Power Play: Don’t steal the smart out of the room

Power Players know better than to steal the smart out of the room. Put another way? Don’t claim the good thinking as your own.

In any meeting there are arguably no more than two smart (or original) things said. Power Players are far too graceful to hog the good ideas. If you never said it, never thought it up and had nothing to do with its creation, don’t pinch the smart.

Power Players never ever cross this line. They don’t hitch their wagon to the cool kids in the room and they never elbow their way into the popular thinking. They do exactly the opposite. They praise the inventor of the thinking and they create more room for these smart types to run wild and weave their magic.

This is a critical lesson and every great Power Player I know always plays by this rule.