Power Moves: Lessons from Davos by Adam Grant
TL;DR
This books is all about Power…shocker with that title right? Adam Grant goes to the world economic forum’s conference in Davos to chat with various leaders about how power is changing. The symbols of power used to be material goods, respect, and hierarchy. Now, they are more about your network and ability to influence. My favorite part about this book was that he wrapped every chapter up with some tips on how to best gain and use power in your life. Overall, it was a fun read with some strong points about what type of power you should be searching for that I would highly recommend.
HIGHLIGHTS
1. In the arena - power has evolved over the past 30 years. Power used to be hierarchical, but now power is all about ideas and your network. If leaders ignore this new power landscape, they will lose their power.
2. Power reveals - power does not change people, but rather, it shows who someone is more clearly. One of the most important ways you will use power for is hiring. When interviewing, you should ask everyone the same questions in order to level the playing field. Make sure to ask situational questions in your hiring process, this allows for you to understand how they will think on their feet rather than use canned answers. Lastly, use a scoring mechanism that is unbiased to ensure you are treating everyone equally.
3. Powerful women - One way for women to gain power is to build stronger negotiating skills. While negotiating salaries, 57% of men asked for an increase while only 7% of women asked for an increase. While women need to ensure they’re actively negotiating, everyone can become a better negotiator. While going through an offer letter, one way to do this is offer up 3 packages that you would be willing to take. Once you are in an organization, one idea to determine how to gain more power is to ask a leader for advice on how to get to where they've gotten. This forces them to think about your problem and help you figure out the solution.
4. Team Power - it is important to empower your team rather than just give them commands. You can do this by expanding the scope of their work, involving employees more in decisions, and showing your team that their work matters (lead by doing).
5. Culture change - it is important to determine whether or not your culture is helping your team grow, and if it's not, work towards change. If you need change, be sure to analyze the internal data first, create a sense of urgency by exclaiming how the current path could ruin the company, and then, instill a growth mindset into your team. Ask them what's working and what's broken, and let them guide you down the right path.
6. Robot power - many jobs will be displaced by robots, but they will mostly empower humans. In this future, emotional intelligence will be crucial since robots will not be able to replace that aspect of the human. We need to focus on building our emotional intelligence with others through better listening. This allows us to truly connect and understand others. We can also increase our personal emotional intelligence through a better understanding and regulating your own emotions. Use your emotions to empower yourself.
7. Power to truth - it is important to empower our people as part of their learning and show them how to create power through finding the truth. Show people good their work is driving change for the better, and the more powerful they will feel.
By Tyler Diderich
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