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

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These rules are rooted in social science research and will provide a manual for how to attain changes in our organization, life, and the world. Success excuses almost everything you may have done to acquire power. “Power generally insulates people from suffering too greatly for the consequences of their actions,” Pfeffer observes. (p. 151) That’s “partly because people want to be close to money and power and are therefore willing either to forgive those who have them or avert their gaze from their possessors' misdeeds.” (p. 151) If you’re perceived as a powerful, effective, efficacious leader, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I really liked the chapters: ‘Get Out of Your Own Way’, ‘Appear Powerful’, ‘Build a Powerful Brand’, and ‘Network Relentlessly’. I now have a dream to enter a class of Pfeffer one day. This book has not only helped me as a person, but to my dream of one day becoming a leader and aim towards a common mission with fellow resilient, talented and people who loves other people. I'm soon about to take some leardship courses as part of my studies, and now I'm kind of scared of new reading material that will only have the fancy, "being looked at as moral" type of readings.

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. 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 In 7 Rules of Power, Jeffrey Pfeffer outlines what he views as the (seven) most important strategies to achieve, accumulate, and maintain power. Unsurprisingly, because he is a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, much of what he discusses is related to the implications and importance of power in professional settings. Here are what I viewed as the main points from the 7 sections: Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University where he has taught since 1979.Rules of Power delivers easy-to-digest, practical tips for how you can be more powerful in your own life. Using real-life examples of individuals altering their lives by following his rules, Pfeffer delivers his message with humor and humanity. Pfeffer shows us how often we give away our power and how we can reclaim it.” 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. The book is a slightly shorter, more structured (I assume), and updated version of Pfeffer's 2011 book, Power: Why Some People Have it and Others Don't, the 7 rules are: There are many instances throughout the book that i personally just couldn’t resonate with especially on his take with flattery towards higher up and authenticity (promoting inauthenticity as apparently people take it face value).

Build a powerful brand. Associating with prestigious people and organizations is one way to do this, as their status and prestige rubs off. Other methods Pfeffer recommends include podcasts, books, and events, along with ample self-promotion. “You must also craft [your] narrative in a way consistent with the hero’s journey, so that people are more likely to remember it and, more importantly, embrace its inspirational message,” he writes. (p. 105) Some of the advice in this book is unobjectionable, but then it's standard stuff that can be found in countless other management/leadership books. Title: 7 Rules of Power: : Surprising--But True--Advice on How to Get Things Done and Advance Your Career 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.Break the rules. “Violating norms, rules, and social conventions can make rule breakers seem more powerful and thereby create power for them,” Pfeffer writes. (p. 48) Rule-breaking surprises people, which causes them to pay more attention to you. And, as is often said, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission, as Moses did in starting work on New York City development projects before having the permits for them. 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 Number two: as research by some of my various colleagues has demonstrated, networking often makes people feel dirty and like they are winning by using underhanded or inappropriate tactics. That’s something that people often don’t want to do, so I think they underinvest in networking because they feel dirty about it. They don’t see it as the value-adding activity that it is.

Things I love about this book: The research and further reading the author tells you to go study. He mentions case studies you can go look up, and both successes and failures of the powerful. Like a rousing slap of truth in the face, Pfeffer’s tough-minded, capstone book on power identifies 7 research-based, reality-revealing rules for hierarchical success. Anyone hoping to rise within an organization needs to obtain power and, therefore, needs to read this brilliant book.”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