Power: Why Some People Have it and Others Don't

by Jeffrey Pfeffer

Because power is likely to cause people to behave in a more confident fashion, observers will associate confident behavior with actually having power. Coming across as confident and knowledgeable helps you build influence.

Showing confidence seems often to be a particular issue for women, who are socialized to be deferential and less assertive.

If you aren’t confident about what you deserve and what you want, you will be reluctant to ask or to push, and therefore you will be less successful in obtaining money or influence compared to those who are bolder than you.

“Don’t be so humble; you’re not that great.”

former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir

In analyzing the Watergate hearings, sociologists Harvey Molotch and Deidre Boden note that there are three faces of power. The first is the ability to win in direct contests: Whose point of view prevails? The second is more subtle: Who sets the agenda, and in the process determines whether a specific issue will even be discussed or debated at all? And the third form of power is more subtle still: Who determines the rules for interpersonal interactions through which agendas and outcomes are determined?

Churchill understood the power of language, having once commented, “Words are the only things that last forever.”

Winston Churchill