Stanford's Most Controversial Professor on Power | Jeffrey Pfeffer

TL;DR

Jeffrey Pfeffer argues that power is essential for health, longevity, and effectiveness, and that the commonly held belief "power corrupts" discourages well-adjusted people from pursuing it while sociopaths seek it anyway.

Key insights

• The Whitehall Studies by Sir Michael Marmot showed that higher rank in the British Civil Service correlates with lower cardiovascular disease and longer life because higher rank provides more control
• Power leads to disinhibition of behavior—people become more self-focused, believe rules don't apply to them, and behave differently than when they had less power (Dacher Keltner, Deborah Gruenfeld, Ca
• If society tells people "power corrupts, don't pursue power," the only people who listen are well-adjusted individuals who want to do good, while sociopathic people ignore the message and pursue power