The POWER BLOG explores how power works in human relationships. We
examine various analyses of power by famous power experts through the lens of
our business experience. We focus on pairing powerful writing to their
conclusions to achieve better individual outcomes. We hope that the POWER BLOG provides
you with an advantage over your competition in today’s complicated economy.

FIRST LAW OF POWER   – TED Talk lecture: “How to understand
power”, by Eric Liu, Senior Law Lecturer at the University of Washington School
of Law

 

POWER LAW #1:            “power is never static”

 

POWER RATIOS

1.
in
all relationships, one person always has more power than the other. The party
with more power will consistently achieve better results at the expense of the
weaker party. Always choose to be the stronger party.

 

2.
employer
decisions are often made emotionally, in response to their perception of your
image. You control that image and therefore your bosses’ perception of you.

 

3.
the
digital economy prioritizes writing over speech. Because bad writing has become
the popular norm, writing powerfully makes you stand out from your competition.

 

FINAL RATIO:  Because power is
always shifting between people, employees can seize opportunities from their
peers and even their bosses by consistently writing with power. Promotions and
career success follow.

 

1.
POWER
DICTATES ALL RELATIONSHIPS

According to Eric Liu’s November
2014 Ted Talk How to Understand Power, Power is never static. It’s
always either accumulating or decaying. If you aren’t taking
action, you’re being acted upon.

Translation: in all human interactions, you’re either the cat or
the mouse.

The first law of power applies to
you whether you object to it or not. Your only choice is whether you’re the cat
or the mouse. Always choose cat.

 

 

Power’s impact on you

In some relationships, power’s impact
is obvious: your boss controls your work duties. In others, power’s role is
less clear-cut: you and your brother appear equal, but parental favoritism or
your deeper pocketbook ensure that interactions between you are tilted in one
sibling’s favor. And it’s that edge that counts: in
any relationship, he with the power advantage will consistently profit from the
weaker party’s disadvantage.

POWER RATIO #1: in all relationships, one person will always have more
power than the other. Over time, the party with more power will achieve better
results at the expense of the weaker person. Always try to be the stronger
party.

2.
IMPACT
OF FIRST LAW OF POWER ON ECONOMIC SUCCESS

In some relationships, power
imbalances are baked into the cake.

Business has codified power into the
chain of command. Your boss has power over you, and you have power over your
employees. This chain of command is fluid. Promotion, demotion, hiring, and
termination all can and do occur on a regular basis (remember:
power is never static).

In this fluid chain of command,
some do better than others. They accrue more power, faster, than their peers (usually,
this increased power takes the form of promotions. But pay raises, title
changes, and enhanced responsibility are all aspects of increased employee power).

Even when they’re structurally
the mouse, some employees choose to act with power, giving them an advantage
over their peers.

Why promotions occur quickly for some but not for others

Promotions occur for a variety of
reasons:

1.
Connections

2.
Education and experience

3.
Business need

4.
Ability

5.
Likeability

6.
Corporate perception

Of these, only your employer’s
perception of you is controllable. Dressing impeccably, for instance, enhances
your superiors’ opinion of your ability and therefore your value to the
business. A positive corporate perception is a force multiplier to your other
qualities: your ability, likeability, experience, and even the business’s need
to have you in a position of responsibility all appear greater than they are.

Your image, then, matters to your
success. And you control what that image is.

 

The science of brand image

Contemporary brand science holds that consumers
make product choices unconsciously. They don’t think about their selection,
weighing pros and cons. They feel that one product is right and then they buy.

Unconscious feelings triggering decisions occur
in human-to-human interactions as well. Though we are not corporations, each of
us projects a brand image in the mind of every person we know and interact
with. Whether you get a promotion or a raise depends
upon that image triggering the right feelings in your boss. Consequently, your
boss’s perception of you is everything. Cultivate it carefully.

POWER RATIO #2: employer decisions are often made emotionally, in
response to their perception of your controllable brand image.

3.
CONTROLLING
YOUR BRAND IMAGE WITH POWERFUL WRITING

In business, your brand personal image
has three components. Your:

1.
personality

2.
appearance

3.
writing

You’re stuck with your
personality. But you can and should dress to maximize your success. Consistent
quality clothing creates opportunity. The same is true of writing.
Grammatically correct writing says you’re employable. Powerful writing
announces to the world that you’re formidable, someone worthy of increased
responsibility, opportunities, and promotion.

Powerful writing in the digital economy

Like it or not, the global
economy is digital. Your business may use email occasionally. Or your company
may be fully networked in the cloud, with different offices connecting
disparate functional groups by office social media and chat clients. To some
degree, we all must contend with technology in the workplace.

The emergence of digital business
has inflated the importance of powerful writing. Most business communications
are now text-based: email, chat, social media, application. Phone and
face-to-face conversations have been systemically devalued. At the same time,
the mass adoption of digital technologies has degraded our collective writing
skills. We’ve become a nation of bad writers.

At the crossroads of writing’s increased
importance and our collective writing-skill decline lies opportunity: powerful
writing separates you from your competition. Always. Opportunity and success
follow.

POWER RATIO #3: the digital economy prioritizes writing over speech, but
bad writing has become the norm. Powerful writing makes you stand out from your
competition, breeding opportunity and victory.

What
is Powerful Writing?

4.
CONCLUSION:
POWER’S CONSTANT SHIFTING IS YOUR ADVANTAGE

The First Law of Power dictates that
power is never static. This constant shifting conceals an opportunity that
others don’t see: you can seize power and opportunities from your peers by
controlling promotion’s key metric, your employer’s perception of you.

FINAL RATIO:  Because power is
always shifting between people, employees can seize opportunities from their
peers and even their bosses by consistently writing with power. Promotions and
career success follow.

POWER LETTERS is the world’s
leading practitioner of POWER WRITING. Our mission is to help our clients
accomplish their goals by securing them the Respect they need to win.