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Don't make the mistake of assuming that power accrues naturally to the people who work hardest and best. You need to be strategic as well as productive. Try these twelve tips:
- Consume resources on the job even before you're hired. When offered a soft drink or coffee during an interview, be sure to take it. Borrow a pad of paper. Ask to use the phone if you arrive early, or when you're ready to leave.
- When staking out a seat at a meeting, don't assume that the most powerful position is at the head of the table. You're often better off sitting at the middle, where you're closer to others sitting around the table, and therefore more able to talk to and influence them.
- Wondering whether you have power? One sure sign: other people earnestly discuss what kind of mood you're in.
- Avoid the common tendency of eye stray. You're at a crowded cocktail party, and as you chat with a colleague, your eye strays in search of someone more important to corner. Try to disguise eye stray: it's annoying to the person from whom your eye is straying.
- Avoid a title that's over-long, has multiple adjectives, or contains more than one prepositional phrase. If possible, reject titles like "Principal Assistant Deputy Under Secretary" or "Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary" (yes, these are actual government titles). And ask yourself whether you really want one of those fashionable, overly cute titles - like Yahoo!'s "Chief Yahoo!" Jerry Yang.
- Are you widely disliked? If so, clinching a powerful mentor should be one of your most important goals. Curry favor with someone who can protect you from the consequences of your faults.
- Demonstrate your impunity by bringing a child to an adult event. Show up at a formal wedding with your toddler or bring your newborn grandchild to a lecture. Would anyone dare ask you to leave?
- To pursue a perk without appearing grasping, try:
- enlisting someone else to demand it on your behalf ("My boss isn't going to be pleased if he finds out he's not introducing the guest of honor");
- arguing that the perk is needed for efficiency's sake ("I certainly don't care about taking a private jet, but I'm not sure we want to lose the time it would take to fly commercial");
- using precedent ("As I understand it, senior managers are assigned additional staff as a matter of course.")
- appealing to propriety ("It doesn't matter to me, but wouldn't it create the wrong impression if I answered my own phone?")
- Although a perennial favorite, tardiness is a tricky way to demonstrate power. On the one hand, it's a highly effective way to consume resources - other people's time and effort. Also, being late makes you seem busy, and therefore important. On the other hand, it's so well understood to be a power move, and so irritating, that you're often better off being prompt. So use tardiness cautiously.
- Whether or not it's true, hint about how little sleep you need - it's believed that the most successful people get by on only three or four hours a night: Bill Clinton, Thomas Edison. Or apply the principle of dis-expectation and boast - like Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos - that you get more than eight hours of sleep each night.
- Share the credit. Don't make the mistake of thinking you're better off claiming all the credit for a job well done; in fact, you should always share it. You create good will, you demonstrate a winning modesty, and you'll attract support for your next project.
- Ask for favors. As Ben Franklin recommended, "If you want to make a friend, let someone do you a favor." Ask for help, for advice, for contributions. By doing so, you place yourself under obligation to your favor-givers - which makes them feel kindly toward you. And their help gives them a stake in your success.
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