How can I gain power and keep it? Why don’t I feel more powerful even though I’ve been promoted? How can I convince people to change? Why is it so hard to stand up to abusive bosses? How can I ensure that I won’t abuse power myself when I have it?

What enables one person to influence another is control over access to resources the other person values.

What distinguishes Powertalk is that with every word uttered, the power equation between the two speakers shifts just a little. Sometimes both gain slightly, at the expense of some poor schmuck. Sometimes one yields ground to the other. Powertalk in other words, is a consequential language.