Becoming a Right-Hand Partner: How Lower-Power Employees Heedfully Challenge Organizational Leaders

Powerful leaders need to be challenged and pushed to consider uncontemplated perspectives. Research has indicated that employees in lower-power positions are best poised to challenge leaders, because these individuals better understand others’ perspectives and have a different lens on day-to-day organizational issues compared to powerful leaders. While several well-known leaders rely on a lower-power employee (i.e., right-hand partner) to amplify their efforts, it is unclear how one becomes a right-hand partner or what this entails. Relying on qualitative data from 74 individuals (61 chiefs of staff and 13 leaders), we develop a process of heedful challenging: the process of presenting alternative perspectives to someone in an individualized manner. In this process, the lower-power employee utilizes their knowledge of the leader and their understanding of how organizational issues are impacting employees to thoughtfully challenge the leader by presenting differing perspectives and illuminating the implications of their behavior. We articulate how one becomes a right-hand partner through this process, present the defining characteristics and drawbacks of being a right-hand partner, and describe instances when this process goes awry. This work contributes to theory about unequal-power relationships and provides insight into how lower-power employees can broaden leader’s perspectives.