Drawing on concepts and practices from the fields of communication, conflict management, leadership, and feminist theory, as well as on her experience as a teacher-administrator, the author explores perceptions, sources, and consequences of power. She argues that effective small college writing administrators must understand the availability of power--structural, personal, and collaborative--and learn to use various power currencies appropriately. Through meeting in healthy ways the external and internal challenges to appropriate power use, small college writing administrators may embody new models of higher education leadership.