The 7 Rules of Power is a must-read book for everyone wanting to improve their career. Buy it. Read it. Implement its teachings. More power to you.
Most leadership books and courses tell you how to lead in a parallel universe where things are how they ought to be – nice, and all that. Unfortunately, I don’t live there. This book tells of the cold hard reality of our actual corporate environments and how to get stuff done. In the main, this book does three things: (1) It tells you what is going on, (2) provides scientific evidence as to the causal mechanisms at work, and (3) derives practical actions that you can take to advance your career. And yes, I mean practical. Not the kind of practical that demands an unrealistic dramatic change of lifestyle but rather totally realistic small transformations that you can make without blowing up your life.
The main angle taken is career advancement. Leadership of your team and the team’s success follow as a byline. First, power is morally neutral even though the word may leave a bitter taste at first hearing. Letting this go and realizing that you need to seek power to get your positive and wholesome goal accomplished is the first step. Second, most significant accomplishments were step changes and so changed the game in some way. Therefore, following all established conventions is unlikely to accomplish it. Break some of the rules. Third, fake it till you make it. Once you make it, all the faking is forgotten and so pretend to be powerful already and power will find you. Fourth, there can be no power without communicating that power in a coherent consistent way, which you may call a brand. Fifth, communication requires an audience and this is best obtained and nurtured personally. Networking in a structured way is the best way to do that. Sixth, power is a renewable energy that grows through use. So use it. Seventh, the manner in which you acquired power no longer matters once you have that power.
When I first heard about these seven concepts from Jeffrey over dinner one night, I immediately realized the value of this framework. Weeks later when the book was in print, I had the book in my hand and read it right away. It is different from most other such books in two important ways. It does not try to conjure a counterfactual world but deals with the imperfect reality we have with a lot of scientific evidence that proves that the world does in fact act like that, and then it gives realistic advice.
So, as a scientist, I figured let’s do an experiment. While I will not tell the story at this time as the details are still unfolding, it is very clear that the rules and the advice are working very well. From my personal experience therefore, I recommend not only reading this book, but doing what it says.
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Iconic leadership book for the ages
As a fan who has read all of Professor Pfeffer’s books, this one is a dazzling masterpiece. Each page packs so many important truths and insights, as you can see in my photo here!This is the success handbook I have been waiting for, and the timing could not be better since I am starting a new job. As soon as I finish it, I plan to read it again, and certainly many more times after that.
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