Published on: July 8, 2025 at 3:51 pm
AOM Scholar Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University, one of the most influential management professors and researchers, offers invaluable advice for improving as a leader in his book 7 Rules of Power, which is a manual for increasing the ability to get things done and benefitting from improved job performance. The following are Pfeffer’s seven rules of power, which current and aspiring managers and leaders can use to increase their influence and boost their career:
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1. Get out of your own way
“Lose the self-descriptions and inhibitions that hold you back, for example, the idea that you have to be liked, because, as an executive, you’re hired to get things done, not necessarily to win a popularity contest. Lose this currently popular idea that you need to be quote-unquote authentic, which is, of course, incorrect.”
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2. Break the rules
“In strategy and organizational leadership, if you do what everybody else does, you will probably not succeed—you need to differentiate yourself.”
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3. Show up in powerful fashion
“Body language and how we communicate is obviously important.”
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4. Create a powerful brand
“If you’re perceived as a powerful, effective, efficacious leader, then that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy—good people want to work with you, invest with you, and buy from your company.”
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5. Network relentlessly
“That’s something that people often don’t want to do, so they underinvest in networking because they feel dirty about it and don’t see it as the value-adding activity that it is.”
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6. Use your power
“Not all use of power will be met with unalloyed approval, so leaders need to be willing to incur some level of social disapproval. But because most people are usually averse to conflict, it is surprising how much one can accomplish by seizing the initiative.”
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