Power in the Digital Age

Who was your favourite character in Game of Thrones? Mine was Cercei: the powerful and ruthless queen.

Yes, she had her downsides (incest and a lot of murder), but I admired her calm, pragmatic and strategic mind.

In modern discourse, pragmatism is rarely praised, but instead we are told to follow our passions and do what we love. Be true to yourself, bring your whole self to work and be authentic.

I think this is nonsense from the land of unicorns and daisies.

If you want to have a truly great career, you have to match your vision with pragmatism. That means mastering power dynamics, and making them work for you, rather than against you.

So, what is power? According to the Cambridge English dictionary power is the ability to control people or things.

Unlike Cersei, you cannot walk around with a private army and imprison your enemies (even if they really deserve it). But these are just tools. Focus on the outcome.

The outcome of power is being able to make what you desire come to life, and to quash what might get in your way.

Here are some examples from my life and that of my clients:

• Saying no to an investor because you have a feeling that they are going to be too high maintenance
• Charging more for your work because you know that without you, the organization would get into serious trouble without you
• Ignoring short term opportunities to focus on your bigger goal

In the above examples, the protagonist has more options than their counterpart.

You can say no to an annoying investor, when you have lots of others. You can easily earn more when the organization knows that without you, they would earn a lot less.

Power in the Digital Age also means not outsourcing your decision making entirely to technology and technologists.

Powerful business leaders sometimes follow data and sometimes follow instinct.

Powerless people outsource their decision making entirely to an algorithm.

The latter is not going to get you promoted, admired for your expertise or help you create a successful venture or get investors on board.

The first step to having power is admitting to yourself that you want it. Nobody becomes truly powerful by accident.

The second step is learning how to do it. This June, I am accepting applications for my Power in the Digital Age coaching program, where I will work with select clients 1:1 for the next 6 months.

If you want to finish 2023 in your most powerful position yet, apply here.