{"id":446,"date":"2025-07-08T15:51:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=446"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:51:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:51:13","slug":"what-it-takes-to-be-a-powerful-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/what-it-takes-to-be-a-powerful-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"What It Takes to Be a Powerful Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n

To climb the ladder in your profession and achieve success, hard work is table stakes, not a differentiator. And to progress from rank-and-file employee to manager to respected, powerful leader might require a fundamental mindset shift of letting go of a need to be seen as likeable and authentic while cultivating professional relationships.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Jeffrey Pfeffer<\/strong> of Stanford University<\/a>, one of today\u2019s most influential management professors and researchers, offers some takeaways on that subject from his book 7 Rules of Power<\/a><\/em>, which is a manual for increasing the ability to get things done and benefitting from job performance.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cGood performance by itself is not necessarily going to bring you the level of career success that you need,\u201d Pfeffer said. \u201cIn addition, you need technical and political skills to have your boss recognize your good contributions.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cIf you think about management, and leadership is managing through other people, you need to learn how to interact with other people across your organization in ways that build your influence and permit you to get the things done that you want to get done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Pfeffer\u2019s seven rules power are:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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  1. Get out of your own way<\/strong>: \u201cLose the self-descriptions and inhibitions that hold you back, for example, the idea that you have to be liked, because, as an executive, you\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  2. Break the rules<\/strong>: \u201cIn strategy and organizational leadership, if you do what everybody else does, you will probably not succeed\u2014you need to differentiate yourself.\u201d<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  3. Show up in powerful fashion<\/strong>: \u201cBody language and how we communicate is obviously important.\u201d<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  4. Create a powerful brand<\/strong>: \u201cIf you\u2019re perceived as a powerful, effective, efficacious leader, then that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy\u2014good people want to work with you, invest with you, and buy from your company.\u201d<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  5. Network relentlessly<\/strong>: \u201cThat\u2019s something that people often don\u2019t want to do, so they underinvest in networking because they feel dirty about it and don\u2019t see it as the value-adding activity that it is.\u201d<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  6. Use your power<\/strong>: \u201cNot 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.\u201d<\/li>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
  7. Understand that once you have acquired power, what you did to get it will be forgiven, forgotten, or both<\/strong>: \u201cOnce you have power and status and success, no one will care how you got it, and people will people will accommodate themselves, because people like to be close to power.\u201d<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    Upon reading or hearing about those precepts and their implications for workplace power dynamics, many people have an adverse reaction. That\u2019s natural and understandable, Pfeffer said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    \u201cEvery person should understand and come to terms with the seven rules of power, and most will go through stages: first, denial\u2014\u2018This doesn\u2019t work in my organization\u2019s culture\u2019\u2014then they will have anger, which will mostly be directed at me, which is fine,\u201d he said. \u201cThen they will have sadness\u2014\u2018I’m depressed by it\u2019\u2014and finally, they often come to acceptance that this is not only the way the world works, but they can build agency around this.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    \u201cMy biggest contribution is causing them to see their own agency and encouraging them to be more ambitious and more agentic around navigating their own career and getting their boss to recognize their talents, instead of sitting back and waiting for the human resources department to offer\u00a0 promotions and raises.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

    A sample of Pfeffer\u2019s AOM research findings<\/strong>:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n