This book explores how people develop the power they need to lead and influence others effectively. It describes the five sources of personal power (knowledge, expressiveness, attraction, history, and character), the five sources of organizational power (role, resources, information, network, and reputation), and the one meta-source (will). With numerous profiles of business leaders, political leaders, and other famous people, the book describes how people gain power--and how they can lose it.

Like most of my books, this one is research based. For nearly 20 years, I and my colleagues have been researching power and influence. My interest in this topic began decades ago as I was teaching leadership programs and was curious about why some leaders were substantially more effective than others, why some struggled to move people to concerted action while others were able to inspire transformative changes in organizations. My research on power and influence led to the creation of a comprehensive model that includes the eleven sources of power, ten positive influence techniques, four negative influence technqiues, and twenty-eight skills related to the effective and ethical uses of influence. This book describes the sources of power. My companion book, Elements of Influence: The Art of Getting Others to Follow Your Lead (AMACOM Books July 2011) explains the influence strategies and techniques.