Jeffrey Pfeffer

Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he has taught since 1979. His course “Paths to Power” is one of the most popular and controversial at the GSB. He is the author of Power: Why Some People Have It — and Others Don’t and The Knowing-Doing Gap (with Robert Sutton), among many other books. His work argues that power is a learnable set of behaviours, not a personality trait.

Episodes

• Jeffrey Pfeffer on the Seven Rules of Power, the Knowing-Doing Gap, and Why Power Is a Learnable Skill — Lenny’s Podcast

Key ideas

• Seven Rules of Power — power as a learnable taxonomy: get out of your own way, break the rules, appear powerful, build a brand, network relentlessly, use your power, success excuses almost everything.
• Knowing-Doing Gap — the obstacle is acting on what you know, not knowing it; close it through ‘Doing Power’, practice, coaching, and a personal board of directors.
• Power vs autonomy — James March: you can have one or the other, not both; Pfeffer chose autonomy.
• Suspend judgement of anyone on your critical path — leaked dislike drives cooperation to zero.