"Money has no power of its own. You alone are the power source."
-Suze orman
Showing posts with label power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label power. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Moving Beyond Words
I decided to go back to the signed Gloria Steinem book, and it has been a great experience. There are 6 essays and all of them were fantastic. Here are a few quotes from "The Masculinization of Wealth."
"Inherited wealth and power enforce patriarchy pure, and envy of this ladylike trap makes the rest of us behave against our own best interests." - p 175.
"Upper class men...are no more likely to be shaken in their positions as heads of their families than they are to be shaken from their positions as heads of society's economic institutions." - Susan Ostrander
"There are many ways class doesn't work for women - and some in which it's actually reversed." - p 184.
"The closer women are to power, the weaker those women have to be kept." - p 187.
"There is not a woman born who desires to eat the bread of dependence, no matter whether it be from the hand of father, husband, or brother, for anyone who does so eat her bread places herself in the power of the person from whom she takes it." - Susan B. Anthony
"Women with wealth and women without wealth share a sense of isolation, alienation , and powerlessness...we feel this way no matter where we are...people like me need people like you, and people like you need people like me. Together, we make a wonderful whole...we must look inside ourselves, take the risk to learn who we are and acknowledge all the pieces." - Byllye Avery, founder and director of the National Black Women's Health Project, addressing a group of women of inherited wealth.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Power
My mom has been helping me pick up the kids from school nearly every day. The other day, J. came home with a new martial arts poster. He is working on getting his next belt after orange, and I am very proud of all he has accomplished in class. He recently brought home an Outstanding Achievement Award and a coupon for a free pizza. He insisted on going to get the pizza right then, LOL. I really loved what he picked out for his poster.
POWER
"He who controls others may be powerful, but he who controls himself is mightier still." - Lao Tzu.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Does Power Really Go to Your Head?
In the 1980s, before she started studying the nature of power, psychologist Deborah Gruenfeld, PhD, did public relations for magazines. There was one editor whose sense of entitlement she'll never forget: "He had a refrigerator by his desk with only two things in it—cut raw onions and a bottle of vodka. And while we were meeting he'd lean over and take a drink of the vodka and eat the onions. He never offered to share, and nobody ever questioned it."
Now a professor of leadership and organizational behavior at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, Gruenfeld says the man's behavior was a perfect example of what some studies have shown—that people in positions of power are more likely to focus on their own needs and goals while disregarding what others are experiencing. (In one experiment, the empowered people ate the extra cookie from a plate, chewed with their mouths open, and scattered crumbs.) Having authority, Gruenfeld and her colleagues have found, tends to make you favor people who are useful to you, regardless of whether they're likeable; it also inflates the sense that you can influence random events, such as rolling a die. And it makes you less inhibited socially and sexually.
In other experiments, Cameron Anderson, PhD, an associate professor of organizational behavior and industrial relations at UC Berkeley, discovered that power made people positively overestimate how others viewed them. And Gerben van Kleef, PhD, an associate professor of social psychology at the University of Amsterdam, found that high-powered people were less compassionate. Interestingly, researchers say their findings apply to both sexes.
"Power definitely transforms the way you approach the world," says Adam Galinsky, PhD, a professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and one of Gruenfeld's collaborators. And that transformation can be a good thing: The traits power enhances—being goal-oriented, self-interested, and comfortable taking risks—are potent leadership qualities when wielded responsibly. "The trick," says Galinsky, "is to harness power without letting it harness you."
— Jonathan Vatner
Now a professor of leadership and organizational behavior at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford, Gruenfeld says the man's behavior was a perfect example of what some studies have shown—that people in positions of power are more likely to focus on their own needs and goals while disregarding what others are experiencing. (In one experiment, the empowered people ate the extra cookie from a plate, chewed with their mouths open, and scattered crumbs.) Having authority, Gruenfeld and her colleagues have found, tends to make you favor people who are useful to you, regardless of whether they're likeable; it also inflates the sense that you can influence random events, such as rolling a die. And it makes you less inhibited socially and sexually.
In other experiments, Cameron Anderson, PhD, an associate professor of organizational behavior and industrial relations at UC Berkeley, discovered that power made people positively overestimate how others viewed them. And Gerben van Kleef, PhD, an associate professor of social psychology at the University of Amsterdam, found that high-powered people were less compassionate. Interestingly, researchers say their findings apply to both sexes.
"Power definitely transforms the way you approach the world," says Adam Galinsky, PhD, a professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and one of Gruenfeld's collaborators. And that transformation can be a good thing: The traits power enhances—being goal-oriented, self-interested, and comfortable taking risks—are potent leadership qualities when wielded responsibly. "The trick," says Galinsky, "is to harness power without letting it harness you."
— Jonathan Vatner
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