#66

Why Cultivating Power is the Secret to Success

Jeffrey Pfeffer

Download episode

Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer is an American business theorist, university professor, social scientist, and author. Described as one of the most “influential management thinkers”, Jeffrey is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University. He has been teaching at Stanford since 1979 and is the author of 16 books – with the arrival of his latest publication, which we’ll explore in this episode.

His previous books include ‘Dying for a Paycheck’, ‘Leadership BS’, ‘What Were They Thinking’, and ‘Power’ – which provides a really good summary of Jeffrey’s focus over the years. His latest book is called the ‘7 Rules of Power’ and is gathering plenty of praise. The book identifies seven research-based, reality-revealing rules for hierarchical success and provides lots of practical steps, insights, and examples to demonstrate how these rules can help to ensure both career development and personal growth.

Summary

04:15 Jeffrey’s Stanford course ‘Discover the Paths to Power’

• The course explores how the insufficient sensitivity to – and skill in coping with – power dynamics have a cost for Stanford GSB graduates, and many other talented people, through promotion opportunities and even their jobs
• A person’s job performance is no longer sufficient to keep their job – it’s also about their relationship with their boss
• The course aims to teach people how to build relationships and a personal brand

05:57 The definition of power

• “It’s the ability to get your way and contest its situations”
• There are two types of contested situations in the workplace
• The first is being in a contest for promotion and the second is about disagreements with how an organization should be run, as people come with different perspectives
• Power is a skill that can be learned over an eight to ten week period

08:30 On the term ‘Authentic Leadership’

• “What people at work are looking for is not for you to be true to yourself, but for you to be true for what they need from you”
• You need to show confidence or positive energy with your team, even if you’re not feeling it

12:02 Why Jeffrey wrote another book on power

• ‘The 7 Rules of Power’ provides a manual for increasing your ability to get things done, including increasing the positive effects of your job performance
• The content comes from his Stanford course ‘Discover the Paths to Power’
• Jeffrey confronts the narrative that power has changed – it hasn’t and the same rules still apply
• Jeffrey wanted to use examples from under-represented minorities, not privileged white men

14:06 On the consolidation and concentration of power and wealth both in business and politics

• Zuckerberg has taken more control – he can’t be discharged from Facebook because he has supermajority voting shares
• In the Philippines, the Marcos dynasty have maintained their power for decades

16:34 The connection between power and career success

• Research on the Four Dimensions of Power shows that power is broken into four dynamically interrelated dimensions: structural conflict, reification, power/knowledge, and the creation of social subjects

17:31 Power’s link between health and happiness

• The more control you have over your work environment, the less stress you have, which decreases your chances of stress-related illnesses

18:58 Why people perceive power as something negative

• Many of us have seen power used for bad
• Power is simply a tool that can be used for a variety of purposes

21:26 Signals of power from Donald Trump

• “The more you use your power, the more you have”
• People want to be close to power, wealth and success, so people often forgive or forget what the powerful person did to get to the position of power in the first place

23:55 Power being used as a force for good

• If you want to get things done in this world, you need influence

25:36 Rule #1: Get out of your own way

• We tend to get in the way of ourselves through self-deprecating comments
• Many of us are reluctant to being disliked
• “We are here to get our jobs done, not to win popularity contests”

28:08 Breaking rules in order to make progress

• Rules are made by people in power so they can stay in power
• Rule breaking can catch people by surprise

29:16 Showing up in a powerful way

• It’s important to learn more about the social science of power and body language – there is so much new research online

31:33 Creating a powerful personal brand

• Having clarity with your values means you’re clearer on what tradeoffs you need to make throughout your work and personal life

33:12 The power of networking

• Most people spend too little time networking
• The people you are close to tend to think and believe in the same things, so the information you receive from them is often redundant
• It’s important to meet new people and learn new ideas and understand other ways of thinking

36:06 Networking advice for introverted people

• Accept that learning is not a smooth, comfortable process
• Over time, you will become more skilled at networking the more you do it
• View the act of networking as providing value to others

46:01 Is there a shelf-life for forgiveness?

• Amazon doesn’t have a good reputation with how it treats its staff, but companies still want to do business with them
• People often apply moral justification or decoupling

49:21 How the ‘7 Rules of Power’ can help under-represented minorities

• The book tries to level the playing field by explaining what the true rules of power are, for all people

52:08 How to continue practicing power

• Work with an executive coach

Links Mentioned:

• Discover the Paths to Power – Stanford
• ‘Dying for a Paycheck’ by Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer
• ‘Leadership BS’ by Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer
• ‘What Were They Thinking’ by Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer 
• ‘Power’ by Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer
• ‘7 Rules of Power’ by Dr. Jeffrey Pfeffer
• Unless You’re Oprah, ‘Be Yourself’ Is Terrible Advice – NYTimes
• The Kingmaker
• Interview with Anton Gunn
• How David Beats Goliath | The New Yorker
• Amy Cuddy – Your body language may shape who you are – Ted Talk
• Acting with Power: Why We Are More Powerful Than We Believe – Stanford
• Irish Early Career Awards