You are hired to get a job done. When you are put in a role, you are put in a role because presumably you are supposed to perform in that role.
The paths to power: How to grow your influence and advance your career
June 13, 2024
Featuring: Jeffrey Pfeffer (Professor of Organizational Behavior, Stanford Graduate School of Business)
11 quotes · 7 insights
Watch Full EpisodeFocus on being liked or driving performance?
Power is a skill, not a personality trait
These are skills that can be mastered. This is not about personality. These are skills, everything we've talked about, networking, showing up, all these things. These are skills that can be learned.
Lenny refers to Lenny Rachitsky, the host interviewing Pfeffer about building personal brands and career advancement.
No one is going to promote Lenny if they don't know who the hell you are. You cannot choose what is not in your head.
"This" refers to developing power skills, which Pfeffer teaches as learnable abilities rather than innate personality traits.
If you think this is uncomfortable, or if you think you're not skilled at this, get coaching. It's hard to do anything on your own.
If you think power is dirty, the first thing that's going to happen is I'm not going to do what I need to do to be successful in my career.
You can have power or you can have autonomy, but you cannot have both.
Ask for what you want - the worst is status quo
Few people are going to do anything if you don't ask. What is the worst that could happen? If you ask and they say no, you are no worse off than had you not asked in the first place.
Politics and interests complicate pure strategy
If somebody is on your critical path, the only judgment you should make is they're on my critical path. If I want to get something done, I need their collaboration and cooperation, and the fact that I may not like them is in fact irrelevant.
Network breadth determines execution capacity
If leadership management is getting things done through other people, it seems like common sense that the more other people you know, the more you'll be able to get done.
Your discomfort is your compass to growth
If you always stay in your comfort zone, you'll never do anything different or better than what you're currently doing.
Great work doesn't speak for itself - tell the story
Lenny refers to Lenny Rachitsky, the podcast host interviewing Pfeffer about building personal brand and career advancement.
No one is going to promote Lenny if they don't know who the hell you are. You cannot choose what is not in your head.