Understanding Power in Every Interaction

Understanding Power in Every Interaction

Published: Friday, 6 February 2026
Category: Communication & Relationships
Reading time: 8 minutes

You're running late to an appointment. The client waits.

The client is running late to an appointment. You're annoyed.

Same situation. Different responses. Why?

Power.

Power shapes every single interaction in community work, whether we acknowledge it or not. It determines whose time matters more, who has to explain themselves, who gets to make decisions, and whose story gets documented.

And here's the uncomfortable truth: Most of us who work in community services have more power than we think we do. We just don't always see it.

The Many Faces of Power

Power in community work isn't always obvious. Yes, there's the formal authority—you can make referrals, write reports, determine eligibility. But power operates at multiple levels, many of them invisible.

Positional Power

This is the power that comes with your role. You're "the worker." You have:

• Access to resources and services

• Knowledge of how systems work

• Professional networks and connections

• The ability to open (or close) doors

• Authority to make decisions about support

Even in roles that feel powerless—overworked case managers with impossible caseloads, support workers with no budget—you still have more power than the person asking you for help.

Resource Power

You control or can access things people need: housing applications, funding, support letters, equipment, information.

This isn't about hoarding resources. It's about recognising that when someone needs something, and you can help them get it (or not), that creates a fundamental power imbalance.

Knowledge Power

You know things they don't: how systems work, what rights people have, what pathways exist, what language to use. This knowledge gives you power, even when you're trying to share it.

Example: You casually mention someone should "appeal through NCAT." They nod, having no idea what NCAT is but not wanting to appear stupid. Your knowledge just became a barrier rather than a bridge.

Identity-Based Power

Your race, class, ability status, gender, and other identities intersect with the professional role to compound or complicate power dynamics.

A white worker with an Aboriginal client holds systemic power beyond the role. A non-disabled worker supporting a disabled person carries ableist power structures into the room. A middle-class worker assessing someone experiencing poverty brings class assumptions into every interaction.

This isn't about individual guilt. It's about recognising how systems of oppression operate through us, whether we intend them to or not.

Power to Document

Perhaps the most invisible but profound power: you write the official story of who someone is.

Your case notes become the "truth" in files. Your assessment determines how others see this person. Your documentation follows them through systems, potentially for years.

Consider: A worker writes "Client was hostile and aggressive." Another worker picks up the file, already primed to see this person as difficult. The label sticks. The person's actual behaviour—maybe fear, maybe trauma response, maybe justified anger—gets lost.

You're not just writing notes. You're constructing a narrative that has real consequences.

How Power Shows Up in Small Moments

Power isn't just about big decisions. It's in every micro-interaction:

Who waits for whom?

• You're 15 minutes late: "Sorry, it's been one of those days!"

• Client is 15 minutes late: "We need to talk about your commitment to engaging with support."

Who has to explain themselves?

• You cancel an appointment: You send a brief text.

• Client cancels: "Can you help me understand why you're not prioritising this?"

Whose schedule bends?

• Client has a job interview during your available time: Can they reschedule?

• You have a meeting during their available time: Can they come at a different time?

Where you meet:

• Your office: You're comfortable, they're in your space, you control the environment.

• Their home: You have access to their private space, can make judgments about their living situation.

• Neutral space: More equal, but who suggested it? Who arranged it?

How you sit:

• You behind a desk, them in front: Classic power positioning.

• You in a higher chair: Physical height = power.

• You between them and the door: You control exit.

These aren't bad intentions. But they are power dynamics that shape safety, trust, and equality in the relationship.

The Language of Power

Listen to how we talk in community services:

"I'll allow you to..."
"You need to..."
"I'm going to have to..."
"I expect you to..."

Now imagine flipping it:

"Would you be comfortable if we...?"
"What do you think would be helpful?"
"I'm wondering if..."
"What works for you?"

The first set asserts power. The second invites collaboration.

Even subtle language choices communicate power:

• "My client" (possessive) vs "the person I'm working with"

• "Non-compliant" (judgment) vs "choosing not to" (agency)

• "Presenting with" (clinical) vs "experiencing" (human)

Words matter because they reveal whose perspective is centred and whose power is assumed.

Power and Documentation

Every time you write about someone, you're exercising power. The notes you write:

• Shape how other workers see them

• Influence decision-making about resources

• Can be used in legal proceedings

• May be read by the person themselves

• Become part of their permanent record

Traditional documentation centres professional power: "Client was uncooperative and displayed poor insight."

Reflexive documentation acknowledges power and context: "I observed that when I asked personal questions about family, the person became quiet and withdrew. This may reflect discomfort with the questions, past negative experiences with services, or my approach. I will try..."

See the difference? The second acknowledges your power in the interaction and creates space for the person's perspective.

Intersecting Power: When Identities Compound

Power doesn't operate in a vacuum. Your professional power intersects with your social identities in ways that can compound disadvantage for the people you support.

Example 1: You're a white case manager supporting an Aboriginal mother whose children were removed. Your professional power to assess parenting capacity intersects with centuries of child removal policies targeting Aboriginal families. Every question you ask carries that history, whether you know it or not.

Example 2: You're a non-disabled worker assessing "capacity" for independent living for a person with intellectual disability. Your professional power to make recommendations intersects with ableist assumptions about what constitutes a "good" life and who gets to make choices.

Example 3: You're a housed worker asking someone experiencing homelessness detailed questions about their "barriers to housing." Your professional power intersects with class privilege, and you may not even recognise how your questions—focused on individual behaviour—ignore systemic causes.

Recognising intersecting power doesn't mean you can't do your job. It means doing it with humility and awareness of how your position in systems of power affects the relationship.

Using Power Ethically

You can't eliminate power. But you can use it more ethically and transparently.

1. Name Power Explicitly

Don't pretend it doesn't exist. Acknowledge it directly:

"I recognise I have power in this relationship. I can make decisions about services, write reports, and make referrals. I want to use that power to support your goals, not impose my ideas about what you should do."

This kind of transparency can actually increase trust. People aren't stupid—they know you have power. Naming it shows you're not trying to hide it.

2. Share Power Where Possible

Real collaboration means sharing decision-making power:

• Let clients set the agenda for meetings

• Offer genuine choices (not fake ones)

• Include clients in decisions about them

• Ask "What do you think would help?" before offering suggestions

But be real about limits: "I can't change the policy, but I can advocate with you about how it's applied in your situation."

False promises of power-sharing create more harm than honest acknowledgment of constraints.

3. Check Your Defaults

Notice whose convenience is prioritised:

• Are appointment times based on your schedule or theirs?

• Do you expect them to come to you, or do you go to them?

• When they disagree with you, is your first thought that they're "resistant" or that you might be wrong?

Your defaults reveal where power sits.

4. Use Your Power Strategically

Sometimes the ethical use of power means using it actively:

• Advocating within systems for someone who can't

• Opening doors that are closed to them

• Leveraging your professional credibility to challenge decisions

• Speaking up when you witness discrimination

Strategic use of power means recognising when your privilege can create access that wouldn't otherwise exist—and using it in service of someone else's goals, not your own.

5. Make Space for Challenge

If people can't disagree with you without consequences, you're not sharing power.

Create safety for people to:

• Say no

• Disagree with your assessment

• Challenge your decisions

• Give you feedback about your practice

• End the relationship if they want

And when someone does challenge you, resist defensiveness. Their willingness to push back might actually mean they trust you enough to be honest.

When You Get It Wrong

You will. We all do.

Maybe you talked over someone in a meeting. Maybe you made an assumption based on your own cultural norms. Maybe you exercised authority in a way that felt heavy-handed or dismissive.

When you realise you've misused power:

1. Acknowledge it specifically: "I realise I spoke over you earlier and didn't give you space to finish your thought. I'm sorry."

2. Don't centre yourself: Resist the urge to explain why you did it or make it about your good intentions.

3. Ask what would help: "What would make this right? Would you like time to say what you were trying to say?"

4. Change the pattern: Notice what led to the mistake and do it differently next time.

5. Use supervision: Reflect on power dynamics in supervision, not in the moment with the person you've impacted.

The Bigger Picture: Power and Justice

Understanding power in individual relationships is essential. But it's not enough.

The power you hold as an individual worker operates within larger systems of power: funding models that control services, policies that restrict choices, organisational hierarchies that limit your autonomy, societal structures that create and maintain inequality.

Working ethically with power means:

• Recognising when policies create unjust power dynamics

• Advocating for systemic change, not just individual accommodations

• Naming structural oppression when you see it

• Joining with others to challenge concentrations of power

You can't dismantle systems alone. But you can refuse to wield power unconsciously, and you can add your voice to collective efforts for change.

Starting Today

You don't need permission to start practising more reflexive use of power. Here's what you can do right now:

This week, notice:

• When you feel powerful

• When you use language that asserts authority

• Whose schedule bends in your appointments

• Where you sit relative to clients

• What defaults you assume

Then ask yourself:

• Could I share this decision?

• Could I invite input here?

• Could I acknowledge my power explicitly?

• Could I check my assumption?

Power isn't bad. It's neutral. What matters is whether we use it consciously, ethically, and in service of justice—or whether we pretend it doesn't exist while wielding it unconsciously.

The people we support deserve better. They deserve workers who see their own power clearly and use it carefully.

That work starts with each of us, in every interaction.

Key Takeaways

• Power operates at multiple levels: positional, resource-based, knowledge-based, identity-based, and through documentation

• Power shows up in small moments—whose time matters, who explains themselves, whose comfort is prioritised

• You can't eliminate power, but you can use it more ethically through transparency and power-sharing

• Intersecting identities (race, class, disability) compound power dynamics

• Reflexive documentation acknowledges power and context rather than masking it

• Creating space for people to challenge you is essential to power-sharing

Reflection Questions

• When have you felt most powerful in your work? What made you aware of it?

• What are your defaults when it comes to scheduling, location, and agenda-setting?

• How do your own identities (race, class, ability, gender) intersect with your professional power?

• When was the last time someone challenged your use of power? How did you respond?

Further Learning

Want to deepen your understanding of power and practice? The Community Workers Hub offers:

• Communicating Across Power Differences - Skills for navigating power dynamics in all relationships

• Power, Privilege, and Practice: Checking Our Blind Spots - Reflexive practice and anti-oppressive work

• Collaborative Care Planning with Clients - Sharing power in planning and decision-making

Join The Hub to access courses that centre justice and equity in community work.

Sarah Smallman is the founder of The Community Workers Hub and has spent her career examining how power operates in helping relationships and systems.