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.