Catch Up Time

Here's a quick speed round to catch me up a little. I'm on Law #8 and I don't want to go back and blog on each law so I'll just hit the ones that made the most sense to me.

Law 4: Say Less Than Necessary

I often times start running my mouth with every little bit of information. Silence is naturally uncomfortable. I need to learn how to employ silence as an asset.

Most of the time, I'm an open book where people can read and know everything about me. There is some value in keeping your mouth shut.

Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation

What is my reputation with the people in my life. Imagine that it is not exactly how I would have it to be. I need to define the person that I want to be known as and live up to that reputation.

Finally,

Law 7: Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit

I don't necessarily agree with the part about taking the credit for other people's work, but I do see the value in delegating. I'm just getting the hang of delegation . It makes so much sense.

Ok, normally my posts will be more analytical but i just want to catch up. I'll continue tomorrow.

Law 1: Never Out Shine Your Master

The author does make some really good points in this chapter. But once again, the author continues to have this "take over the world" mentality. He's wont out shine his Master until the point when he will over throw him and rise above him at his master's expense. Or maybe that's the way that I read it.


There are some very valid points and here are some of the conclusions that I've drawn from them:

People/bosses/ masters never like to be out done by their subordinates, but many of us try and do this. This can be very dangerous in front of your boss's/ leader's manager.

I was talking to a guy I work with and he mentioned that his purpose at work was "to make my boss look good." He said it in a way that didn't give me the impression that was strategically making his boss look good for an immanent take over of the office. He sincerely wanted to do a good job for his boss.

Now, maybe the actions of my co-worker does exhibit the principles of power, but it does have the same end result. If you make your boss look good, you look good. By giving the credit to your boss, your not challenging him/ her and putting them on the defensive. Like the author mentioned, by trying to gain your master's favor by out shinning him/ her on a public stage, you'll most likely receive the opposite.

My First Impressions of the Book

My first impression of the book was that it may not be the book for me. It seems somewhat of a sinister way to obtain power through surreptitious means. It talks about plotting against people and waiting to attack. He mentions in the intro ways to lure people into your traps by miss-leading people.

This seems to go against my core beliefs. I have no desire to be a conniving person. In fact, I can't stand people like that.

Should I just stop reading and move on to another book or is there still some benefit to reading this book?

Maybe through listening to this book I can learn how others may approach power. I can learn what to look out for. By reading this book I might be able to better protect myself against certain personalities.

I could also read this book with a grain of salt. I could listen to the principles of this book and modify them to my own style.

Finally, there may be some benefit to reading something you don't agree with. Often times, I only read topics and authors that I'm in agreement with. I take their words as fact and never really challenge them. I stand to gain a lot by reading this book and forming my own opinions on the topics and evaluating them. Isn't that what active learning is all about?

Why I Chose to Read this Book

This book was recommended to me by one of my very good friends Vit D. I was looking for a good book to read on my vacation/ plane ride to Aruba.

The thought of “Power” is a very alluring topic. It’s something that I would like to learn about, because I want to be able to use power as a way to control my environment and the people that I manage.

When I think about power, I am some what conflicted. I don’t want to have power for my own benefit, although it is very tempting purpose. It’s one that can easily become the focus of my study. The reason I want to learn about power is because I want to use it to make myself a better leader. I think there are some under lying traits that impact my ability to be a leader. One of which is the ability to command power.

Maybe it comes from not really having to exhibit the use of power in the earlier part of my life. There is a large part of me that always wanted to avoid conflict. Thinking back, confrontation in the home was something I always shied away from. When I think to my interactions in the neighborhood, playground, school, and team sports, I never really had a problem with power. On the other hand, I never really had a reason to use it. I have always been an easy going guy that pretty much got a long with everyone.

Now that I’m in the position to manage other people, I hate having to confront people in the work force, mainly the people I have to manage, I hate having to have discussions about coming in late, not completing tasks, sales performance, or the way that people address me.

I have a plaguing problem of people liking me, but not respecting me. For example, I need to be able to control those strong personalities.

In some cases, I have asked an employee to do or not to do something and they have given push back, and I give in. I am teaching them, that they can fluff their feathers and I’m going to want to challenge them.

I hope to gain from this book the knowledge to use power wisely. I don’t want to lead how to abuse it, but I want to know how to make it work for me.