Power Is the Great Motivator (HBR Classic)

Nowadays, with organizations growing ever flatter and responsibility being pushed further down the ranks, admitting to a desire for power is a little out of fashion. But as the research in this 1976 classic HBR article shows, power is essential to good management. In fact, when it comes to managing big companies, the desire for power--that is, a manager's desire to have an impact, to be strong and influential--is more important than the need to get things done or the wish to be liked. The need to achieve, while important in small companies, actually becomes counterproductive in large, complex organizations, leading managers to try to do things themselves rather than spread tasks among many people. And managers who need to be liked tend to make exceptions for particular subordinates' needs, undermining morale. But seeking power is not the same as seeking glory. People who want power only to further their own careers, rather than the goals of the organization, tend to have subordinates who are loyal to them but not to the company, making them less effective on the whole. And wanting power is not the same as throwing it around. Correlations between employee morale and sales figures show that individuals who manage by fiat are less effective than those whose style is more democratic. As the many examples show, top executives can learn to tell who the good managers are likely to be and to train existing ones to be more effective. McKinsey Award Winner.

• Managing employees
• Self-motivation
• Morale
• Management styles
• Power and influence