Power Play: Powerful people make it look easy

Power Players come with a middle name: ‘Easy’. Not in the sleazy, devil-may-care way, but in the effortless, get-it-done-without-any-commotion way.

Making it look easy is a trademark move of every accomplished Power Player. Even if it is incredibly hard, and even if it is a back-breaking deluge followed by a pride-swallowing siege. There’s an old political saying – there’s two things no one needs to see getting made: laws and sausages.

The same principle applies to business in general. No one needs to see the blood, sweat and tears that come when doing business. Player Players never talk about the pain and they don’t underline the hard parts. They do their best to skip right over them.

They sweat privately, they curse privately and they throw tantrums privately. What they do show publicly is grace and a cool exterior. Mae West used to say ‘Never let ‘em see you sweat’. And she was right. If you’re sweating the contract, sweating the pressure and sweating the degree of difficulty, having everyone else know it does you no favours.

Your job as a Power Player? Make it look easy.