The Truth About Power: What Jeffrey Pfeffer’s Research Reveals About Career Success

Uncover Jeffrey Pfeffer’s eye-opening research on power: Why job performance alone won’t drive career success in political organizations. Master seven key qualities, visibility, networks, and strategies to build influence and thrive professionally.

Most books about leadership and success lie to you. They tell comfortable stories about how good work leads to rewards, how integrity always wins, and how the world operates as a meritocracy. Jeffrey Pfeffer’s “Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don’t” tells you the truth—and the truth is uncomfortable. Based on decades of research at Stanford Graduate School of Business and analysis of hundreds of leaders across all walks of life, Pfeffer’s book reveals how organizational power actually works, not how we wish it worked.

This is not a book about positive thinking or inspirational leadership. It’s a handbook for navigating the political realities of organizational life, grounded in empirical research and documented through real examples of people who have built substantial influence. If you want to understand why some people with modest abilities rise to positions of great authority while brilliant people remain stuck in middle management, this book provides answers.

The Core Thesis: Performance Isn’t Enough

The central message of Pfeffer’s research challenges everything most people believe about career advancement: outstanding job performance is neither necessary nor sufficient for success in organizations. This isn’t cynicism—it’s what the data shows. Research consistently demonstrates that job performance accounts for only about 10 percent of variance in salary. Performance is loosely, weakly, and not very consistently related to salary increases and promotions.

Why does this disconnect exist? Because organizations are fundamentally political systems, not meritocracies. Decisions about who gets promoted, who gets resources, and who gains influence are made by people with their own biases, interests, and agendas. Being good at your job matters, but it’s table stakes. What differentiates those who rise to power from those who don’t is their ability to navigate organizational politics, build strategic relationships, create visibility for their accomplishments, and manage those who control their advancement.

This realization is liberating for some and disturbing for others. It means that if you’ve been passed over for promotion despite excellent work, it’s not necessarily because you’re inadequate—it’s because you haven’t mastered the political skills required to advance. Conversely, it means that hoping your good work will speak for itself is a recipe for career stagnation.

The Seven Personal Qualities That Build Power

Pfeffer identifies seven personal qualities that consistently predict who will acquire and maintain power. These fall into two fundamental dimensions: will (the drive to take on big challenges) and skill (the capabilities required to turn ambition into accomplishment).

The three qualities of will are ambition, energy, and focus. Ambition provides the sustained motivation required to overcome obstacles and keep pursuing influence even when the path is difficult. Energy—the capacity for long hours and intense effort—gives you a competitive advantage. Pfeffer notes that he knows of almost no powerful people who do not have boundless energy. Focus means concentrating your efforts on a limited number of activities and relationships rather than scattering your attention.

The four skills that create power are self-knowledge, confidence, empathy, and capacity to tolerate conflict. Self-knowledge means understanding your strengths, weaknesses, and automatic responses so you can develop the capabilities you lack. Confidence allows you to project power even before you have it, since people use behavioral cues to assess who has authority. Empathy—the ability to understand what others want and need—is essential for building the coalitions and support required to accomplish objectives. And the capacity to tolerate conflict matters because most people are conflict-averse and will back down rather than pay the emotional price of standing their ground, giving an advantage to those who can handle difficult situations effectively.

The good news is that most of these qualities can be developed. You can cultivate ambition by clarifying what you want and why it matters. You can increase energy through health practices and deliberate choices about where to invest effort. You can develop political skills through practice and feedback. Power is not mystical or innate—it flows from specific personal characteristics that can be identified, studied, and strengthened.

Standing Out: Why Visibility Matters More Than You Think

One of Pfeffer’s most important insights concerns visibility. People in power are busy with their own agendas and probably aren’t paying that much attention to you. You should not assume that your boss knows or notices what you’re accomplishing. Your first responsibility is to ensure that those at higher levels know what you are achieving—and the best way to ensure they know is to tell them.

This advice contradicts conventional wisdom from many cultures that “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” But blending into the woodwork is career suicide. Research on the “mere exposure effect” shows that people like what they remember, and repeated exposure increases positive affect. Simply put, being memorable equals getting picked.

The professionals who build substantial influence combine solid work with strategic self-promotion. They ensure the right people know about their contributions. They position themselves in roles and on projects that provide natural visibility. They break small rules strategically when it serves their objectives. And they accept that standing out means some people won’t like them—but being liked by everyone is incompatible with acquiring power.

Building Strategic Networks: Your Career Depends on Who You Know

Your skills matter, but your network determines your career trajectory more than your individual capabilities. Research consistently shows that network position matters a great deal for influence and career outcomes, sometimes more than education, experience, or intelligence.

Strategic networks have three essential characteristics. First, they’re extensive—you know many people across different functions, departments, and organizations. Second, they include high-status individuals who control resources and provide access to opportunities. Third, they position you strategically within the network structure, ideally in positions of centrality where information flows through you or as a bridge connecting groups that wouldn’t otherwise interact.

Building strategic networks requires overcoming the natural tendency toward homophily—associating primarily with people similar to yourself. The most valuable networks connect you to people who are different from you and who have access to different information, resources, and opportunities. This requires deliberate effort to meet people outside your immediate circle, stay in touch with a broad range of contacts, and position yourself at the intersection of different groups.

Reputation as Reality: Managing Your Image

In the pursuit of organizational power, perception is often more important than reality. Research shows that people form stable impressions of you in the first 11 milliseconds of contact. These first impressions are remarkably durable—once formed, they’re difficult to change. This means that how you present yourself from the very first moment matters enormously for how you’ll be perceived throughout your relationship with that person or organization.

The durability of first impressions has two important implications. First, if you find yourself in a place where you have an image problem, it is often best to leave for greener pastures rather than trying to repair your reputation. Second, it is crucial to make a good impression from the start by acting and speaking with power from the very first moment.

Building a powerful reputation also requires strategic use of media and having others advocate for you. Writing articles, maintaining a blog, getting profiled in relevant publications—these create visibility and credibility. But self-promotion creates a dilemma: when you tout your own abilities, you’re not as believable as objective outsiders, and you’re perceived as arrogant. The solution is to get others—agents, public relations people, colleagues—to tout your abilities. Research shows that people rate you more highly when others make claims on your behalf than when you make the same claims yourself.

The Costs Nobody Talks About

Most leadership books focus exclusively on the benefits of power while ignoring its substantial costs. Pfeffer’s research reveals five major costs of acquiring and maintaining power.

First, visibility makes you a target. The higher you rise, the more visible you become, and the more vulnerable. Your mistakes are magnified, your weaknesses scrutinized, and your every move watched by people who may benefit from your downfall.

Second, power demands extraordinary time and energy. The successful leaders Pfeffer studied worked prodigious hours, often sleeping five hours a night and working through weekends. Building and maintaining power requires sustained effort that leaves little room for other interests or activities.

Third, power exacts tolls on family and personal relationships. Jack Valenti, who ran the Motion Picture Association of America for 38 years, expressed concern that his ambition had been a “dark thread” throughout his life that took him away from his family. Getting and keeping power takes time away from friends and family—a price some are willing to pay but an inevitable cost nonetheless.

Fourth, power creates trust dilemmas. The higher you rise, the greater the number of people who want your job. Who do you trust when some people are seeking opportunities through your downfall while others are telling you what you want to hear to curry favor? The constant vigilance required to ensure you’re hearing the truth and to maintain your position is exhausting.

Fifth, power changes you in ways you may not like. Research consistently finds that power produces overconfidence and risk-taking, insensitivity to others, stereotyping, and a tendency to see other people as means to your gratification. Even modest amounts of power trigger behavioral changes that make people less empathetic and more self-centered. As one friend who works at a senior position in a major company told Pfeffer, “No matter what the original intentions and aspiration, eventually power goes to everyone’s head.”

How People Lose Power

Understanding how people lose power is as important as understanding how to acquire it. Organizations are arenas of competition for scarce positions and resources. Political struggles intensify during times of economic stress, when resources are scarcer and competition fiercer. Studies show that when money is tighter, the relationship between departmental power and budget allocations becomes stronger—those with power get more of what’s available while those without power lose ground.

People lose power through specific mistakes. They stop investing in relationships, assuming their position is secure. They become arrogant or insensitive as power changes their behavior. They trust the wrong people or trust too much. They become complacent, believing they can coast on past accomplishments. Each of these mistakes makes them vulnerable to rivals who are still actively building their power bases.

The employer-employee relationship has changed profoundly over recent decades. Organizations have made clear that employees are responsible for their own careers, security, and advancement. In this environment, Pfeffer argues, you need to use every tool at your disposal to build and maintain power. Don’t worry about being too political or too calculating—your employer and coworkers aren’t worrying about you. They’re thinking about their own interests, and you’ll be gone when you’re no longer useful. You need to take care of yourself.

Why This Book Matters

“Power” matters because it reveals how organizations actually work rather than how we wish they worked. Most people operate under the just-world hypothesis—the belief that good work leads to good outcomes. This belief is comforting but wrong. Organizations are political systems where power determines outcomes more than performance.

This doesn’t mean ethics don’t matter or that you should be ruthless. It means you need to understand the rules of the game as it’s actually played, not as leadership books pretend it’s played. Being naive about organizational politics doesn’t make you noble—it makes you vulnerable and ineffective. The leaders who get things done, who advance to positions where they can make a difference, are those who understand power dynamics and use them strategically.

Pfeffer’s research shows that mastering political skills and building power are not optional if you want to achieve your career goals and make an impact. The question isn’t whether to engage with organizational politics—you’re already engaged whether you recognize it or not. The question is whether you’ll be effective at it.

Applying the Lessons

So what do you do with this information? First, get honest about your situation. Are you in a position where your performance is being recognized and rewarded? If not, why not? What political dynamics are you missing? Who has power over your advancement, and what do they care about?

Second, assess your personal qualities against the seven characteristics Pfeffer identifies. Where are your strengths? Where do you need development? Make a plan for building the capabilities you lack.

Third, take action on visibility. Ensure the right people know about your accomplishments. Position yourself for visibility on important projects. Build a reputation strategically through your work and through having others advocate for you.

Fourth, invest deliberately in your network. Build relationships with people who have power and with rising stars. Position yourself strategically to control information flows or bridge disconnected groups. Maintain your network with consistent effort over time.

Fifth, understand the costs and decide consciously whether you’re willing to pay the price of power. Not everyone is or should be. But make the decision with full awareness of what you’re choosing and what you’re giving up.

Finally, stay politically aware without becoming cynical. Organizations are political systems, but that doesn’t mean they’re corrupt or that power is inherently corrupting. Political skill is essential for getting things done in complex, interdependent systems. The alternative to political engagement isn’t integrity—it’s ineffectiveness.

The Bottom Line

Jeffrey Pfeffer’s “Power” is the most honest book about organizational success you’ll ever read. It’s not inspiring, it’s not comfortable, and it doesn’t tell you that being good at your job and having integrity will guarantee success. Instead, it tells you how organizations actually work and what you need to do to acquire influence within them.

This matters because power isn’t just about personal advancement—it’s about being able to accomplish objectives that matter to you. Whether you want to transform your organization, change industry practices, or simply have sufficient control over your work to be satisfied and effective, you need power. Understanding how to build it, maintain it, and use it effectively is essential for anyone who wants to make a meaningful impact in organizational life.

The choice is yours: you can believe the comfortable myths about meritocracy and hope things work out, or you can accept the uncomfortable truths about organizational politics and develop the skills to navigate them effectively. Pfeffer’s research provides the roadmap—the question is whether you’re willing to follow it.