Power Play: Stop needing to be right

Truly powerful people don’t put a lot of stock in always being right. They put much more stock in being interesting and original.

Powerful types also know that fresh is the currency of business today. Don’t misunderstand. Powerful types do seem to have a knack for being right when it counts, but they figured out early on in their careers that right doesn’t get you noticed or promoted. It’s expected.

What does get you noticed is a brain that can deliver original and unusual, nuanced and nimble.

If you can let go of needing to be right all the time, you can start focusing on being interesting. So few people are, and dull, unimaginative, sober and generic seem to be the colour of the boardroom these days.

Originality (even if it ends up being the wrong strategy) equals power, and that’s the type of Power Play few people can pull off. Learn how to and you can rule the world.

The story

A Power Player I worship made a spectacularly incorrect recommendation. His idea was brilliant – fresh, original and thrilling – but it was the wrong way to go.

He didn’t factor in some financial information (which he should have researched) and this news would have cancelled out the viability of the idea.

Regardless, I remember thinking that his brain was unbelievably good and the client saying exactly the same thing, too. He may have been wrong but his ideas meant that respect and esteem for him grew tenfold.