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                                                                    EXHIBIT 24.1

                            COLE NATIONAL CORPORATION

                                POWER OF ATTORNEY
                                -----------------

         KNOW ALL PERSONS BY THESE PRESENTS, that each of the undersigned
officers and/or directors of Cole National Corporation, a Delaware corporation
(the "Corporation"), hereby constitutes and appoints Joseph Gaglioti, William P.
Lahiff, Jr., Thomas T.S. Kaung and Leslie D. Dunn, and each of them, as the true
and lawful attorney or attorneys-in-fact, with full power of substitution and
revocation, for the undersigned and in the name, place and stead of the
undersigned, to sign on behalf of the undersigned, the Corporation's
Registration Statement on Form S-8 pursuant to the Securities Act of 1933
concerning the shares of Common Stock of the Company to be issued in connection
with the 1999 Broad-based Employee Stock Option Plan, and to sign any and all
amendments or post-effective amendments to such Registration Statement, and to
file the same, with all exhibits thereto, and other documents in connection
therewith, with the Securities and Exchange Commission or any state regulatory
authority, granting unto said attorney or attorneys-in-fact, and each of them,
full power and authority to do and perform each and every act and thing
requisite and necessary to be done in and about the premises, as fully to all
intents and purposes as they might or could do in person, hereby ratifying and
confirming all that said attorney or attorneys-in-fact or any of them or their
substitute or substitutes may lawfully do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

         IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the undersigned have hereunto set their hands as of
the 17th day of January 2001.

/s/ Jeffrey A. Cole                           /s/ Larry Pollock
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Jeffrey A. Cole, Director and Chief           Larry Pollock, Director
Executive Officer


/s/ Timothy F. Finley                         /s/ Charles A. Ratner
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Timothy F. Finley, Director                     Charles A. Ratner, Director


/s/ Irwin N. Gold                             /s/ Walter J. Salmon
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Irwin N. Gold, Director                       Walter J. Salmon, Director


/s/ Peter V. Handal                           /s/ T.S. Kaung
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Peter V. Handal, Director                     T.S. Kaung, Principal Financial
                                              Officer

/s/ William P. Lahiff
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William P. Lahiff, Jr., Principal
Accounting Officer