Jeffrey Pfeffer: evaluation

Transcript context

…Awesome. Okay, let's move on to a different power. Let's talk about power one, which is getting out of your own way. Talk about what that means and how someone can work on that. Well, you already have done a fabulous job of illustrating principle one by talking about how this is the topic that makes people uncomfortable. And when something makes people uncomfortable, in general, they're going to shy away from it. So if I think power is dirty, if I think power is evil, if I think power is something I want nothing to do with, the first thing that's going to happen is I'm not going to do what I need to do to be successful in my career. So that is one way in which we get in our own way. Another way in which we get in our own way, many people suffer from what is called in the psychology literature, imposter syndrome. They believe that they were the admissions mistake at Stanford. They were the hiring mistake in whatever company they're working for. That somehow they got to this job, but they don't really deserve to be there because they're surrounded by people who are smarter and better than them, and therefore they will do things. I can't even believe that this goes on. So I will have students, not many, but a few. Now raise their hand, I'll call them, and the first things out of their mouth will be, I don't know if this comment is going to be useful. This is called pre-emptory apology. If the comment is not going to be useful, don't say it. That's number one, but number two, don't apologize. Pardon me for interrupting. Pardon me for taking up your time. Stop all this apologizing. If you got the job you're in, you probably are not only qualified, you're probably overqualified. So don't use descriptors of yourself that disempower you. Don't think of yourself as not deserving of the job that you hold, because that attitude will leak out and other people will say, if Lenny doesn't think he deserved the job, then maybe I shouldn't think he deserves the job either. So basically the first power is you're shooting yourself in the foot by worrying too much about whether people like you. This friend of mine who's now the founder that I read some quotes from, she said her number one takeaway from your class is if you want to be liked, get a dog.…

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