Power and Influence

if children hear nothing about their parents’ jobs, or if they are given only simplistic answers to their inquiries about “what mommy and daddy do at work,” they are going to be programmed with naive beliefs.

But if we are to produce more people capable of dealing effectively with power gaps, we must systematically increase the amount of competent mentoring that goes on.

The message delivered by educational organizations can be summarized, roughly, as follows:

The problem here in many cases is that to make these programs work, the human resource staff must have a sufficient number of competent leaders in it.

But for “good performance to speak for itself,” a boss and subordinate must have 100 percent agreement on what tasks constitute the subordinate’s job, on the relative importance of those tasks, and on unambiguous ways to measure the performance of the tasks.

before accepting a job offer, a promotion, or any change in bosses, it is useful to consider (1) the extent of the differences between yourself and the person who will be your boss (is it possible that they are hopelessly large?); (2) whether the boss is at least as competent and powerful as his or her peers, and if not, what kinds of problems that

career path, it requires that one move, over time, toward positions where one can help manage some strategic contingency for the organization. All professional, managerial, and technical people face situations each and every day where they can increase or decrease some of their power. Developing a power base in one’s early career requires that one

Doing this, in turn, requires that one take advantage of simple opportunities encountered each day for developing these sources of power. It also requires that one more strategically “invest” some power in longer-term projects on an ongoing basis in the hope of getting it back with “interest”

how can I get myself into a situation where I have the necessary sources of power to be able to correctly identify important business issues and then to provide leadership in dealing with those issues?