to be surrounded by other visionary entrepreneurs while rapidly aligning your business to the conditions and strategies that let you thrive and excel naturally, this intimate mastermind will stretch you into your next level. Schedule your call today here or visit this page to find out more.
Private Coaching — If you’re craving the highest level of support, strategy, and partnership to create all the freedom, impact, and success you’re designed for, this is the space for it. Schedule your call today here.
Find Jenna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theuncommonway/
The Uncommon Way is a leadership and business podcast for ambitious women entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders who are scaling companies and expanding their influence.
Hosted by business and leadership coach Jenna Harrison, the show explores how power, authority, and leadership capacity shape business growth. Episodes focus on decision-making, founder leadership evolution, team stability, and the structural shifts that allow companies to scale without overwhelming the person leading them.
This podcast is especially relevant for women navigating:
Business growth and scaling challenges
Increasing leadership responsibility
Team expansion and higher-stakes decisions
Founder authority and executive presence
Identity and leadership evolution during scaling
The Uncommon Way approaches growth differently.
Not through hustle, constant self-optimization, or endless inner work — but by upgrading leadership, strengthening decision structures, and expanding the capacity required to run the company you’re building.
Topics include:
Founder leadership capacity expansion
Decision-making at higher levels of responsibility
Authority and power dynamics inside scaling businesses
Structural business leadership
Founder psychology and identity shifts during growth
Sustainable scaling and operational clarity
Whether you’re an experienced founder, a rising leader, or building something that’s starting to matter at a bigger level, this podcast helps you access more power and lead accordingly.
