Power and Influence

People who have studied decision-making processes have often observed that diversity and interdependence are essential ingredients in fostering original ideas.

Young employees, in particular, often naïvely assume that “good performance speaks for itself,” which then leads them to undercommunicate with their superiors. That is, as long as they think they are doing a good job and that there are really no problems, they tend to communicate little with their bosses.

In all these situations, and in hundreds of others that are fundamentally similar, social complexity, not character, is the key driving force. And when such situations are not handled with great skill—a leadership skill that was somewhat lacking in all three of those cases—destructive power struggles are almost inevitable.

But for “good performance to speak for itself,” a boss and subordinate must have 100 percent agreement on what tasks constitute the subordinate’s job, on the relative importance of those tasks, and on unambiguous ways to measure the performance of the tasks.

we need people who see their roles as those of actively leading subordinates, peers, bosses, and outsiders to achieve responsible results within their domains of activity.

But if we are to produce more people capable of dealing effectively with power gaps, we must systematically increase the amount of competent mentoring that goes on.

how can I get myself into a situation where I have the necessary sources of power to be able to correctly identify important business issues and then to provide leadership in dealing with those issues?

the larger the management hierarchy, the greater will be the diversity and interdependence, and the greater will be the potential for conflict and power struggles and politics.

Third, because of this, managing the relationship with the boss is a necessary and legitimate part of a job in a modern organization, especially in a difficult leadership job.