Summary

Power is the most effective motivation, leading to a longer, happier life. Overcome obstacles such as belief in a just world, leadership myths, and self-handicapping. Effective leaders possess qualities of will and skill, including ambition, a reflective mindset, and the ability to tolerate conflict. Standing out involves breaking rules, defying modesty, and leveraging unique attributes. Persuasive communication, a strong early impression, and managing reputation are key. However, with power comes scrutiny, loss of autonomy, and trust dilemmas, making it essential to navigate competency traps and avoid corruption to maintain influence.

“You can have power or autonomy but not both”

Key Takeaways

• Power is the most effective motivation, leading to a longer, happier life
• 3 obstacles to power: Belief in a just world, leadership myths, self-handicapping
• 7 qualities of leaders:
  • Will: ambition, energy, focus
  • Skill: self-knowledge + reflective mindset, confidence, read others, capacity to tolerate conflict
• Stand out: break rules, defy modesty, ask for help, leverage unique attributes

• Reputation: strong early impression, overcome self-promotion dilemmas
• Price of power: scrutiny, loss of autonomy, effort, trust dilemmas, addiction
• Losing power: competency traps, corruption, outshining master, ignoring feedback

Notes

Introduction

• Study: most effective motivation is power > affiliation, achievement
• Study: power / control → longer, happier life
• 3 obstacles to power:
  • Belief that world is a just place
  • Leadership formulas reflecting ↑
  • Yourself
• World is not fair, predictable, controllable
• Leaders falsely self-present, don’t mention power plays it took to get there
• Self-handicapping: not actively playing the power game gives you an excuse for failure

1: It takes more than performance

• Supervisor relationship > performance
• Need to be effective at managing egos of leaders above you
• Tell people what you’re accomplishing
• Ask leaders above you what matters
• Flattery: studies say no such thing as too much

2: Personal qualities that bring influence

• Evaluate self honestly
• Feedback → feed-forward (to next level)
• “Real knowledge is to understand the extent of one’s own ignorance” - Confucius
• 7 qualities of leaders:
  • Will: ambition, energy, focus
  • Skill: self-knowledge + reflective mindset, confidence, ability to read others, capacity to tolerate conflict
• Intelligence is risky: leads to self-deception, overconfidence, insensitivity

3: Choosing where to start

• Go to underexploited niches that will become more important
• Characteristics of departmental power:
  • Unit cohesion: rituals etc.
  • Ability to provide critical resources
  • Ability to solve critical organizational problems
• History of CEOs:
  • 1900s: entrepreneurs
  • 10s-20s: manufacturing / production
  • 20s-30s: marketing / sales
  • 60s-80s: finance (shareholder value)
• Diagnose power distribution
  • Relative pay
  • Physical location + facilities
  • Board, CEO, etc. backgrounds
• Better off being big fish in small pond

4: Getting in: standing out + breaking rules

• Learn to stand out
• The worst that can happen is no
  • It’s bad to be liked by everybody
• We underestimate chances of others saying yes to help
  • Eg. how many people asked to get 5 to fill out a questionnaire? Estimate: 20, actual: ~10
  • Eg. number of people asked to use phone to make call: 10 → 6.2
• Flatter when asking for help / advice
• Emphasize what you share in common
  • Eg. 2x as likely to help when same birthday or same first name
• Defy modesty impulses
• Brand recall: stand out in unique ways
• Of course you don’t want to follow the rules! Made by people in power to keep them in power
• Be stern, not too nice
  • Eg. negative reviewers are perceived as more competent
• “Power creates likability”

5: Creating resources

• Use your resources to help others
• Seek positions with maximum access to resources
• Be nice because it’s hard to be mean to people who are nice
• Have a power base inside and out of work

6: Building effective, efficient social networks

• Build, maintain, and use social ties
• Two most important: 1) building internal contacts, 2) maintaining external contacts
• Network with food, exercise
• Don’t fall into habit with existing people
• Focus on a diverse set of weak ties > strong
• Communication should flow thru you
• What type of knowledge do you need?
  • Tacit knowledge / iteration: small, strong network
  • Explicit knowledge / innovation: large, weak network

7: Acting + speaking with power

• Anger > sadness, guilt, remorse
• Power is 20% given, 80% taken
• Deception, be able to put on a show
• Emotions are contagious, self-reinforcing
• Look engaged
• Over-confidence > humble (almost always)
• “Don’t be humble, you’re not that great”
• Pause, think before speaking
• Interrupting → power
  • “Let me finish”, “can I continue?”
• 3 faces of power:
  • Whose point of view prevails?
  • Who sets the agenda?
  • Who determines rules of interaction?
• Persuasive language:
  • Evoke emotions, vivid imagery
  • Promote identification, affiliation, common bonds
    • Eg. “my friends”
  • Us vs them
  • Pause, invite approval (clap traps)
  • Lists of 3 / enumerations
  • Contrastive pairs (greedy politics vs)
  • Avoid using a script or notes
  • Use humor
  • Sentence structure, eg. declarations and repetition, low context

8: Building a reputation

• Make a good impression early
• Have others sing your praises: use media
• Put your weaknesses out there
• Halo effect, biased assimilation
• If reputation is tarnished, leave
• Media + marketing strategies
• Overcome the self-promotion dilemma
• Hire people to represent + tout you

9: Overcoming opposition and setbacks

• Dealing with conflict / opposition:
• Tenderness, leave an easy out
• Don’t cause unnecessary problems
• Don’t take things personally
• Make important relationships work
• Data > personalizing
• Be persistent, stay in the game
• Advance on multiple fronts
• Move quickly when it’s a power struggle
• Make your objective socially compelling
• When fired + feeling embarrassed
  • Own your story
  • Talk to as many people as possible as quickly as possible
  • Continue to do what made you successful
  • Project power, success, optimism

10: The price of power

• 1. visibility, public scrutiny
  • Social facilitation effect: more motivated, on edge when in presence of other people
  • Distraction of effort
    • Eg. public relations
  • Reluctance to take risks
• 2. loss of autonomy
  • “You can have power or autonomy but not both”
• 3. time and effort required
  • Eg. no real personal, family life
• 4. trust dilemmas
  • Must discern who is undermining
• 5. power is an addictive drug

11: How + why people lose power

• Competency traps: ↓
• Corrupts / diminishes inhibition
• Outshining the master
• Losing patience
• Getting tired → less vigilance, compromise
• Ignoring feedback

12: Power dynamics: good for who?

• Study: politics → reduced performance, happiness etc.
• Adopt free agent thinking
• Hierarchy → competition