7 Rules of Power: Surprising - But True - Advice on How to Get Things Done and Advance Your Career

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The title says it all. People don't like Jeffrey Pfeffer's books on power because they think the world shouldn't work that way, or that the power tactics won't work for them. This book lays out what works, and he takes pains to include stories from people without privilege or advantages using these tactics successfully. With 7 Rules of Power, you’ll learn, through both numerous examples as well as research evidence, how to accomplish change in your organization, your life, the lives of others, and the world. Having just finished Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, coincidentally also from a Stanford professor, the 7 Rules of Power presents an interesting dichotomy of utilizing our behaviours to improve ourselves. Unlike Fogg's message of spreading positive habits to your group and then to the wider community, Pfeffer instead, convincingly (to me) advocates for a more mercenary outlook where becoming powerful can be a virtuous goal if you want to make an impact in your community and improve your station in life; though he warns that we should not use these lessons to do bad deeds. Jeff Pfeffer’s latest leadership masterpiece is as brilliantly insightful as it is refreshingly candid and pragmatic, anchored in cutting edge scholarship . . . There is simply no competitor to the highly readable, smart, wide-ranging take on power in 7 Rules of Power.”

A third very important source of power that I think people sometimes underestimate is how you show up. Are you able to act and speak with power? Do you show up in a powerful fashion? Many writers write about what they call “executive presence.” I think how you show up and how you talk is a very important source of power. We know that educational credentials help predict salary. We know that gender and race help predict salary, even though they shouldn’t. We know that years of service, or seniority, helps predict salary, and there’s some evidence to suggest that years of service is one of the more important predictors of salary. To a large extent, the arguments for the author's thesis are just anecdotes. This is very weak proof. There are also some psychology studies and such that I don't find very convincing, including data notorious in the Replication Crisis, e.g. power posing.Rooted firmly in social science research, Pfeffer’s 7 rules provide a manual for increasing your ability to get things done, including increasing the positive effects of your job performance.

There are books on asymmetric warfare that say, when the weak play by the strong’s rules they lose, but when they play by and make up rules that favor their particular capacities and capabilities, they win. The rules are deceptively simple, and yet most people don't do them, out of fear that others won't like them (Rule 1: Get Out Of Your Own Way) and they'll get in trouble for stepping out of line (Rule 2: Break the Rules). They don't think they deserve power, so they don't act powerful (Rule 3: Appear Powerful). Ideas from 7 Rules of Power helped me design and live my dream career as a digital health expert. This book is a must-have for minorities and people seeking to have social impact, because we tend to shy away from the concept of power. 7 Rules reframes power and provides tactical, practical tools to actually change the world!”Though I was completely convinced with all the research and the anecdotes that Jeffrey provides, while reading through the book all I needed to do was to run through each “powerful” person I was seeing around me now and in my past. I was amazed to see how some of the rules like “appear powerful”, “break the rules” and “success excuses almost everything…” were brilliantly played out in real life. I could see people breaking the rules - appearing powerful both through that as as well gaining power through that. People who have ongoing allegations against them getting second terms as leaders of elite institutions and so on and so forth. It makes people remain helpless, soft and to not look out for themselves. I've been thinking of what I believe is to be an important message from this book: If you don't go after power, others will. And it's important that "good" people - whatever that is - claims power. Or else there's only the "bad guys" - whatever that is, too" - who will be in power and rule others. Marshall Goldsmith, Thinkers 50 #1 Executive Coach and New York Times Bestselling Author of Mojo and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There People worry about the consequences of following the rules above but often, as disappointingly shown in many cases, those who rise to the top are instead further advantaged by their new positions, i.e: Cumulative advantage If one accepts the underlying diagnosis that Americans live in a culture of corruption and incompetence ( Detroit: An American Autopsy), it does not follow that the prescription is to over-dose on the poison causing the problem.

Ultimately this book will help you people better understand the everyday dynamics and political truths of organizations of all types, public and private. The objective of this book is to make people learn how to apply these 7 Rules of Power and achieve their desirable goal, or moreover have a clarification at least. Marta Milkowska, Stanford GSB 2020; Consultant at Boston Consulting Group, Interim CEO at Reveri Health, Founder of Dtx Future, first Stanford platform on digital therapeutics Recommend? YES. If you haven’t read anything on Power, this is where you should start with. As a beginner, you can read this book, and if you are someone who believes that one should not be in pursuit of power in the material world, this book might change that.

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Dr. Pfeffer has written the ultimate book on power that avoids the traps of conventional theories on leadership . . . Beautifully written and full of poignant stories and examples, 7 Rules of Power is my recommended read for anyone looking to radically change the trajectory of their life for good.” Get out of your own way. Pfeffer makes the case for getting over any hang-ups about self-promotion and leaning into confidence and overconfidence. “Be willing to do whatever it takes—don’t run away from power,” he writes. (p. 25) He’s impatient with accommodating shy or introverted students, telling them it’s for their own good that they’re forced to overcome any inhibitions about speaking publicly. Pfeffer sees downsides to leaders sharing their vulnerabilities with colleagues, citing research that suggests it leads to lower influence. And he notes that researchers have found that being agreeable results in worse career outcomes and disagreeable people are just as successful in attaining power. A brilliantly written and concisely researched read with a classic approach. It was somehow an interesting read for me though I haven't read any of the author's previous works but now I want to and will be looking to read in the near future. If you're a curious thinker and want to understand the psychology behind power then this might be a perfect choice for you.