Why You Need to Trust the Process—the Power Process, That Is

Followers of this blog know that one of the most important keys to success is to avoid the most common mistakes by which people accidentally squander their power, which all too many people do. Those mistakes are like the holes in a bucket that you’re trying to fill up with “water” (i.e., power and influence). It’s only by plugging up those holes that you can fill the bucket with power without it leaking out at the same time.

One of the best ways to fill up this proverbial bucket is through something known as the power process, which is what we’re going to talk about today. So, while you certainly don’t want to squander power, the focus here is what you can do to build power when you enter an organization.

To Make or Not Make a Splash?

Most people join organizations with the mindset of wanting to be effective. But without the knowledge of how to be genuinely effective, many of them end up doing the exact opposite. Often, this is a result of wanting to “make a splash.” My last post told the story of my former student, Taylor, who stumbled badly when entering the workforce. But what about successful people who are already advanced in their careers? Do they necessarily know and apply the power process when joining a new organization?

To explore this further, consider an individual we’ll assign the unisex name “Jordan,” who was invited to join an organization that will go unnamed (yes, once again a hypothetical with a real-world predicate). Jordan was brought into this unnamed organization at a very high level based on an extraordinary career with impressive accomplishments—i.e., Jordan was an extremely high performer. One of the challenges with high performers, of course, is that they can be perceived as a threat by coworkers and colleagues (Rule #4 in the 7 rules for political skill). This is true just in general, even in the best of circumstances. But if you’re like my high-performing student featured in my last post, you might aggravate the situation by doing the worst possible thing when joining a new organization: arriving with guns blazing. That’s what Jordan did as well, but not so overtly. Instead, the mere celebrity of Jordan’s arrival had a “guns blazing” effect, which was compounded by Jordan’s confident and ambitious plans to shake things up and make an impact.

Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of Jordan’s conspicuous passion and drive to make an impact was to alienate people due to a lack of political skill (and if it seems strange that a person in power could have undeveloped or underdeveloped political skill, keep in mind that there are numerous ways people can come into positions of power, and not all of them are due to political skill). Yes, Jordan’s prestigious rank and title provided some measure of legitimate power within the organization, but remember that all members of an organization, regardless of rank, have reward power and coercive power. In a nutshell, they can exercise their reward power by cooperating and performing enthusiastically, and they can exercise their coercive power by stubbornly resisting or, if they’re really unhappy, actively sabotaging. Sometimes, they can even make a leader’s job so miserable that the leader leaves of their own accord. That’s exactly what happened with Jordan. So, how might Jordan have fared better? Read on.

The 8 Steps of the Power Process

The best way to actually build and exercise power, whether you’re newly entering an organization or have been there for years, is through something called the power process. The power process is a step-by-step methodology developed by one of the most influential thinkers in organizational management, Jeffrey Pfeffer, whom I previously cited in my article about the 10 sources of power. The concept first appeared in a 1993 book written by Pfeffer called Managing With Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations. The steps that follow are derived from Pfeffer’s power process:

1. Decide on your goals. You can’t successfully achieve anything unless you have a clear sense of what it is you want to accomplish. This can include short-term goals, but it requires contemplating long-term goals as well. Such goals should also be specific. In other words, “I want to do well in this organization” is too vague. Better is something like, “As dean, I want to redesign our MBA curriculum so that we prepare students better for future disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic.” But keep it all to yourself. For now.
2. Diagnose dependence and interdependence. Next, you have to get the lay of the land. You can partly do this through detached observation but, ultimately, you have to talk to and interact with people. As you do so, try to figure out who the key players are. Who do you need to establish influence with in order to accomplish your goals? Understand, also, that who the “key players” are can and will shift depending on the goal and the situation. The key players will not be the same for every goal. This is a common misconception. Another misconception is to overly emphasize people with legitimate power. There are many sources of power, and you have to figure out who has the right kind of power, in the right way, for your particular goal. (More on that in a bit.)
3. Analyze views of powerful individuals. Once you’ve identified who the key players are when it comes to a certain goal, you have to gauge and analyze their views on any number of relevant issues that relate to your goals in some way. Focus less on talking and trying to impress people (like Taylor), and focus more on framing good questions and practicing active listening. Why is it so important to know what the key players think? Because if your goal is to do “X” but they prefer “Y,” and they have more power to determine the outcome than you, then to be ignorant of this reality, or to ignore the reality, is to set yourself up for failure.
4. Determine the power base of influential persons. This means to gauge how much power the potential allies and potential opponents of your goal may be. Here, as well, allies and adversaries can shift depending on the specific goal, and someone who’s an ally for one goal can become an adversary for another goal and vice versa. Also, it is always better to overestimate how much power others in the organization have rather than underestimate it. Appearances can be deceiving. Tony Hsieh, the late founder of Zappos, used to relate a story in which new applicants to the company would be brought in for interviews on shuttle buses. Afterward, Zappos recruiters would ask the drivers of the buses how the applicants treated them. If an applicant treated them rudely or callously, they were not hired no matter how well they performed in the interview or on paper. Zappos bus drivers had a lot of referent power. Again, never underestimate people’s power and don’t overly focus on just formal types of power.
5. Determine your own power base. In addition to overestimating others’ power, it is wise to underestimate your own power. Too often, people overestimate their power due to someone they know, perhaps, or because of their background. Yes, these things can be valuable in certain ways, but in many situations, they may not be as helpful as you think. If you really want genuine power, put your pride and ego aside.
6. Determine the most appropriate strategies. (#6 and #7 go together)
7. And choose your course of action. Once you know how an organization and the power dynamics within it work, you can then proceed to cultivate a strategy and a course of action. The problem is most people try to start with steps 6 and 7 on this list before they’ve done 1 through 5. In fact, most people don’t take steps 1 to 5 at all. If you follow this blog, I expect you not to make the same mistake.
8. Reassess the situation. Rather than a single action, this is an ongoing process of reassessing. Situations and circumstances don’t remain static, and people’s viewpoints and feelings don’t remain static either. Everything is in flux, which means (a) you have to stay observant for changes and (b) you have to continually adapt to those changes.

As I’ve said, most people, to their detriment, don’t know about or understand this power process, as was the case with Jordan. I don’t want my readers to be “most people.” I want them to be the exceptions.

You may have seen one of those internet memes that urge people to “trust the process.” That’s far too vague for my tastes. Which process? There are a lot of processes. Some of them, like the process of “othering” people, are the death of persuasion and influence. So here’s what I urge my readers to do instead. By all means, trust the process. But don’t trust just any process.

Trust the power process.

Craig Barkacs, professor of business law and ethics in the Master’s in Executive Leadership and MBA Programs at the University of San Diego School of Business.