Power Was Never Meant to Be Used This Way

SummaryIn this solo episode, Cyndi Bennett takes on a topic she has been sitting with for a while: power, and what happens when someone gets it and uses it the wrong way. This is not a political episode or a narcissism episode. It is an honest, grounded conversation about what misused authority actually looks like in the workplace, what it costs the people around it, and why, for trauma survivors, those environments can feel so painfully familiar. Drawing from her own study of leadership and her work with trauma survivors navigating their careers, Cyndi also paints a clear picture of what power used well looks like, and why you deserve to be in spaces where that is the norm, not the exception.Key Thoughts* When someone gets a title and the dynamic shifts overnight, your body recognizes that pattern long before your mind can name it.* Power misused looks like taking up space. Power used well looks like making room.* The leaders who leave the deepest mark are almost never the ones who use their position to elevate themselves. They are the ones who use it to elevate everyone around them.* What gets taken first in a misused power dynamic is your voice. Not all at once, but gradually, until the cost of speaking starts to feel too high.* When you are inside a harmful dynamic long enough, it starts to feel like just how things are. That normalization is what makes it so hard to leave and so hard to trust the next place you step into.* Your nervous system is not overreacting. It is connecting dots that are real.* You are allowed to want workplaces where power is used well. For those of us who were told our needs were too much, that can feel like a radical idea. But it is simply the baseline.What This Means For YouIf any part of this episode is landing in a way that feels familiar, here are some things worth sitting with:* What you are experiencing is real. If you are in an environment right now where authority is being used against you rather than for you, you are not imagining it and you are not oversensitive. The impact on your nervous system is real, and it deserves to be taken seriously.* Learn to assess your environments from a place of clarity, not hypervigilance. Who has power in the spaces you are in? How are they using it? What does it cost you to be there? These are not paranoid questions. They are important ones, and you are allowed to ask them.* Notice what misused power takes from you. Your voice. Your sense of reality. Your sense of what is normal. Once you can name what has been chipped away, you can begin to understand why the healing work matters so much.* Hold on to examples of power done right. If you have ever worked with someone who made you feel like your voice belonged in the room, who shared credit freely and stayed curious about the people around them, that is not a unicorn. It is what leadership is supposed to look like, and it is worth holding as your reference point.* You get to want something different. Not someday, not when things settle down. Now. You are allowed to make decisions, over time, in the direction of environments where you can bring your whole self and not spend half your energy just trying to survive the room.Come Journey With UsIf this resonated with you and you would like to go deeper with the exact tools, resources, and community built specifically to support trauma survivors navigating their careers, consider joining us in the Resilient Career Academy. You don’t have to figure this out alone. There is a place where people understand exactly what you are carrying, and where your pace, your healing, and your story are not just welcomed, they are honored. Get full access to Resilient Career Academy at resilientcareers.substack.com/subscribe