Part # 1: What does power mean? Part # 2: How do people become powerful? Part # 3: Some advantages of having power. Part # 4: Some disadvantages of having power.

1. Power to the people

2. Part # 1
What does power mean?
Part # 2
How do people become powerful?
Part # 3
Some advantages of having power.
Part # 4
Some disadvantages of having power.

3. Part # 1
What does power mean?

4. Formal power
The right that a person has – through tradition or rule of law –
to decide things and make things happen.

5. Control of an agenda
The control that a person has of an agenda and assumptions
about a problem situation.
Example: Control that a religious leader has to persuade people.
Control of knowledge and information
The control that a person has of who gets what information.

6. Control of financial capital
Financial wealth that people have.
The control that a person has over financial resources of
an organisation.
Control of digital capital
The ability people have to control technology to their
advantage. Examples: Control of media.

7. Human capital
Example: The ability / skills / knowledge / charisma that a person
has to foresee change and make provision for that ahead of time.

8. Social / cultural capital
Contacts / sponsors / coalitions / networks, which give individuals
advance information.
Informal / invisible networks and alliances through which people
trade favours now for favours in the future.

9. Some sources of inspiration
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/power.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36349465/Capital
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32211076/Power-Distance
http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/power
http://www.systems-thinking.ca/myfiles/GarethMorgan.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_(social_and_political)

10. Part # 2
How do people
become powerful?

11. Know who you are.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 701.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/34534773/Personality
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36200010/Questions-to-discover-your-values

12. Find an environment in which you
can build a great reputation.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 2362.
Be in the right environment

13. Other things being equal, faster economic growth
will diminish the importance of wealth in a society.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/05/economist-explains

14. Specialize
Get more detailed knowledge and a denser network of contacts.
Invest time and effort
Also small tasks can become important sources of power.
Source
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 754, 2897, and 1553 respectively.
Specialize and work

15. Be visible, for example by going to events
and/or communicating on social media.
Source
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 459 and 1527 respectively.
Be visible

17. http://www.managementexchange.com/blog/facebook-generation-vs-fortune-500
Gary Hamel
On the Web, authority trickles up, not down.

18. Ask why.
Source
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 827 and 2176 respectively.
Ask questions, challenge assumptions

19. Power is 80% taken, 20% given.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 2159 and 2061 respectively.
Interrupt

20. The surest way to build a power base is to help
those with more power enhance their positive
feelings about themselves.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 505, 1232, and 2489.
Help people with power

21. Ask for help and hire people to represent you.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 505, 1232, and 2489.

22. Show authority through body language
 Lean back.
 Occupy maximum space.
 Hold your head still.
 Hold eye contact while talking.
 Speak in complete sentences with a clear beginning and end.
 Use great, sweeping gestures.
 Slow down when you speak.
http://stanfordbusiness.tumblr.com/post/68102494797/how-nonverbal-behaviors-affect-your-status-and-power

23. http://youtu.be/Ks-_Mh1QhMc

24. Further sources of inspiration
http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2011/05/11/the-purpose-of-power/
http://managementlab.org/files/site/publications/labnotes/mlab-labnotes-019.pdf
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t.

25. Part # 3
Some advantages of
having power

26. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Why-Power-Corrupts-169804606.html
Surveys show that power lead people to take a
broader, more communally centered perspective.

27. Part # 4
Some disadvantages of
having power

28. Examples of what will be watched when you have power:
 How you perform.
 How you dress.
 Where you live.
 How you spend your time.
 Who you choose to spend time with.
 What your children do.
 What you drive.
 How you act in completely non-related domains.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 2815 and 2884 respectively.
Disadvantage # 1: You will be watched all the time

29. The higher you rise in an organization, the more
people are going to tell you that you are right. This
leads to an absence of critical thought and makes it
difficult for senior leaders to get the truth.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 2948.
Disadvantage # 2: You will not get honest feedback

30. Studies of the effects of power on the power holder
consistently find that power produces overconfidence,
risk taking and insensitivity to others. Over time, many
powerful people come to see taking advice as a sign of
weakness. They become narcissistic, consumed with
own ego.
Sources
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 3057.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d995d48e-2c4e-11e3-8b20-00144feab7de.html#axzz2h7RsyfQH
Disadvantage # 3: You will become overconfident

31. It’s easier to lose your patience when you’re in power
– power leads to disinhibition, to not watching what
you say and do, to being more concerned about
yourself than about the feelings of others.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 3173.
Disadvantage # 4: You will easily lose your patience

32. You can have power or autonomy, but not both.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t, location 2815 and 2884 respectively.
Disadvantage # 5

33. Further sources of inspiration
http://bigthink.com/ideas/24282
Pfeffer, Jeffrey: Power – Why some people have it and others don’t.
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/re00162?pg=all
http://www.videoportal.sf.tv/video?id=5491ba95-6d3e-4d72-8320-5353c03da280