Influencing Up

CHAPTER 3

How Power Differentials Give Smart People Laryngitis

Despite all the research on what powerful people do, there has been much less about the impact on the less powerful, and especially on the consequences for the powerful of the reactions. Yet we believe that it is the systemic interactions that make a big difference in organizations.

If, as we’ve determined, too much power blinds people, too little tends to silence them or cause other, potentially self-defeating behavior. Furthermore, those who believe they have too little power often end up hurting those with more power—which in turn inhibits the entire organization. If you are going to be influential from a relatively low-power position (which is a lot better strategy than waiting to act for sudden enlightenment of the powerful!), you must understand this dynamic. Understanding the following three core concepts can help you avoid the disadvantages associated with a low-power position:

1. Power can be actual or virtual; if people believe someone has power, then they have it, because they will behave accordingly.

2. When faced with a large power gap, either party can cause a dysfunctional interaction—and either party can correct it.

3. Laryngitis among those below is damaging to those in high-power positions as well as to the ones in the low-power positions.

Let’s look at each of these concepts in more detail, so that we can begin to show how to overcome the bad effects of large power differentials.

Actual versus Virtual ...