Power

Jeffrey Pfeffer argues that power is attainable through specific, learnable strategies, and that most people fail to acquire it not because they lack talent but because they misunderstand how power works. He opens with two contrasting stories: "Anne," a business school graduate with no technology background, strategically maneuvered herself into the co-CEO role of a high-tech startup, while "Beth," an equally credentialed MBA graduate, never attained a stable leadership position because she refused to engage in organizational politics. Research confirms that managers primarily motivated by power are the most effective at both acquiring influence and performing their jobs.

Pfeffer contends that power is desirable because it correlates with longer life and better health, it can produce wealth, and it is necessary for accomplishing goals. Researcher Michael Marmot found that lower-ranking British civil servants had significantly higher mortality from heart disease, independent of lifestyle factors.

Before readers can pursue power, Pfeffer identifies three obstacles they must overcome. The first is the "just-world hypothesis," social psychologist Melvin Lerner's term for the tendency to assume people get what they deserve, which prevents people from learning from those they dislike and lulls them into thinking good performance will protect them. The second is misleading leadership literature that prescribes authenticity and modesty rather than describing how power is actually acquired. The third is "self-handicapping," in which people create obstacles to their own success so that failure can be blamed on external factors.

The book establishes that job performance alone is insufficient for acquiring or maintaining power. Rudy Crew was named National Superintendent of the Year yet was ousted from the Miami-Dade school board within six months. Ken Kizer transformed the Veterans Health Administration but was forced out by congressional opposition. High-performing executives Jamie Dimon, Steve Jobs, and Arthur Blank were all pushed out despite strong records. Conversely, poor performers can retain power through relationships with superiors: Social psychologist David Schoorman demonstrated that supervisors rated employees they had favored in hiring more highly, even after controlling for objective performance. Pfeffer advises four strategies for converting performance into influence: get noticed, since people prefer what is familiar; define the dimensions on which your performance is measured; understand what matters to your boss; and make those in power feel good about themselves through flattery.

Pfeffer identifies seven personal qualities that build power, organized around will and skill. Will encompasses ambition, which sustains effort through frustration; energy, which is contagious and signals commitment; and focus, meaning specialization in an industry and prioritization of high-impact activities. Skill encompasses self-knowledge, confidence (illustrated by Dr. Frances K. Conley projecting certainty to patients while expressing doubt to trainees), empathy (illustrated by Lyndon Johnson's detailed knowledge of each senator's needs), and the capacity to tolerate conflict. Pfeffer argues that intelligence, while the best predictor of job performance, is overrated as a path to power because it accounts for only about four percent of income variation.

Pfeffer argues that where you start your career matters greatly, since people in more powerful departments advance faster. He traces Zia Yusuf's rise at SAP: Yusuf, who had degrees in economics and foreign service with no engineering background, built an internal strategy consulting unit that touched nearly every major decision and rose to executive vice president. Pfeffer draws a parallel to the "Whiz Kids" at Ford Motor Company after World War II, a group including Robert McNamara who entered the finance function and leveraged their centrality in capital allocation to dominate the company for decades. In both cases, the key was entering a function aligned with the organization's evolving strategic needs.

On getting into desired positions, Pfeffer argues that people must overcome their reluctance to ask for what they want, citing research by Frank Flynn showing that people systematically overestimate how many others they must approach to gain compliance with a request. He contends that likability is overrated, drawing on Machiavelli's argument that fear is more reliable than love.

Pfeffer devotes attention to creating resources from positions with little formal authority. Frank Stanton rose from a two-person research department at CBS to vice president overseeing seven functions by compiling data on topics of interest to senior management. Klaus Schwab, a 32-year-old Swiss academic, parlayed a single meeting of European business leaders into the World Economic Forum. Even modest resources initiate a self-reinforcing cycle of power.

On networking, Pfeffer cites sociologist Mark Granovetter's research showing that weak ties, meaning casual acquaintances, are often more valuable than strong ties because they connect people to diverse sources of information. He explains sociologist Ronald Burt's concept of "structural holes," gaps between non-interacting groups that a well-positioned broker can bridge for disproportionate advantage.

Pfeffer argues that self-presentation is a critical determinant of power, contrasting two congressional testimonies. Oliver North, a military officer testifying about the Iran-contra affair (the secret sale of weapons to Iran to fund Nicaraguan resistance fighters), wore his decorated uniform, used assertive language, and refused to be interrupted; 56 percent of the public said they would hire him. Donald Kennedy, then president of Stanford University, testified about disputed overhead charges but conveyed weakness by bringing a large entourage, using convoluted sentences, and admitting embarrassment, despite the government ultimately finding no basis for its claims. Research by social psychologist Larissa Tiedens confirms that people who express anger are perceived as more dominant and competent than those who express sadness or guilt.

On reputation, Pfeffer argues it is self-reinforcing: Impressions form within milliseconds and persist due to cognitive biases. He advises enlisting intermediaries to promote one's accomplishments, since research shows that identical claims about a person's competence are judged as more credible when made by a third party.

Pfeffer addresses opposition through the case of Laura Esserman, a breast cancer surgeon who spent years building a patient-centered care facility at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) despite lacking authority over the departments whose cooperation she needed. He advises treating adversaries well, depersonalizing disputes by focusing on data, persisting relentlessly, and framing objectives in terms of compelling social values. For recovering from setbacks, he cites Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor who lost his position at Emory University after a false accusation but recovered by projecting confidence and eventually securing a professorship at Yale.

The book examines the costs of power: public scrutiny, loss of autonomy, strain on personal life, trust dilemmas, and power's addictive quality. It also analyzes why people lose power, citing research showing that holding power produces overconfidence and insensitivity. Robert Moses, the powerful New York public works official who shaped the city's infrastructure for decades, exemplifies how once-effective tactics can backfire: His heavy-handed approach provoked unprecedented public resistance in 1956 over a plan to convert a small Central Park parcel into a parking lot.

Pfeffer argues that political dynamics in organizations are inevitable and potentially beneficial, since influence skills are essential where responsibility exceeds formal authority. He concludes by contending that building power is easier and more accessible than most people believe. He urges readers to find environments that fit their aptitudes, claim power rather than give it away through passive behavior, and attend to the tasks that build visibility and relationships. Returning to Marmot's research, Pfeffer notes that people at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy face four times the risk of death from heart disease as those at the top. Readers should "seek power as if your life depends on it. Because it does" (236).