Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don't

At the Veterans Health Administration, Ken Kizer, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1994, inherited an antiquated, inefficient health-care system. The VA faced changes in its client population, the competitive healthcare environment, and modalities for delivering care.2 In just five years, Kizer instituted an electronic medical record system, made struc

people will join your side if you have power and are willing to use it, not just because they are afraid of your hurting them but also because they want to be close to your power and success. There is lots of evidence that people like to be associated with successful institutions and people—to bask in the reflected glory of the powerful.

You probably aren’t—and don’t want to appear in any case—perfect. As long as the quirks you display are irrelevant to the core of your reputation and why people select you—in the case of Summers, for his brilliance in the field of economics—the flaws and foibles can actually strengthen people’s commitment to you.

The lesson from cases of people both keeping and losing their jobs is that as long as you keep your boss or bosses happy, performance really does not matter that much and, by contrast, if you upset them, performance won’t save you. One of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that good performance—job accomplishments—is sufficient to acquire