Customer Reviews

Power! How to Get It, How to Use It

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Korda does his best in explaining the different
ways that power is obtained in a corporation. "Power Games"
and being properly dressed, it's all in the book.
It's also a good look at corporate culture during the
1980's, before the management revolution and downsizing
went into effect.

Since when does discourtesy equate with power? Korda's popular 80's "Power" book is filled with anecdotes and advice, seemingly nested in the premise that if people will allow you to abuse them, then you are powerful. Take for example Korda's advice to arrange for a telephone call during a lunch meeting, talk during the entirety of the meeting, then leave after the call is ended, since this proves to them how important and powerful you are. First of all, no serious executive has TIME to hold such frivolous meetings simply to prove a point. Second, while such discourtesy may make you feel empowered once, it's unlikely that you will ever be able to get those at your lunch to meet you again. Finally, as such behaviour is essentially burning bridges, one should hope that you will never require the assistance of anyone at the table in the future, since, assuming they are ever inclined to help, such abuse will ensure that they will rub whatever assistance they provide in your face. I am Southern, and was raised to believe that courtesy was a demonstration of respect to those around you. As "Power" seems to advocate discourtesy, and therefore disrespect, to those you are dealing with, I find the advice tremendously amusing, and it is very unlikely that anyone would seriously achieve results with such tactics. I also spent 2 1/2 years working on Wall Street for an LBO outfit, and 2 1/2 years in Silcon Valley with a VC firm, and can assure all readers of this review that anyone demonstrating the shallow behaviour advocated by this book would soon find himself unemployed and without a network to rely upon. Basically, this book is about seeming powerful in only the most superficial and petty ways, and less about getting power, and certainly not about keeping it. In fact, the effete, over dramatic performances this book advocates, while perhaps appropriate for a drag revue, are likely to make one a laughingstock ("I AM a DIVA!"). "Secrets of a Corporate Headhunter", by John Wareham, has an excellent chapter on "charisma", and the little chapter is worth more in informational content than the entirety of this book.

Those who trash the book, insisting "southern charm" will save the day, are completely ignorant about power or politics. I've *personally witnessed* power displays and behavior just as attrocious as the author describes, *from CEO's* no less. I don't use or condone it, but it is there, and to ignore it or scoff at it is to do so at your own loss. Even in the politest of environments with the biggest of smiles, everyone is looking out for themselves. Power plays don't have to be abrupt to be effective. Intimidation can take on very subtle forms, couched in velvet gloves and teacups. The author even states that. Take it from someone who's been there, someone who's been on the receiving end of some pretty dark power plays and still hasn't fully recovered, knowing the material in this book can save your bacon. I wish it had saved mine before it was too late. I recommend it to everybody.

This book was originally written/intended as a satire on climbing the corporate ladder and the power-lust so many of us are privy to in the professional world. If you think the advice is heavy-handed and off-target, well, it's supposed to be!

An untrusted friend passed this pile of claptrap to me when I had just completed undergrad and I held my (scowling) opinion in abeyance toward its spurious lessons as I entered the work force. I held the strange tenets in reserve and waited and watched. I mean, who really knows how to prosper in an unknown environment? Maybe the world of work was a Nazi Concentration Camp and if so, I knew the rules. I was pleased to see that I could spot totally ineffective managers that operated on bluster and recrimination after having their techniques glorified in Korda's book. The friend who had passed me the book way back when lost job after job and always seemed to be shouting; "I am the great and powerful Oz!" to no effect. I found the remedy to this witch's brew when I came across: "Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, and Bruce Patton" a wonderful book that was made for people who enjoy being on this planet and working hard toward a shared victory while demonstrating respect and caring for those around them. Read it with a jaundiced eye.

Don't read this in order to use it yourself, read it so you will recognize what others are using on you. You'll learn to see the power plays and often be able to foil them before they're fully developed - after they are firmly in place, you're already just another victim.

This book is grossly mis-titled. In a nutshell, it is a collection of office strong-arm tactics (all pretty bad). This book has absolutely nothing to do with power. Power, the kind that readers of such books strive for, is the ability to get people to do what you need them to do willingly. The tricks described in this book are totally apparent to the victim. Resorting to juvenile games like these will ensure that the reader will never be in a position of real power. The power Korda talks about is the power of a lowly clerk in a huge bureaucracy who thinks that misplacing your file or application or such gives him/her leverage over you. Luckily, I borrowed this book from a library, so at least this "advice" didn't cost me anything. Take your money elsewhere.

This wasn't well, written, nor very insightful. Korda in his own memoir dismisses it as kind of a joke of a book that mistakenly got taken seriously.