I met my friend Gideon at Bodeguita del Medio for a drink tonight. Talking about work, he reminded me of his view that there are three key attributes an individual can possess in an organization:
- Power, the ability to prevent something from happening;
- Authority, the ability to approve something;
- Influence, the ability to get something to happen.
Influence, is clearly the most useful, of course, and when an individual also has Authority, an organization can be moved.