‘7 Rules of Power’ by Jeffrey Pfeffer: How good people can accumulate power

Seeking to dominate the conversation and the decision making and totally control the situation may work on some of your adversaries, but probably not too many. Most will seek to push back, very hard—they will react to your attempts to overpower them by doing things to maintain their power and autonomy.

You should not necessarily eschew power, but it is important to recognize the potential downsides. The balance between the advantages and the costs is something each individual must weigh in deciding his or her own particular relationship with power.

You need to be in a job that fits and doesn’t come with undue political risks, but you also need to do the right things in that job. Most important, you need to claim power and not do things that give yours away.

Power accrues to people who control resources that others cannot access.

Second, power, and the visibility and stature that accompany power, can produce wealth.

You need to be noticed, influence the dimensions used to measure your accomplishments, and mostly make sure you are effective at managing those in power—which requires the ability to enhance the ego of those above you.