ATTRACTING SUPPORT: ACTING AND SPEAKING WITH POWER

1. ATTRACTING SUPPORT:ACTING AND SPEAKING WITH POWER Jeffrey Pfeffer Graduate School of Business Stanford University

2. POWER IS PART OF LEADERSHIP • Power is necessary to get things done, including making changes • Leaders have power • People with power skills become leaders • Power is, in part, how disagreements about what to do and how to do it get resolved

3. LEADERS MUST ATTRACT SUPPORT FROM… • Employees and direct subordinates • Customers • Investors • Their bosses—the board of directors • How they communicate and come across • With support, leaders stay; without support, they lose/leave their positions

4. Communication persuades others largely through how we look and present ourselves; second, by how we sound, and of least importance, by the content of what we say. Therefore, how we “show up” is important in our ability to attract support for efforts to lead change.

5. Susan Fiske: warmth and competence • Osgood, Tannenbaum, and Suci: potency/valence, likeability, and honesty/trust • The “problem” is that warmth and competence, intelligence and niceness, strength and likeability, are often seen as negatively correlated • Teresa M. Amabile, “Brilliant But Cruel: Perceptions of Negative Evaluators” (J. of Experimental Social Psychology,1983) • Amy Cuddy, “Just Because I’m Nice, Don’t Assume I’m Dumb” (Harvard Business Review, February, 2009) PERSON PERCEPTION

6. PEOPLE WANT TO ASSOCIATE WITH WINNERS, SO… • You need to project confidence • You need to convey strength • You need to signal that you know what you are doing—that you are competent and are likely to succeed at your endeavor

7. ACTING WITH POWER • Make eye contact • Looking down or away conveys evasiveness • Not making eye contact signals that you are untrustworthy • Take up space and adopt an expansive posture • If you adopt a “power” pose, you will not only feel more powerful, your actual blood chemistry (cortisol, a stress hormone, and testosterone) will change • Don’t hunch, fold your arms in front of your chest, or do other things that signal defensiveness

8. ACTING WITH POWER • Use forceful gestures—avoid waving your arms; instead, use compact gestures such as pointing or moving your hands in a powerful fashion • Use your voice and its tone to convey power • Speak loudly • Don’t raise your inflection at the end of a sentence, making statements seem like questions • Don’t hem and haw, speak without interruption

9. ACTING WITH POWER • Use memory to access the emotion to want to express at the moment—bring a past time when you felt something into the present • Manage the setting to the extent possible • Use symbols of power—dress, uniforms • Don’t use notes • Notes convey that you are “mouthing” someone else’s message • Notes imply you are not in command or control and are uncertain about things • Notes require you to look down, breaking eye contact • Have meetings on your territory, if possible

10. ACTING WITH POWER • Display anger rather than sadness or remorse • Those with power have permission to be angry, so the expression of anger has become associated with power • Research shows that others convey more status to someone who expresses anger rather than sadness or guilt • In many instances, situations are ambiguous—if you are ashamed and embarrassed by your behavior, others will follow your lead

11. ACTING SKILLS, LIKE ALL SKILLS, ARE LEARNED • Studies of “genius”—outstanding performance in fields ranging from athletics to artistic endeavors to math and science—consistently find that the importance of individual abilities and differences is overrated. What matters is practice and coaching. One estimate is that it takes about 10,000 hours to become extremely proficient at a particular skill. • Practice and preparation are important

12. SPEAKING WITH POWER • Interruption • Powerful people interrupt • Those with less power get interrupted • Use clear, simple, declarative sentences • Use contrasts, framed to make your position seem reasonable by comparison • “Do you want to retreat or persevere to achieve victory”

13. SPEAKING WITH POWER • Use lists of 3 or more items • Because we tend to support those to whom we are similar, use “us” versus “them” references to develop an association with your audience and seem like one of them • Pause for emphasis • Avoid notes • Use humor—if you can get someone to laugh, you can tell them anything

14. CONTRASTING BP AND GOLDMAN SACHS • In the summer of 2010, both BP and Goldman Sachs faced public outcry and scrutiny. • BP had the oil platform catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, for which it was blamed even though Transocean and Halliburton were partners on the rig. • Goldman Sachs was accused of a conflict of interest—betting against the very securities it was selling to its clients

15. Consider the differences in the performance of Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman, and Tony Hayward, the (former) CEO of BP, as they testified before the U.S. Congress. Both have the same task—to inspire confidence in their customers, employees, and most importantly, in their boards of directors who control their fates. They also must explain and account for their companies’ actions.

16. Tony Hayward—about 90 seconds without sound—so you can get a sense of how he appears.

17. Lloyd Blankfein—about 90 seconds without sound—so you can see the difference in how he looks and seems

18. SOME DIFFERENCES • Hayward is reading, which forces him to break eye contact and appear “scripted” • Hayward does not move his hands or head very much—does not “command the space”—and thus does not look in control. • Blankfein has a “puzzled” look, as if, “how can you be asking me this?” • Blankfein’s physical gestures and presence connote “teaching and explaining” and he appears much more comfortable.

19. SOME IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES • The first thing Hayward faces is the request to “speak louder” • Hayward never puts BP “in context”—contrast with Blankfein who begins by talking about the company’s long history, its success, its commanding position in the financial services industry. Hayward never talks about BP’s history, the number of wells it drills, or its importance in providing energy (even to the U.S. military).

20. SOME IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES • Blankfein challenges the premises of the questioning, explaining the nature of markets and market making • Blankfein flatters the firm’s clients—noting that they are sophisticated and highly critical, able to form independent judgments and not relying on Goldman Sachs for advice. That may be one reason that Goldman, according to a New York Times article, retained all of its clients.

21. SOME IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES • Hayward seems unable or unwilling to answer questions, causing him to appear evasive and, therefore, guilty • Hayward never puts the difficulty of drilling in such difficult conditions into context, and never explains why BP was there in the first place (to meet America’ need for energy) • Because of his inability to reassure his questioners or deal comprehensively with their questions, he comes across as being neither forceful nor remorseful

22. SOME IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES • Hayward begins with an apology and apologizes and expresses regret on numerous occasions during his presentation. • Blankfein never apologizes nor does he ever admit that Goldman did something wrong. On the contrary, he explains Goldman’s actions as being consistent with its business and with how markets work

23. LESSONS • The facts matter, of course, but what matters even more is how you present yourself and those facts to others. “Guilt” or “innocence” get constructed through and by your own actions and interactions. • Your ability to keep your job depends on convincing others that you deserve the position—that you have the power and ability to warrant being followed.