BORIS JOHNSON, HOW THE POWERFUL ESCAPE CONSEQUENCES AND JEFF PFEFFER’S FANTASTIC BOOK Rita McGrath / Thought Sparks
Jeffrey Pfeffer is a dear colleague and a long-time faculty member at Stanford University, where he teaches its most popular MBA elective, all about power. He has a great new book out – “7 Rules of Power: Surprising – but true – Advice on How to Get Things Done and Advance Your Career.” I very much enjoyed our LinkedIn Live conversation on the topic. If you missed it, you can watch the replay at this link.
The Seven Rules
This rule basically says that if you think going for power is
Rule 1: Get Out of Your Own Way
unethical, unpleasant or not for you, you are highly unlikely to succeed at getting it. Of note is the “imposter syndrome,” that uneasy feeling that many extremely accomplished people have that they don’t deserve the accolades they’ve received or don’t belong amongst a group of other distinguished people.
Most of us conform to accepted social norms. After all, in an organized society, you can’t have everybody just
Rule 2: Break the rules
doing their own thing. The paradox, however, is that the rules currently in place reinforce the status quo. To change the status quo, you need to break them. If you think about the great social change leaders of our time – Martin Luther King, for example – they often spent some time in jail for violating the rules of the day.
Much to the frustration of those who would just like to show up to work and get on with it, Pfeffer’s research
Rule 3: Appear powerful
(and that of many others) finds that looking and dressing the part matters. This extends to language as well – much to my chagrin as an occasionally long-winded academic, powerful people use short, simple words that are not nuanced and are easy to understand.
Talking about a personal brand may seem unpleasantly
Rule 4: Build a Powerful Brand
commercial. And yet, until others understand what you stand for (and don’t stand for) it’s hard for them to decide whether to join your cause or not. If you don’t create your own narrative, you’re letting other people make it up for you. And powerful brands don’t just giggle to themselves in corners – they get the word out.
I know, I know, for many people the very thought of
Rule 5: Network relentlessly
networking makes some people cringe. But if you want to attract support, get more resources, get better noticed and discover new information, you need a relationship with the people who have those resources. Everyone has choices about where they spend their time and attention (as well as money).
Once you have power, that should be it, right? Actually no, Jeff points out (in a chapter that made me feel a little
Rule 6: Use your power
squeamish). If you want to get stuff done, you must put that power to use or you are going to lose it. Getting rid of rivals, even when they are high performing, is a manifestation of this. When an opportunity arises, you have to move fast to show people how much power you have.
Why in the whole of the great recession was not a single
Rule 7: Success excuses (almost) everything:
white-collar perpetrator of the activities that led to it all not charged with any crimes? Why did Elizabeth Holmes manage to hang on to such a strong positive image even after there were obvious signs that something was terribly wrong at Theranos? Why do corporate Directors who oversee disasters at companies seldom face any
Why this is the most important rule of all
consequences at all? Andrew Ross Sorkin offers examples.
So what happened to Johnson? Well, the first thing to observe is that despite being what some have called “the worst Prime Minister in British History” Johnson has been Mayor of London twice, was pivotal in the 2016 Brexit decision and won his 2020 election handily. The guy knows a thing or two about power. He never appears in doubt. He regularly breaks the rules. He appeared powerful – often described as charismatic, with his own distinctive style. His brand was strong and unique. From his time at Eton throughout his Here’s a picture of one of his less distinguished, but brand-consistent, moments – hanging from a helicopter at the London Olympics.
career, he managed to rally supporters and create allies. And he certainly seemed immune from any penalties for behaving in an unconventional, chaotic way.
What’s new at Valize We’ve just graduated our first cohort of learners from our on-line creating customer insight program. A new cohort is forming for the fall which will begin in September. Our SparcHub software is live! And we have a bunch of clients working with us on their capability-building journeys. Learn more by visiting https://www.valize.com/. If growth, change or transformation are on your agenda, we should talk! Growth@valize.com will find us.
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