I came to Pfeffer after Carnegie, Greene, Fisher & Ury, and Cialdini. Each of them taught me something about influence, persuasion, negotiation. But none of them addressed the elephant in the room: organizational power. How it’s acquired, how it’s kept, how it’s lost.
Pfeffer does.
The biggest lie we tell ourselves
Pfeffer opens with a contrast. One person climbs to the top. Another gives up, saying she “doesn’t have the energy for organizational politics” — that the world is brutal, people take credit for others’ work, self-promoters get rewarded.
That second person is a strawman. But an effective one, because most people identify with her. And that’s exactly why they lose.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth Pfeffer lays out: you can have all the job-relevant talent and interpersonal skills in the world — and still end up with zero power. Either because you refuse to play the game, or because you don’t know how.
He reinforces this with a story of someone competent who got fired. Not despite the competence — because of it. The boss perceived them as a threat. Competence without political awareness is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
Then the data: studies show that among three types of managers — those oriented toward being liked, those oriented toward achievement, and those oriented toward power — the power-oriented ones perform best. Better evaluations, better outcomes, seen as more effective leaders.
This isn’t about being a better person. It’s about understanding that organizations are specific environments with their own selection rules. And power-orientation fits those rules better than performance-orientation.
The biggest mistake people make: they put performance on a pedestal. The facts say something else.
Why bother with power at all
Pfeffer gives three reasons:
1. Longer life
This one shocked me. I always assumed people at the top have more stress. Wrong.
Studies (likely the Whitehall Studies) show that civil servants lower in the hierarchy have higher age-adjusted mortality — even after controlling for income, smoking, healthcare access. It’s not about workload. It’s about control.
People at the top have more decisions and more responsibility — but they control their time, priorities, and environment. People at the bottom have fewer tasks but zero control over when, how, and with whom they do them.
The difference between “I have a hard challenge I control” (eustress) and “I don’t know what’s going to land on my desk tomorrow and I can’t do anything about it” (toxic distress). Control changes everything.
2. Wealth
No explanation needed.
3. Agency — things get done
Power means you can actually make things happen. Without it, you’re dependent on others to act. Your ideas die in committees. Your projects get deprioritized. You’re a passenger, not a driver.
Three obstacles before you start
Pfeffer says that before you can build power, you need to overcome three mental barriers:
1. Stop believing the world is fair
The just-world hypothesis: people believe that if they’re good and behave properly, everything will work out. Two problems with this:
First, it stops you from learning from everyone — especially people you don’t like or respect. But those are often the ones who have the positions you aspire to. If you dismiss them as “political animals,” you miss what they’re doing right.
Second, it blinds you to building a power base. You don’t notice the landmines that can blow up your career because you assume the system will protect you. It won’t.
There’s also a dark side effect: victim blaming. When something unfair happens to someone, you subconsciously feel they “deserved it somehow.” This protects your illusion that the world is predictable — but it’s a lie.
2. Ignore most leadership literature
Most books on leadership are aspirational fiction. They describe how things should be, not how they are.
CEOs have great presentation skills and show what they want to show. Add the halo effect — famous people automatically get labeled as “brilliant.” Pfeffer cites a study: 40% of CVs contain lies. Rhetorical question: you think CEOs writing about themselves are more honest?
3. Get out of your own way
This one is insidious. The mechanism is called self-handicapping.
You create an excuse before trying, so that if you fail, your ego is protected.
“If people intentionally choose to do things that could plausibly diminish their performance, then any subsequent performance decrements can be explained away as not reflecting their innate abilities.”
Examples:
- Don’t study for the exam → if you fail, it’s “because I didn’t study,” not “because I’m stupid”
- Don’t apply for the position → can’t get rejected
- Don’t pursue power → can’t lose the power game
You can spend your whole life saying “I don’t play those games because I have principles” instead of admitting “I’m afraid I’ll try and fail.”
Pfeffer says the biggest impact he can have on the people he teaches is simply getting them to try to become powerful. Because fear of setbacks and implications for self-image stops people from doing everything they could.
How to use this book
Pfeffer ends the introduction with three pieces of advice:
- Context — place the ideas and examples in your own context
- Probabilistic — not everything will work every time, but if you apply what he teaches, the overall balance will be strongly positive
- Practice — don’t just read and think about examples; try things and draw conclusions; knowledge must be converted into action
[Draft — chapters in progress]