Power_ Why Some People Have Itand Others Don't - Jeffrey Pfeffer [99]
What’s important about this situation is how completely “ordinary” it is. The power play, so to speak, was nothing very dramatic. What this young woman describes is seizing an available opportunity, the temporary absence of someone above her, to fill a leadership vacuum—and to leverage the situation to build more visibility and relationships at senior levels. Building power does not require extraordinary actions or amazing brilliance. Instead, as comedian, actor, and movie director Woody Allen has noted, “Eighty percent of success is showing up.”1
The problem with the heroic, almost superhuman leaders whom we see depicted in so many autobiographies and leadership classes and cases is not just that the stories are seldom fully told or completely accurate. And contrary to management author David Bradford’s view, nor are we in a “post-heroic” world. Bradford argues that organizations and, for that matter, their employees, would be better off with more collaboration, delegation, and teamwork.2
The biggest problem from the tall tales and high expectations established in much of the writing about organizational leadership is that it is too easy for people to ask, “Can I do all this? Is this me, and could it ever be?” Yes, it could be you, and anyone in any role in almost any organization can benefit from the ideas I have presented.
Some people think they don’t or won’t like playing the power game. But how can they know until they try it? One young woman decided to try out these ideas in a low-risk situation—to see if she could take over a student committee on which she served. The committee was charged with organizing the events for a weekend when the school she attended hosted admitted applicants who were deciding where to pursue their degrees. She devised measures of success—the percentage of communications that flowed through her, her ability to get her way on decisions—and set off on her experiment. She found that she enjoyed acquiring power and that, contrary to her expectations, her efforts did not produce resentment on the part of the other committee members. They were glad to offload the work and responsibility. She received lots of recognition and praise for her work. Most important, she decided that she really did enjoy this power stuff. Sort of like eating some new food, you can’t know what you will truly enjoy until you do it and become somewhat proficient at it—we tend to like doing things we are good at doing. Once you engage in activities, including activities involved in acquiring power, those things become part of your identity and repertoire of skills. Don’t give up before you begin.
BUILDING YOUR PATH TO POWER
It’s important for you to find the right place given your aptitude and interests. Some jobs require more political skill than others. Project or product manager would be one such job—lots of responsibility without a lot of formal authority over the people whose cooperation you need to be successful. Assistant to a senior leader would be another such position, with a lot of visibility, the need to get things done, and not much direct power to reward or punish people for their cooperation or opposition. Although it is possible and desirable to develop your power skills, few people are comfortable changing their likes and dislikes. Yes, you can evolve and change, like the young woman who took over the committee, but only within limits. I suspect that she actually had an aptitude for and interest in power but just had never had a chance to explore how much. 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 blindingly obvious advice, but it is not often followed. Finding the right place for you requires several steps. First, you must be brutally honest about your strengths, weaknesses, and preferences—and because of the self-enhancement motive discussed previously, not many