'Doing Power' Niral's LEAD Power Project

Hi, I'm Neerul, a Senior Product Designer who helps bring clarity and alignment to complex human problems through strategic design thinking. I want to start with a confession. I began this quarter as someone who stood out in her own way. I used to believe that power was fueled by ego, that pursuing it would compromise who I was. So I opted out. I kept my head down, did excellent work, and trusted that the system will reward contribution. That belief, I now understand, was not humility. It was a strategy for invisibility. Professor Pfeffer changed how I see this. Power is not inherently self-serving. In the hands of in the hands of someone with the right intentions and skills, it is a tool that allows you to do the most good. The question is never whether you will play politics. It is whether you will play it well or poorly. I am grateful to my course facilitator Philip Mahabir, whose guidance helped me move through my self-limiting beliefs and put this framework into real practice. For the first 6 years at my company, I operated under what Professor Pfeffer calls a psychological contract—the belief that strong performance and added responsibility would naturally lead to recognition. I had restarted my career with a 10-year gap due to my dependent status, and I was focused entirely on proving myself through my contribution. So I mentored new hires, led high-visibility work, and never once formally advocated for a promotion. Then came the moment that cracked everything open. A new hire, someone with less institutional knowledge, was assigned as my manager. Not because her work was stronger, but because she had exercised political skill while I had stayed compliant and low-friction. Performance is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Organizations are not meritocracies. They are political systems. My Doing Power project was born from that realization. Leadership is not about doing the work. It is about consciously managing influence, narrative, and power. So when I entered this quarter, I had 3 goals: clarify my personal brand as someone who brings clarity and enables value-centered decision-making, position myself at a lead, staff, or director level role in AI or mission-driven companies, and convert my existing relationships into paid or consulting work within the next 60 to 90 days. I chose to measure success through observable signals: at least 2 quality referrals per week and a public narrative that communicated strategic judgment without heavy interpretation. Professor Pfeffer calls this impression management. I was learning to make my competence visible, not just real. So what did I do? In the last couple of months, I shifted from passive job searching to active network engagement and strategic signaling. First, I changed how I show up publicly. I treated my public presence like LinkedIn, YouTube, Medium as a signaling tool, evidence of strategic judgment, not just craft. I committed to posting weekly twice because Professor Pfeffer was very clear Visibility must precede opportunity. Competence cannot be seen— that does not exist politically. I'm sorry, competence that cannot be seen does not exist politically. Second, I changed how I build relationships. Drawing on Professor Pfeffer's coalition-building framework, I mapped 10 influential people worth cultivating. I reached out to the SVP of Design and Research, not asking for a job, but sharing a concise growth story from the last time she met me and a testimonial from someone I had mentored. That preparation signaled maturity and opened a real conversation. Third, I built portable resources, written perspectives, and a story bank for leadership— of leadership narratives. assets I control regardless of employer. And finally, I practiced confidence as a discipline. Professor Pfeffer frames it not as a feeling but as a responsibility. I committed to stating my point of view within the first 5 minutes of any group setting, and especially when I felt uncertain. I want to be honest, some of this was uncomfortable. Strategic outreach and public self-positioning did not come naturally to someone who had equated silence with integrity. Pushing through that discomfort was part of the work. The results were immediate and humbling in places. By making outreach a daily practice, I secured referral-based applications at Samsung, Apple, Uber, ServiceNow, Netflix, among others. Every one of those conversations came through a relationship I had invested in. The moment that brewed Professor Pfeffer's thesis most viscerally, a personal connection went to bat for me at my application— as my— after my application was flagged for rejection because of my career gap. She did not just forward my resume, she cultivated that She personally advocated to a hiring manager she had credibility with. I had cultivated that relationship over time, genuinely and not transactionally. When it mattered, she chose to spend her political capital on me. That is what Professor Pfeffer means when he says advocacy changes everything. My increased visibility also led to executive recruiters reach out directly a reversal of the dynamic I had been stuck in. I had shifted from reactive to attractive positioning. I also want to name what is still in progress. Several applications are pending. The 60 to 90 day paid work goal is not yet closed, but I have learned to see that as data, not failure, and to keep moving without collapsing into it. 4 things I expect to carry for the rest of my career. Silence is not humility, it is invisibility. Power is claimed, not accrued. I no longer wait for the system to recognize me, I proactively shape how I am seen. Second, relationships are not transactional, transactional, they are the infrastructure of opportunity. Professor Pfeffer's argument about network certainty is not abstract. It showed up as a real person choosing to spend her credibility on me. Ego and strategy are separate. When a referral does not go as planned, I now not view it through the lens of organizational behavior, not personal failure. That shift has changed how I move. And authenticity and preparation are not opposites. When you lead with real value and a clear narrative, people invest in you. Sincerity and strategy work better together than apart. If I could say one thing to the version of me who started this quarter: staying quiet is not a neutral act. Every time you opt out of advocating for yourself, you are making a choice, and someone else is making a different one. I'm no longer standing in my own way. I'm intentional, relational, and proactive. Power is not something I need to fear or apologize for. It is the tool that allows me to turn design into vision design vision into organizational reality, and to do the most good I'm capable of doing. Thank you, Professor Pfeffer, for reuse— thank you, Professor Pfeffer, for refusing to let us stay comfortable, and to Philip Mohaver for pushing me to close the gap between knowing and doing.