Seven Rules of Power, rule 6: Use your power quickly.
Seven Rules of Power 6: Use your power in a hurry
There are only two things that matter in the game of power; gaining power and keeping it.
Most of our previous talk was about how to get power. This talk, on the other hand, is about how to use power when you already have it, use it to keep it, and use it to get more power.
The first thing you need to realize is that power is not a “resource” that you use up and then it’s gone - on the contrary, it’s the more you use it, the more you have of it, and the more you don’t use it, the less you have of it. Using power shows that you have power, others will recognize your power, you will attract more allies, and your power will expand. It’s a positive feedback process.
So Pfeiffer’s sixth rule of power is * To use power: not only to use it, but to use it in a big way, to use it over-specifically. * Even if your power doesn’t cover that piece for a while, you can make the first move. The stronger you are, the more power you attract.
How exactly does that work? Three things in general: * The first is to make changes to the organization, the second is to install your own people, and the third is to suppress competitors. *
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Let’s imagine if one day you suddenly became the head of your organization, what would you do? Is it to be approachable and get along with everyone? Is it to not fold and enjoy the special treatment and platitudes of enjoying power first? Or do you vote with the old leader, saying that we do everything according to your established guidelines?
If you think like this, you can’t even be a vice president.
Power is not a pretty display. The real beauty of power is that you can use it.
On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was immediately appointed President of the United States. Johnson flew to Washington, D.C. on Air Force One to prepare for his inauguration. It was on the plane that Johnson gathered all of his aides and announced what he was going to do next. They plotted a series of reform programs, including various bills they wanted to pass.
Pfeiffer applauded Johnson’s behavior of an old leader who was already preparing to do something big before his corpse was cold, because Johnson understood the dynamics of power very well.
The point is that power is something that often works best when you’re new in office. New leaders enjoy a honeymoon period when they take office. People expect good things from you. It’s easier for people to accept whatever reform moves you’re going to make.
And once you’ve been in the job for a long time, it’s inevitable that you’ll offend some people. Those people will deliberately not cooperate with your work. The longer you stay in your position, the more enemies you will accumulate, and it will not be easy for you to get things done again.
I can provide an illustration of this. Morgan Stanley’s investment management experts, Indian economist Ruchir Sharma (Ruchir Sharma), the use of data analysis to get the leaders of the countries of a general law [1]: leaders in the first term of office tend to be able to launch some bold reform measures, to the second term of office basically no big action, often pondering political legacy, to their families and friends to seek some benefits and then finished. They tend to think about their political legacy, their welfare for their families and friends, and that’s it.
Including the United States President Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, such a political strongman, but also the first term of office to do particularly fierce, to the second term of the reform of the enthusiasm has been dissipated, basically lying flat. Statistically, the economic performance of presidents in their first term of office is generally better than in their second term.
For his part, Pfeiffer says that CEO tenure has actually shortened as corporate executives have become more politicized, from an average of eight years in the 2000s to just five in the 2010s.
Sohave the power to use it sooner rather than later, and come up for air…… Not to mention you don’t even know if there’s a second term left.
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That means if you can’t push for a reform in the early part of your term, then don’t even think about it, you’ll be even less able to push for it in the later part of your term. And if you push for reforms in the early part of your term, this will greatly benefit you in the later part of your term, because your power will expand and you will attract more people as allies. Pfeiffer gave several examples of new CEOs rushing to overhaul as soon as they took office.
So you’re saying if I’m a leader who came in from the outside and doesn’t know the company very well, how am I going to reform it? Of course you need to do some research, but remember, the research time should not be too long.
In the 1990s, when the New York City public school system was getting run down, Mayor Giuliani appointed a new superintendent. This superintendent took office and spent a year and a half doing tons of research to see what was wrong. But he waited only a year and a half before launching a series of sweeping reforms, a combination of things that turned out to literally make the New York City public school system new.
The system needed reform. Any system for a long time, will always accumulate considerable inertia, the existing cadres at all levels are vested interests, they no longer care about how the system itself, just want to be comfortable to live their days. Your mission as a newcomer is to reform.
Then you say that the existing cadres in the system certainly do not cooperate with the reform ah, what to do? This brings us to the second use ofpower - replacement.
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There’s a famous casino in Las Vegas called Harrah’s Entertainment, and one year there was a new CEO whose philosophy was that traditional marketing methods were outdated and that casino sales had to be driven by big data. As soon as he took office, he sent several senior executives out of the company, including the head of marketing, who had just received an award. There was also the chief financial officer, a rival who had previously competed with him for the CEO position, who was forced to leave. A bunch of new people entered the executive team.
And it’s even easier if you already have your own people. Stanford Hospital once appointed a very powerful CEO who tried a radical change that was so successful it shook the industry. Then he was asked by another healthcare organization to be the CEO, and when he took office, he immediately brought his own group of people from Stanford with him. Your own people are not only familiar with your philosophy of doing things, use it smoothly, and have absolute trust with you.
The difficulty of the replacement operation is how to arrange the company’s elderly. Directly drive away or dismissal may be too rough, may also cause lawsuits, and also affect the stability of the system.
So the new person for the old must be justified, there is a good reason. Las Vegas casino that example is very typical, the new CEO’s idea is big data to assist marketing, you old people do not understand, you do not have the skills in this area, then of course I have to remove you.
A less direct, but softer maneuver is to promote and demote. Give the dude a better deal, move up a level in title, but send him to an unimportant department that everyone can easily accept.
Regardless of the model, you should never be embarrassed about something like installing your own people. A new superintendent of the New York public school system, like the one mentioned earlier, has replaced all the top leaders and heads of departments, and even the third level is almost entirely new. Promoting allies and cultivating private power, it would be unusual not to do that.
In the TV series Toward a Republic, Li Hung-chang had a conversation with his henchman Ding Ruchang–
Ding Ruchang: Zhongtang, Ruchang requests to resign as Governor of the Beiyang Naval Division.
Li Hongzhang: Nonsense!
Ding Ruchang: can not be because of Ruchang, even dragged down the Lord of the Middle Hall which!
Li Hongzhang: Hahahahaha, even tired of me, even tired of me what? I was impeached by them all year round! According to you this way, that all do not live. Not bad, you are the old part of the Huai army, and Anhui people, so many years and has been following me, so that I cultivate private forces, nepotism …… jokes! The fucking not nepotism also want to nepotism is not! I have to let my subordinates disobedient, everywhere and I against it is not called cultivate private forces?
I’d say Pfeiffer is totally in favor of Li Hung Chang.
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The third use of power is the direct use of power to expand and consolidate power.
The best way to expand power is to break the rules. Just like the New York genius architect Robert Moses, who has always defied authority by doing things first, he constantly breaks the rules as a result of the display of power, people more recognized his power, you are a strong man we can not afford to mess with.
Of course, Moses’ approach is more risky, not the average person can afford to play. A more moderate approach is to use institution building to consolidate power. CEOs these days find ways to engage in equity reforms in the boardroom, giving higher voting weight to the shares they own. Zuckerberg, for example, has gotten a rule at Facebook where he owns shares that have 10 votes per share - whereas other shareholders get just one vote per share. This ensures that he owns 60% of Facebook’s voting power. Then no matter what happens, you can’t get rid of him.
If you don’t have that many shares, you can also take on a few more part-time positions in the organization to make sure that it runs everywhere without you. You could be both the CEO and the chairman of the board, complete with the leadership of a key department.
Tim Cook was the COO of Apple during the Steve Jobs era, and then Cook became CEO without Steve Jobs. so who is the COO of Apple now? None. Cook continues to run the COO’s job.
I suspect Cook is using one of the darker methods of power grabbing and that is to make sure there is no successor to you in the organization.
Jack Valenti was president of the Motion Picture Association of America for 38 years and didn’t hand over power until he was 83. How do you think he even played with tenure in a democracy? It was an open secret, and everyone knew that Valenti always made sure that no one else in the association could take his place.
How? See who has the ability to take over and get rid of them.
Pfeiffer, who once served on the board of a publicly traded company, observed an interesting phenomenon. Where an executive is praised by the board of directors, the executive will soon disappear from the company. …… think it must be the CEO to drive him away. Pfeiffer later really can not stand to see, said with a board member, you if you find any more talent, it is best not to praise him: never let the CEO suspect that you want him to take over.
Do you see this is like the ancient Chinese palace power struggle …… where the incumbent would eliminate any possible successor, that’s really an ancient and efficient strategy.
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To summarize, the use of power is basically three words-
1) “A new official takes charge of three fires “: while the honeymoon period power is still hot hurry to use, there are any reform programs to be a package of fast, play a set of combinations of punches;
(2) “Once a prince, always a minister “: Don’t be afraid of being criticized for nepotism, and be bold in placing and using your own people;
3) “A strong man has no successor “ .
To be honest, we Chinese have long been familiar with these uses of power, as described by Pfeiffer. So much so that we have largely ignored these zero-order truths, preferring to talk about first-order truths such as “three fires in a new office are unsustainable, and the smooth transfer of power is not conducive to the successor of a new official”, etc. We overestimate the negative effects of these practices, and underestimate the importance of these practices. We overestimate the negative effects of these practices and underestimate their effectiveness and universality.
The rationale is very simple, but if you are really put in that position, you may not have the courage to do so. You may say, “Is this not using power for personal gains? So the use of power is not afraid of retaliation? Then you are wrong.
The reality is that the more power you have, the less likely you are to be retaliated against.
Machiavelli had a great quote: “A monarch is safer to be feared than to be loved.” In the game of power love is an obligation, and over time people will find your favors a burden and not want to repay them; fear, however, is always real. Don’t forget the first rule of power is don’t care too much if people like you or not.
You have to realize that most people don’t want conflict. When you have power, you have the initiative. When you order a company patriarch to retire, or ask a potential successor to leave, they often only have the power to fight back - and the will to fight back. It’s called being right in name only.
What’s more, when your power has been established, and when you keep using it, people will automatically come over to cling to it, your allies will grow, and your former enemies will voluntarily become your allies.
Fear of conflict and always wanting to ally with the winner are inherent weaknesses of human nature. And it is not in everyone’s instinct to dare to use these weaknesses to exercise power. Still, the power game requires you to leave your comfort zone.
I’ve always felt that a ‘sense of power’ is also a gift. Some people are good at everything, but they are especially good at grabbing power. They are extremely sensitive to anyone and anything that threatens their power and will fight at all costs - and we always indulge them.
Note
[1] Ruchir Sharma, The 10 Rules of Successful Nations, 2020.
Highlight
Power Rule #6: To use power. Not only to use it, but to use it in a big way, and to use it in an over-specified way.
There are three ways to use power:
The first is “a new official takes charge of an organization” and reforms it.
The second is “a ruler who has been in office for a long time”, to install his own people.
The third is “no successor for a strong man” to suppress competitors.