Power_ Why Some People Have Itand Others Don't - Jeffrey Pfeffer [88]
In one of the more well-known and interesting studies of the effects of power, the Berkeley cookie study, groups of three strangers discussed a long and boring list of social issues for 30 minutes. One member of the group was randomly chosen by the experimenter to fill the role of assigning experimental points—which had no substantive consequence—to the other two. When the experimenter arrived with a plate of cookies, each person naturally took one. The individual randomly assigned to give points to the other two was more likely to take a second cookie, more likely to chew with his mouth open, and more likely to scatter crumbs on his face and the table.9
Overconfidence and insensitivity lead to losing power, as people become so full of themselves that they fail to attend to the needs of those whose enmity can cause them problems. Conversely, not letting power go to your head and acting as if you were all-powerful can help you maintain your position. Safra Catz came to Oracle in 1999 with an undefined role; today she is president of the large software company. Oracle has regularly gone through high-profile senior leaders, including one former president, Ray Lane, and Marc Benioff, who left a senior vice president position to found Salesforce.com. The company seems to particularly reject senior executives whose profiles get too big. Catz avoids publicity and anything that might upstage Oracle founder and CEO Larry Ellison. And although she is rich and powerful—a profile in Fortune listed her as one of the most powerful women executives in the United States—she has always known her place. As Adam Lashinsky’s profile of Catz noted:
Initially, she didn’t even have an office, working instead at a round table near Ellison’s…. A senior executive from the Oracle unit that sells to the federal government arranged a meeting with Catz to figure out what she did. “I’m here to help Larry,” Catz said, according to an attendee.10
As they focus on achieving their own or the organization’s objectives, those with power pay less attention to those who are less powerful. But this lack of attention can cost leaders their jobs. Bernadine Healy, a cardiologist, lasted just two years as head of the American Red Cross. In many ways, the Red Cross has been a troubled organization. One of the largest providers in the blood banking business, the Red Cross has faced criticism from the Food and Drug Administration over its practices in tracking and screening blood donations. After the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, the Red Cross was criticized for using the disaster to raise vast sums of money, much of which was spent on general operations or relief for other disasters. Between 1989 and December 2001, when Healy was fired, there had been three leaders and four interim leaders.11
Healy came in determined to fix a troubled organization and, she thought, with a mandate to make major change. The Red Cross had a history of decentralization, with local chapter autonomy and a large, 50-person board drawn mostly from local chapters that did not like criticism and was not about to buckle under pressure from the top. Healy’s downfall began, ironically, with the discovery of financial impropriety in a small, poor chapter in Hudson, New Jersey, where the director had engaged in embezzlement. “Veteran administrators thought that she should have suspended the employee with pay and they objected to involving external auditors.”12
Having a position of formal authority or even being right is not going to win you the support of those whose mistakes you have called out. It is tough for those in power to see the world from others’ perspectives—but 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.
Patricia Seeman,