Building Your Power from the Inside Out

Want more influence at work? The answer is not in a PowerPoint deck—you have to speak your mind and stick to your convictions.

by Liz Ryan

I gave a talk recently at a human resources conference. The topic was "Building Your Personal Power." This is one of my favorite topics and one that resonates with businesspeople, perhaps because they work in environments where symbols of power are everywhere. Various measures and trophies, from the size of one's cube to business-class travel privileges to titles, roles, and places on the company's org chart indicate our relative power. But as I told the group, the more important kind of power isn't associated with org charts or budgets or offices with window views. It's a different kind of power, the kind that we cultivate in ourselves.

Over and over again, when chief executives and other leaders are asked about their paths to success, we hear them say, "I stuck to my convictions, and I spoke my mind at critical moments." The power these leaders developed wasn't conferred on them by a higher-level manager or a board of directors or an awards committee. They created it.

A great many businesspeople, at all levels and across functions, eventually hit a point in their careers where the next step isn't to be found in a book or a PowerPoint deck. Most people don't reach this critical juncture early in their careers. They're too busy scrambling to learn how business works, how to work on a team, how to manage goals, and a thousand other how-tos. During those early years, they've got too much on their plates to stop and wonder, "What stands between me and my goals?"

Why Don't I Have More Influence?
But at some point, once they're comfortable with their professional skills, well-regarded in their fields, and confident about themselves in general, the question arises: "What must I do next to get to the point where I really deserve to be in my career?"

That goal may be tied to title, size of job, or compensation, but it could just as easily be a matter of answering the question "Why don't I have more influence at work?" It could come after we're overlooked for a key promotion, or as we come to the realization that our skills are relied upon but not highly valued by our managers. It could come through any number of influences. One day we may be driving to the office, stressing about an early meeting, when we suddenly think "I am smart and I work hard. Don't I deserve more than this?"

Here's the tough part. The next step in all likelihood will come not from a book or a workshop or even an MBA program, but from a reevaluation of your relationship with your job. In short, the people who reach the goals they aspire to are people who "own" their jobs—whose accountability for their success is absolute and who follow their convictions over political considerations, the desire to avoid conflict, and other entanglements. That's why the next step is a tough one. It doesn't involve working harder, working more hours, or pleasing the right person. It could involve just the opposite.

A Matter of Personal Power
Since my background is in human resources, HR people are always asking me, " How do I become more influential and gain a seat at the table?" HR leaders tell me "I am well-educated and experienced. I am as competent as can be. What do I need to do to influence the way this organization functions beyond the dental plan and the new employee orientation?"

I have to tell them their experience and academic credentials don't have as much to do with this equation as they might hope. The influence they're after won't come from more training, and their boss can't confer that influence on them. It's not a matter of knowledge; it's a matter of credibility, of personal power.

Trust me, lots of HR people don't want to hear that. Gaining that personal power, for an HR person, very often means standing up for the right thing when people in more powerful spots don't see it or don't agree. It means taking risks. That's tough. That's why so many people never take that step. It's a shame they don't. The beneficiaries of more personally empowered managers would be not only the managers themselves but also their teams, their company's customers, and the shareholders of those organizations.

Become Credible by Being Challenged
I spoke with a marketing vice-president who said, "I am in the right company. I never want to leave." This was a tad surprising, if not alarming, because the man was, at most, 36. He continued "You see, at this company they don't know much about marketing, so they defer to me on everything." I asked him why he would set his personal development bar so low? Is that the grand prize—to work in a company where you're never challenged? If you aren't challenged, you won't learn how to make an argument, win people over to your side, or end up on the losing side of a question with grace. That's how people become credible. They don't bend with the wind, and they don't become powerful by staying in jobs where there's no one to learn from.

You see the next-step issue arise in the area of work-life balance all the time. People say, "I have a good job, and I don't want to mess anything up for myself politically. I'm viewed as a key person, so I'll give up my nights and weekends, even though I hate it." What they don't see is that if they occasionally insisted on some time off to have a life, they'd gain credibility, not lose it.

Building Your Inner-Power Muscles
The next step has everything to do with giving up the idea "I'll do whatever I need to do at work to be liked" and moving toward, "There's no point in spending as much energy and as many hours as I do at work, if I can't be myself." That's a big step, no, a huge one. It can be terrifying. But ask any leader you admire, and you'll hear the same thing; every one of them has done it. Some have crashed and burned in the process, making tough decisions and sharing difficult news and angering people along the way. Not surprisingly, people who have cultivated their personal power tend to bounce back. So will you.

Here's another good thing to know about building your power from the inside out: It gets easier the more you do it. You might say that speaking from your gut is like singing from your diaphragm—the more you practice it, the stronger the muscle grows. One of these days, when you're way more confident than you are right now, a younger person will ask "Gosh, how did you get to be so confident?" Try to resist the temptation to say, "I had a PowerPoint deck showing 10 simple tips for becoming more powerful."

Liz Ryan is an expert on the new-millennium workplace and a former Fortune 500 HR executive.