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Women and power: how to act powerfully
Power is the means by which you get things done. Find out how to use it in your own life.
Look at your friends and colleagues. You can always tell who has power. The person who uses her power wisely gives off the feeling of belonging in a meeting. Whatever she does, she catches your eye. She holds it. She is always a bit different. If everyone is cultivating others, she holds back. If everyone is in a blue business suit, she is wearing something a bit more outrageous. Her stance is difference, and her comfort with it is profound.
A powerful woman does not complain, or slump, or cry that she’s exhausted. She keeps her feelings to herself except when the use of those feelings is to her benefit. She is not casual about herself.
Powerful actions take the form of tactics
Make every act count; that’s how soldiers and artists work, as if their lives depended on their actions. When a painter lifts a brush, she does it with thorough knowledge of how to set it down on canvas. She knows the effect that it’s possible to achieve: how the canvas will receive the paint, how the brush will respond to her intentions. A powerful woman knows that the way she uses her body, mind and spirit is a form of expression, much the same as the artist’s use of her materials. Power comes from knowing in advance the kind of effect you can have, as if your body, mind and spirit were your instrument. The most artful actions are what warriors call strategies.
That is the blessing of tactics: You can know in advance the impact you will create.
Every woman who succeeds takes risks. She looks for a skirmish, a war, a conflict. In risk is opportunity. The tactics here require a little risk for much reward.
There are 18 tactics analysed in my book, The Princessa: Machiavelli for Women. Here we will discuss three.
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