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How Can You Build Influence and Power?

People are more easily led than driven.

—David Harold Fink (medical doctor and author, 1894–1968)

If you ask someone to draw you a chart of who holds power in your organization, you will usually find that the chart looks very different from the company's organizational structure. This indicates that position and formal authority are not necessarily the highest sources of power. Many people think that position power will enable them to gain the influence they want to have. This is actually not the case. Influence and power are the energizing forces that get things done, and they are the indispensable tools of a leader.

Unfortunately, power often has a negative connotation. The word simply means the ...

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