Power Intelligence:

Insights on Power and Leadership

Featured Posts

Can you outskill bad character?

Can you outskill bad character?

I must have given hundreds of talks on power, from classrooms to boardrooms, and I can say with confidence that this question or some version of it comes up every single time.

read more
The Lost Art of Not Knowing

The Lost Art of Not Knowing

I was listening to a podcast the other day, a very popular one, with millions of listeners, and the host was interviewing a Nobel Prize–winning economist. As he was listing his guest’s accomplishments, he said, “and then you won the Nobel Peace Prize.”

read more

Additional Posts

Jumping Into the Deep End

We’re here on earth for just a short time. And the time we have is a privilege. And a responsibility. A responsibility to do something with your “one wild and precious life.” 

read more

Side-stepping power

Most misuse of power is seen as its overuse: dominating discussions, micromanaging others, coercing or threatening to get your way. But the underuse of power—timidity, hesitation, fear of making the wrong decision—is just as costly. Holding power means having a responsibility to use it. And side-stepping your power, ceding your authority to be seen as nice, or to avoid making a wrong move, can have negative, even dangerous consequences.

read more

Staying True to Your Voice

Praise, approval, and positive feedback is attractive—and addictive. When you have an audience, it’s tempting to bend toward their expectations, to dilute your voice, your truth to earn their approval. We see artists sellout, teachers lower their standards to get better ratings from students, even managers turn a blind eye to things, to stay in the good graces of others. But real power comes from resisting that pull: from staying true to your own voice, even when it’s uncomfortable, unpopular, or unrewarded.

read more

Oh. I guess it’s me.

My mother died last month, and now I’m confronting the strange sensation of being the eldest generation in my family. Along with my sister and brother, I’m suddenly the person at the top of the tree, the elder. It’s an odd feeling, and one I haven’t quite grown into.

read more

Between Conscience and Compromise

When institutions are threatened by corrupt or corrosive forces, leaders face a difficult choice: resist or acquiesce. Do they defy the regime or accommodate to protect and preserve the institution? Is compromise a form of quiet resistance, or is it ‘bending a knee,’ binding us too closely to the very forces we oppose?

read more

The Power of Reading the Room

We often think of leadership as bold action, but it’s just as much about quiet sensing, tuning into unspoken dynamics, the mood, the tension in the room, and responding to what’s actually happening. Caught between the economic and legal consequences of a moment, it’s easy to lose touch with reality and instead follow a script that feels safe and expedient, rather than truly reading the room.

read more

The Seduction of Success

Success is intoxicating. When you’re praised and celebrated, it’s tempting to fall for the stories others tell about you: you are invincible, destined for ever-greater triumphs. It’s not risk itself that undoes us but the illusion that risk no longer applies.

read more

Blooming in Your Own Time

Life often feels like a series of prescribed phases: entering adulthood, building a career, raising a family, retiring. It can seem as if we’re expected to move through them in lockstep. Everyone around us appears to be doing the same thing, whether getting a job, getting promoted, starting a family. But there is no single arc of development that fits us all. We each march to the beat of our own drum. Maybe you don’t feel ready to settle down until your fifties. Maybe you launch a new career at seventy. Maybe you dive into work as a teenager, only to discover college calling in your forties.

read more

Inner Freedom

It’s important to take a stand. To fight for what you believe in. And fight against what’s wrong. But the everpresent danger in fighting your enemy is becoming the enemy. Hatred can colonize your inner life just as your enemy can occupy your outer one. How do you resist without letting your adversary live in your head, consuming your heart?

read more

No One Wants This

Fewer people want to lead—but why? This article explores why leadership feels unbearable today and what it will take to make good leadership possible again.

read more

Open Borders

Close the borders. Levy the tariffs. Protect the turf.  It’s a natural instinct to circle the wagons and guard yourself from threats beyond the boundary, whether those boundaries are national, organizational, or team-based.  It’s a natural instinct. Except it doesn’t work.

read more

The Roots Beneath You

We live in an era where we can craft our own identities, which is a uniquely modern phenomenon. With technology and social media, we can find communities based on anything from music preferences to diet. This freedom offers a sense of independence, but it comes at a cost.

read more

The Peak of Mt. Stupid

We’ve arrived at a moment where everyone’s an expert on everything. Epidemiology, international law, airplane safety, constitutional precedent, you name it. All you need is a web browser, a following, and enough chutzpah to voice your opinion.. But knowing a little, and believing you know it all, has always been a recipe for disaster.

read more

The Power of Timing

The “too hard basket” gets full awfully quickly. Tricky conflicts. Knotty problems. Longstanding feuds. Some things simply defy solutions, and it’s tempting to give up. 

read more

Power Hiding in Plain Sight

A few years back, I was designing a leadership program with a group of other consultants. We were discussing potential facilitators for the team. Maya’s name was on the list. “She’s great,” said my colleague, Raj. “She’s really smart, asks tough questions, and pushes people to think differently. Exactly the kind of person we need for this project.”

read more