The Power Paradox

How We Gain and Lose Influence

By: Dacher Keltner

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

Length: 4 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A revolutionary and timely reconsideration of everything we know about power. Celebrated UC Berkeley psychologist Dr. Dacher Keltner argues that compassion and selflessness enable us to have the most influence over others, and the result is power as a force for good in the world.

It is taken for granted that power corrupts. This is reinforced culturally by everything from Machiavelli to contemporary politics. But how do we get power? And how does it change our behavior?

So often, in spite of our best intentions, we lose our hard-won power. Enduring power comes from empathy and giving. Above all, power is given to us by other people. This is what all too often we forget and what Dr. Keltner sets straight. This is the crux of the power paradox: By fundamentally misunderstanding the behaviors that helped us to gain power in the first place, we set ourselves up to fall from power. We can't retain power because we've never understood it correctly - until now. Power isn't the capacity to act in cruel and uncaring ways; it is the ability to do good for others, expressed in daily life, and itself a good a thing.

Dr. Keltner lays out exactly - in 20 original "Power Principles" - how to retain power, why power can be a demonstrably good thing, and the terrible consequences of letting those around us languish in powerlessness.

Includes bonus PDF with images, graphs, and exercises.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2016 Dacher Keltner (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“An innovative look at the idea of power.... [This] paradigm-shifting book challenges readers to find a new level of awareness about themselves and the leaders they choose to follow.” (Publishers Weekly)

“The Power Paradox, compelling and eye-opening from start to finish, will change your view of what power is. Power turns out to be a subtler force than it seems, influencing us for better and worse more than we realize. This book explains how people get power, keep it, and keep from being corrupted by it. The good news is the radical claim at the heart of the book: that the best way to get and keep power is to use it for the greater good. This pathbreaking book is full of fascinating and little-known findings, and Dacher Keltner’s many years of creative work on the psychology of status and influence make him uniquely qualified to write it.” (Robert Wright, author of The Evolution of God and The Moral Animal)

“Dacher Keltner shares insights into many aspects of power, including afternoon tea in Britain and how Lincoln won the presidency. His combination of academic sophistication and clear style delivers a new concept of power in our society today that is provocative and intriguing.” (Sheryl WuDunn, coauthor of Half the Sky and A Path Appears)

I'm not about saying "Everyone should read this."

But. Everyone should read this. Especially those in positions of power and influence. This book, for those looking to intentionally wield power in a sustained way, is extremely thought provoking. Possibly even paradigm shifting.

Enlightening

Powerful insights I had never considered. I would recommend for anyone. Good research and application.

Well done.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to The Power Paradox. It is a thought provoking challenge to our commonly held beliefs about our relationships and the importance of an awareness of and dangers of power.

energy in physics what power is to relationships.

Lack of Power can lead to sickness ,of all kinds, and a shorter life span.

Interesting ideas, but questionable conclusions

Rather general info and a number of the findings questionable. There is an obvious assumption that many cultures have the same customs and interactions as Americans, and it seems like much of his research was done on university students. Take it with a spoon of salt

new insights

I taught us history and have a master's degree but I learned new insight about the nature of the struggle of the American Revolution

principles are key

In this book the principles are the key points to learn, remember , and apply.

Thought provoking, but not groundbreaking

Studies reenforce what we see in life, but the book helped me think about my observations in a different way. It's well worth a listen.

Not great for audio

Audio felt more like a lecture and often referred to "your PDF". If you like to listen to audiobooks without stopping to check a PDF on your mobile or laptop this can be frustrating.

Interesting Concepts with Biased Examples

The basis of the book is that power is given to you by doing selfless things for others. When we experience power, we can either continue doing good or abuse it selfishly and lose the power that is given to us.
It gets annoying when his own biased opinions become apparent. For example, I immediately lost my respect for him in the first chapter. He talks about the United States' "rising problem with income inequality" to be generally accepted as the worst problem we have, then suggests that the wealthy are the ones who succumb to bad decisions from having power.
A simple google search will show you that the United States is always the first or second most charitable country based on the World Giving Index. That is almost entirely because our wealthy people chose to give so much to charity.
We have far bigger problems than being upset that Bill Gates makes more money than the rest of us. If it wasn't for people like him, the vast majority of our jobs would vanish. The only "problem" you would solve by getting rid of rich people would be the income gap. Then we would just have a ton of poor people.
This book is just full of illogical leftist talk. It's a good thing this guy is into psychology and not economics. By the way, he's a professor at the same school that recently had a riot and protest, preventing a conservative from giving his speech.