The Ultimate Guide to Power & Influence: Everything You Need to Know

by Robert L. Dilenschneider

Overview

"An inspiring primer on navigating one’s life with self-knowledge and integrity."
—Kirkus Reviews

Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller


Respected consultant Robert L. Dilenschneider explains how technology and globalization have revolutionized the ways to both build and keep success—and tells readers that to accomplish your goals, you must not only gain power, but also apply it with proper wisdom.

The Ultimate Guide to Power & Influence arms its readers with intellectual, technical, and moral weapons—tools you need to get and stay ahead in the increasingly competitive and ever-evolving business world. Acquiring both power and influence is crucial to advancing not only your personal interests, but also a more prosperous society at large.

Drawing from current-day lessons and the wisdom of hundreds of drivers of change in all fields of business, The Ultimate Guide to Power & Influence is Robert Dilenschneider’s latest guide to harnessing the universal principles for success. It provides anecdotes and insights on a wide range of keys to success, including how to seize opportunity amid crisis, manage your network, communicate effectively, and take full advantage of social media to bolster your image.

A leader in the sphere of public relations and the founder of The Dilenschneider Group, which provides strategic advice to Fortune 500 companies and leading figures around the world—with experience in everything from mergers and acquisitions to government affairs and international media—Robert Dilenschneider writes with experience and authority to help readers acquire and amplify their power.

For corporate professionals, those just starting out, and anyone in between, The Ultimate Guide to Power & Influence is an essential guide to charting the ever-changing waters of the business world with imagination, competence, and grace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781637742938
Publisher:	BenBella Books, Inc.
Publication date:	07/25/2023
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	395,166
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Robert L. Dilenschneider formed The Dilenschneider Group in October, 1991. Headquartered in New York and Chicago, the Firm provides strategic advice and counsel to Fortune 500 companies and leading families and individuals around the world, with experience in fields ranging from mergers and acquisitions and crisis communications to marketing, government affairs and international media. Prior to forming his own firm, Dilenschneider served as president and chief executive officer of Hill and Knowlton, Inc. from 1986 to 1991, tripling that Firm's revenues to nearly $200 million and delivering more than $30 million in profit. Dilenschneider was with that organization for nearly 25 years. Dilenschneider started in public relations in 1967 in New York, shortly after receiving an MA in journalism from Ohio State University, and a BA from the University of Notre Dame.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Practical and straightforward . . . This is a must-read for business execs and entrepreneurs alike.”
—Maggie Wilderotter, Chairman and CEO, Grand Reserve Inn
 
“Whatever your position in life, even if your ultimate ambition is not power or influence, reading The Ultimate Guide to Power & Influence is a smart way to success and self-fulfillment.”
—Patrick Thomas, President, Verdi Consulting
 
“Public relations maven Robert L. Dilenschneider has done it again with a must-read new book on power and influence. His smart advice on networking, career pivoting, crisis management, and seeing around corners for trends makes the book a coach on the shelf for leaders and those who want to be.”
—R. Glenn Hubbard, Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School
 
“The Ultimate Guide to Power & Influence is an enormous gift to existing and aspiring executives who intend to meaningfully impact the future trajectory of their organization. Dilenschneider has had a front row seat for in excess of four decades to every major event that has impacted American business, and he has provided sage counsel to countless CEOs and executives as they have formulated their response to such events.”
—David L. Sokol, Chairman and CEO, Teton Capital, LLC
 
“Robert L. Dilenschneider’s insight on government and crisis management is second to none. This book is a perfect example of why Robert is truly the best at what he does. It covers all the bases.”
—Ted Balestreri, Chairman and CEO, Chairman and CEO, Cannery Row Company, Inns of Monterey, and Sardine Factory Restaurant

Editorial Reviews

2023-06-30
A public relations executive and strategy consultant provides his thoughts on how to build, wield, and retain power and influence in an everchanging world in this advice guide.

Dilenschneider helmed Hill & Knowlton from 1986 to 1991 and now leads his own public relations firm, The Dilenschneider Group. In this book, he details how to develop personal power and influence while interacting with others in order to achieve one’s desired life and career goals. Its first part focuses on self-examination: discovering what one’s passions and abilities are and collecting feedback on how one is perceived by others. This analysis, Dilenschneider asserts, is critical in informing and guiding one’s future actions and decision-making. The book then segues into offering tips regarding more specific activities, including networking (starting by cultivating three people as part of an ongoing process); effective communication (which, he says, is less about style and more about being clear in one’s messaging); and what Dilenschneider terms “memorable” management, which focuses on having respect and enthusiasm for other people’s opinions. Dilenschneider dedicates the final part of the book to a discussion of how to maintain one’s power and influence while handling crises and dealing with everchanging trends in the industry, workplace, and society. He recommends having a team and plan in place for when crises occur, and assessing what are truly “hard trends” of lasting impact in one’s personal life and workplace. Dilenschneider concludes this book with a recommendation to help and advise others—and thus pay one’s power forward.

The author’s latest offering is a well-organized work that not only provides readers with valuable, evergreen core advice, particularly regarding self-assessment, but also useful commentary on hard trends, including how the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed the workplace. In the early pages of this book, Dilenschneider acknowledges there are countless other business books on these topics available to readers, but he can correctly claim that his “comes to you from decades of experience working with some of the most successful companies in the world—and the people who lead them.” The author certainly demonstrates a distinct and authoritative viewpoint on his subject matter, even if some of the examples that he provides along the way may be quite familiar to some readers. One of them, regarding recognizing when to pivot in one’s career, tells the story of James Patterson’s moving from a career as an advertising professional to a much more successful one as an author, which is an oft-told tale. Still, Dilenschneider also offers plenty of timely strategic pointers in this book, including recommendations to stay abreast of what’s happening on social media platforms, given their power in the business world, and to recognize that the hybrid workplace is indeed the new reality. Most of all, Dilenschneider provides readers with an important and inspiring ethical directive, demonstrated through examples in his career and others’, to have an element of the “commonweal” in one’s quest for personal influence and power.

An inspiring primer on navigating one’s life with self-knowledge and integrity.

Kirkus Reviews