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

by Jeffrey Pfeffer

OVERCOME THE SELF-PROMOTION DILEMMA

The dilemma is this: on the one hand, research shows that when people don’t advocate for themselves and claim competence, particularly in settings such as job interviews or pushing for a promotion when they would be expected to do so, others believe they must be either incompetent or unskilled in handling such situations, a perception that works to their disadvantage.21

self-promoting behavior, although expected in many instances, also creates difficulties. When you tout your own abilities and accomplishments, you face two problems: you are not going to be as believable as presumably more objective outsiders; and research shows that people who engage in blatant self-promotion are perceived as arrogant and self-aggrandizing, which causes others not to like them.22

there is no point in putting others off if there is a...

The advice from this research and the observations that stimulated it: don’t be cheap—hire people to represent and tout you. It can work to your advantage in several ways.

If you know you are hiring someone who is difficult, and you do so anyway, you will be more committed to the decision—because you will have made the selection in spite of whatever flaws the person has.

this is what i did with Sarah even though she brought a reputation for creating drama wherever she went

The process is one of reputational inoculation—people can’t complain about traits they know about and will, as in the quote about Larry Summers, come to discount any negative traits as being “just who you are.”

most people don't have Summer's myriad gifts

As long as the quirks you display are irrelevant to the core of your reputation and why people select you—in the case of Summers, for his brilliance in the field of economics—the flaws and foibles can actually

strengthen people’s commitment to you.

A great reputation can help you achieve great performance and vice versa. The trick is to be sure you do the things to build your reputation, have others tout you, and attract the kind of media coverage and image that can help build your power base.

NO MATTER how worthy your goals, how hard you work, and how talented you are, virtually everyone encounters opposition and setbacks along the path to power.

The important question is how you respond to the inevitable opposition and reversals of fortune you will face.

build an informatics system to capture more of the data from treatment outcomes and to increase the ease and speed of enrolling patients in clinical trials.

OVERCOMING OPPOSITION: HOW AND WHEN TO FIGHT

“Conflict is just an opportunity for another person’s education,” for exploring why people think the way they do, and for sharing perspectives so the parties to the conflict can learn about and from each other.

in a leadership position, it is irresponsible to avoid people with whom you have disagreements and to duck difficult situations.

DON’T CAUSE YOURSELF UNNECESSARY PROBLEMS

Not creating enemies or turmoil when it isn’t necessary requires something I have discussed before—focus.

You need to have a clear understanding of where you are going and the critical steps on the way. When you confront opposition on this path, you need to react.

after you reach a certain level, there comes a point in your career where you simply have to make critical relationships work.

focus on the data. He pushed himself and his team to get as much objective information as possible, and to be analytically and logically rigorous, so that facts would dominate the discussion and make strategic issues less about personalities and feelings.

The ability to not take opposition or slights personally, think about whose support you need and go after it, regardless of their behavior toward you or your own feelings, and remain focused on the data and impartial analysis requires a high level of self-discipline and emotional maturity. It is a rare skill. But it is crucial in surmounting and disarming opponents.

MOVE FIRST—SEIZE THE INITIATIVE

The lesson: Don’t wait if you see a power struggle coming. While you are waiting, others are organizing support and orchestrating votes to win.

have i been naive in not movinv to.remove or reduce my opponents ? Has my self image as the person that can cllaborate and move things wigjout sullying my ethics and soul left me vulnerable to badly intentioned fplks? Can you really be person that seeks the good of all if you are willing to sacrifice that?

If using power in this way seems tough, it may be. But get over your inhibitions, because many of the people you will meet on your path to power will have less hesitation about rewarding their friends and punishing those who oppose them.

is not this the ledge for power becominv corrupting?

Embarrassment is the normal reaction to losing one’s job, even if it isn’t your fault. And why not? We are as subject to the just-world effect—believing that we get what we deserve—as are outside observers, so when people lose a power struggle, the first thing they do is blame themselves.

If you are going to persevere and recover, you need to stop blaming yourself, letting your opponents dominate the discussion of what happened, and feeling bad about your complicity in your demise.

Making what happened less emotionally fraught is absolutely essential for your being able to think strategically about your next moves.

CONTINUE TO DO WHAT MADE YOU SUCCESSFUL

People who reach senior-level positions in any field are good at what they do. Even if job performance is not the most important determinant of career success, it does matter and, moreover, once you reach a high-level position, unless you go to sleep, over time you will become more capable at doing the job through your accumulated experience.

“social facilitation effect.”

This need to spend time and other resources on image maintenance increases as public scrutiny increases.

Because of the costs of scrutiny, it can pay to be under the radar for as long as possible, and this is true whether you are a company or an individual trying to forge a path to power.

people who have recently been promoted tend to be overwhelmed by the time demands of their more powerful job. Not wanting to refuse requests by groups and individuals whose support they may need and whose attention they value, powerful people can easily find themselves overscheduled and working too many hours, something that drains their energy and leaves them unable to cope with the unexpected challenges of their job.

COST 4: TRUST DILEMMAS

the higher you rise and the more powerful the position you occupy, the greater the number of people who will want your job. Consequently, holding a position of great power creates a problem: who do you trust?

the higher you rise in an organization, the more people are going to tell you that you are right.

Therefore, for CEOs to survive in their jobs, they need to be able to discern who is undermining them and be tough enough to remove those people before they themselves lose the power struggle.

also true for other senior-level executives with ambitious subordinates.

When you are in power, you should probably trust no single person in your organization too much, unless you are certain of their loyalty and that they are not after your job. The constant vigilance required by those in power—to ensure they are hearing the truth and to maintain their position vis-à-vis rivals—is yet another cost of occupying a job that many others want.

You should not necessarily eschew power, but it is important to recognize the potential downsides. The balance between the advantages and the costs is something each individual must weigh in deciding his or her own particular relationship with power.

if you are going to survive, you need to get over yourself and your formal position and retain your sensitivity to the political dynamics around you.

When you are powerful and successful, you are overconfident and less observant—and one specific manifestation of such tendencies is to trust what others tell you and rely on their assurances.

Nancy with Sima over tge last several years?

The tendency of power to diminish the power holder’s attention and sensitivity to others with less power compounds this problem. The combination of diminished vigilance and changed circumstances often leads to the loss of power.

It also doesn’t fully acknowledge the economic and psychological risks of being employed when you can be fired “at will,” for any or no reason at all.

The people uncomfortable with their authority don’t exercise the leadership that others expect, failing to provide direction that leaves those they supervise lost and uncertain about what to do.

status is “imported” or “carried” from one setting to another.

One implication of this phenomenon for you is that the specific organization or domain in which you rise to power may matter less than the fact that you manage to achieve high-level status someplace.

POLITICAL INFLUENCE VERSUS HIERARCHY IN DECISION MAKING

Therefore, the first step in building a path to power is to pick an environment that fits your aptitudes and interests—one where you can be successful in both the technical and political aspects, if any, of the work. This seems like