Power_ Why Some People Have Itand Others Don't - Jeffrey Pfeffer [70]
OVERCOME THE SELF-PROMOTION DILEMMA
As you burnish you image, you need to be cognizant of the self-promotion dilemma and figure out some ways around it. 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 On the other hand, 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 Although likability is not essential for obtaining power, there is no point in putting others off if there is a way to avoid it.
There is a solution to this dilemma: get others, even those you employ such as agents, public relations people, executive recruiters, and colleagues, to tout your abilities. In a series of experiments, I and some colleagues investigated what happened when a person claimed competence for himself compared to when another made the identical statements on his behalf.23 Not surprisingly, when another made statements about how great an author was, for instance, that person was perceived as more likable than if he made the same statements on his own behalf. The author was also perceived as more competent when another stated his abilities than when he did so himself. And people were more willing to offer extra help to others who were not seen as arrogant or self-aggrandizing, who had an intermediary speak on their behalf rather than promoting themselves. In one of the experimental studies, we used a video scenario in which an actor, playing the role of an agent, made statements supporting the value of his client and that person’s work while the client sat by his side in the picture. Even though participants in the study reported that the agent was under the control of the client and was acting on his behest, they nevertheless rated the client more highly than in situations where the client made the identical statements for himself. What these studies show is that even though people understand the financially intertwined interests of people hired to act on your behalf, and even though they know that agents or intermediaries are under your control, they will still rate you more highly and offer more help than if you acted on your own.
Those who speak on your behalf also have their statements judged as more credible than when you make the same claims yourself. And the very fact that you were able to get, for instance, a reputable public relations firm or a great agent to work for you signals your capability and adds luster to your reputation. 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.
THE UPSIDE OF SOME NEGATIVE INFORMATION
Larry Summers, Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton, president of Harvard University, and the head of President Barak Obama’s National Economic Council, is often described as prickly, outspoken, and not very sensitive. Ryan Lizza’s description of Summers in the Obama White House is typical:
Summers is a brilliant yet heroically self-regarding economist. His capacity for equations is not matched by a capacity for working easily with others. When I asked the senior White House official about the relationships between him and Orszag [Obama’s budget director], he replied, “There’s a little turbulence between Larry and everybody, because that’s just the way he is.”24
Not only has Summers’s reputation not hurt him; it has actually helped. If you know you are hiring someone who is difficult, and you do so