What is powerplay?

Powerplay is a strategy used in relationships, the workplace, and other social settings to gain control or influence over others. It typically involves the use of manipulation, coercion, and politics to advance one’s personal agenda. While powerplays can help someone achieve their goals, they often come at the expense of others and breed distrust and dysfunction in groups.

What are the characteristics of powerplay?

There are several key characteristics of powerplay:

Asserting dominance and authority over others
Using charm, persuasion, or intimidation to influence people
Forming alliances and coalitions to gain leverage
Withholding information or resources to maintain superior position
Using secrecy, deception, or backroom deals to advance agenda
Capitalizing on or creating dependencies to control subordinates
Micromanaging others to limit their power
Claiming credit for others’ work or ideas
Sabotaging, criticizing, or undermining rivals
Sowing divisions and discord to weaken opposition

In general, powerplay centers on self-interest and winning at the expense of collaborative problem-solving. It prioritizes personal advancement over ethics, harmony, and organizational success.

What drives people to use powerplay?

There are various motivations that can lead individuals to rely on powerplay strategies:

Desire for control – Many resort to powerplay due to a need to dominate people and situations. Exerting control makes them feel powerful and secure.
Ambition – Powerplays help ambitious individuals climb hierarchies and build influence quickly. For the unscrupulous, the ends justify the means.
Insecurity – Those with low self-esteem may use powerplays to mask weaknesses and project competence.
Narcissism – Narcissists believe they are superior to others and entitled to success. Powerplay serves their self-interest.
Competition – Rivalries and zero-sum thinking breed powerplays as individuals vie for scarce resources and advancement.
Unmet needs – Needs like respect, belonging, and autonomy fuel powerplays when they go unfulfilled.
Toxic culture – Cutthroat, individualistic environments encourage powerplay as the road to success.

In many cases, people learn and repeat behaviors that proved effective in the past, even if unethical. Personal insecurities and the influence of an unhealthy culture also play major roles in the use of powerplay.

Are there positive forms of powerplay?

Most discussions of powerplay have a negative connotation, but are there positive forms?

Asserting authority appropriately as a leader.
Standing up to bullying and injustice.
Forming a coalition to advocate for a needed policy change.
Withholding funds for a wasteful, unethical program.
Using a bargaining chip with care to broker a difficult compromise.
Inspiring loyalty to unify a team or organization.
Limiting a subordinate’s role for legitimate reasons.
Skillful negotiations to reach a mutual beneficial outcome.

The difference lies in intent and implementation. If the motivation is ethical and the methods respect norms of honesty, transparency, and fairness, powerplay can have positive ends. But it requires high self-awareness, care for others, and systems limiting excess.

Why is powerplay seen negatively overall?

Though powerplays can be ethical, they tend to elicit negative responses because:

They are often rooted in self-interest rather than organizational interests.
They disregard fairness, integrity, and people’s well-being.
The ends are used to justify unscrupulous means.
They breed distrust, resentment, and conflict within groups.
They undermine transparency, collaboration, and merit-based advancement.
They place personal ambition above ethics and the greater good.
They demotivate and disempower those subject to them.
They set a precedent that powerplay is an acceptable approach.
They divert energy towards politics rather than productive work.

When people engage in powerplays, they are using asymmetric tactics to pursue narrow interests. This egocentric viewpoint clashes with most people’s values around shared goals, win-win interactions, and authentic human relationships. Even if someone “wins” via powerplay, they may be seen as unethical, sowing the seeds of future conflict and mistrust.

Does powerplay achieve long-term desired results?

Powerplay may deliver short-term gains for those wielding it, but it rarely achieves sustainable, beneficial results. While adept power players can quickly amass influence, they often falter in the long run.

Some reasons powerplay fails in the long term:

It breeds significant ill will and enemies eager to undermine the power player.
It motivates others to band together and attempt counter-powerplays.
It leads to an organizational culture of fear, secrecy, and distrust.
It demoralizes employees and extinguishes intrinsic motivation.
It diverts energy towards politics and away from innovation.
It can spiral into increasingly unethical behavior based on precedent.
The insecure motives behind it mean it will never satisfy.
The player becomes surrounded by sycophants and groupthink.

In time, the powerplayer’s avarice, manipulation, and self-interest becomes their undoing. While they may enjoy early successes, their methods plant the seeds of eventual failure. All it often takes is a scandal, economic downturn, or leadership change to topple their house of cards built on powerplaying.

Examples of powerplay in the workplace

Powerplays are unfortunately quite common in workplaces driven by competition and individual advancement. Some examples include:

Taking credit for subordinates’ or colleagues’ ideas.
CC’ing senior leadership on emails to wield influence.
Withholding important information or resources from co-workers.
Getting people “fired up” against management for one’s gain.
Pretending to be supportive publicly while criticizing others privately.
Micromanaging a subordinate’s work to limit their capacity.
Undermining a colleague competing for the same promotion.
Overpromising in hopes of individual gain at the expense of the team.
SCHADENFREUDE
Parading connections to senior leadership to wield power.

Many workplace powerplays exploit access and information asymmetry. Deception and mimicking supportiveness while abusing trust are also common. Such political behavior distracts from productive work, creates a toxic culture, and erodes organizational success from within.

Negative effects of workplace powerplays

Some negative consequences of workplace powerplays include:

Breeding resentment, suspicion, and distrust within teams.
Failure due to energies diverted from innovation towards politics.
Increased unethical behavior as powerplay becomes the norm.
Staff disengagement, plummeting morale, and turnover.
Sycophants and groupthink replacing valuable perspective.
Wasted time and resources as people defend themselves.
Communication breakdown from secrecy and deception.
Insecurity and lack of psychological safety.
Reinforcement of win-lose, self-centered mentalities.

Workplace powerplays stoke a cold, calculating and paranoid culture focused on narrow advancement. This is corrosive to both human well-being and the organization’s mission.

How leaders can discourage powerplays

Leaders play a pivotal role in shaping workplace culture. They can discourage powerplays by:

Role modeling collaborative, ethical, and transparent behavior.
Building psychologically safe environments where powerplay behaviors are unacceptable.
Flat, decentralized organizational structures with cross-functional cooperation.
Emphasizing win-win thinking, innovation, and customer focus over winning internally.
Rewarding teamwork and discouraging self-promotion at others’ expense.
Instituting equitable compensation and advancement policies.
Soliciting input from diverse voices at all levels.
Keeping decision-making processes transparent and fair.
Intervening at the first sign of sabotage, deception or unethical conduct.

Leaders must consistently reinforce collaborative values in policies, structures, and processes. This keeps the focus on shared mission and purpose rather than politics and self-interest.

Examples of powerplay in relationships

Powerplay dynamics extend beyond office politics. They can emerge in any close relationship where one party seeks to gain disproportionate control. Some examples in personal relationships include:

Flirting with others to provoke jealousy in a partner.
Withholding emotional intimacy to gain the upper hand.
Using threats of breakup to coerce a partner.
Exploiting a partner’s insecurities about their attractiveness.
Gaslighting and distorting the truth to confuse a partner.
Cutting off access to joint finances to exert control.
Belittling a partner’s needs and desires.
Sabotaging birth control or reproductive coercion.
Lying about fidelity to maintain power.
Controlling a partner’s access to family and friends.

Such interpersonal powerplays stem from profound immaturity, insecurity, and lack of empathy. Like workplace powerplays, they may provide fleeting ego gratification. But they almost always destroy trust, connection, and fulfillment in relationships.

Negative effects of relational powerplays

The impacts of manipulative, coercive powerplays in relationships include:

The erosion of intimacy, respect, and care.
A climate of resentment, score-keeping, and hostility.
Anxiety, low self-esteem, and constant vigilance in the victim.
The normalization of unethical, selfish behavior.
Eventual retaliation or counter-powerplays.
A destructive tit-for-tat emotional war.
The recipient feeling trapped and helpless.
The inversion of love – fear replaces trust.

Like the business environment, relationships suffer immensely when one party fixates on controlling the other. Seeking disproportionate power poisons the well of affection and prevents true intimacy from developing.

How to build healthy power dynamics in relationships

People should strive for equity in relationships by:

Communicating respectfully, honestly, and empathetically.
Taking responsibility for one’s own emotions.
Compromising and making sacrifices for the partner’s benefit.
Trying to satisfy the partner’s needs, not just one’s own.
Allowing the partner autonomy and space when requested.
Valuing interdependence and partnership rather than control.
Acknowledging when one’s actions are manipulative or hurtful.
Focusing on mutual growth and support rather than winning.

Partners will never have identical needs or levels of power. But pursuing enlightened self-interest – wanting yourself and the other person to feel loved, secure, and respected – creates healthy and sustainable relationships.

How should organizations limit powerplay behavior?

Here are some ways organizations can effectively discourage powerplays:

Tactic	Example
Leadership ethics	Executives role model transparency, integrity, and care for others.
Hiring practices	Screen for collaborative team players rather thancharismatic individual achievers.
Training	Train managers to reward consensus and discourage self-promotion at others’ expense.
Communications	Reinforce win-win language and avoidance of zero-sum thinking in messaging.
Metrics	Evaluate performance and compensation on team results, not justindividual contributions.
Advancement	Promotions and appointments based on merit and fairness, not connections or politics.
Governance	Checks and balances on power through boards, committees, and processes.
Transparency	Open decision-making and information-sharing to preclude deception and secrecy.
Diversity	Inclusion of varied voices prevents narrow interests from dominating.

Organizations must take a multi-pronged approach to limit powerplays. Formal policies and structures are critical, but they must be reinforced by modeling desired behaviors and setting clear expectations at all levels. No single solution is sufficient – it requires comprehensive strategies targeting root cultural causes for true change.

How can individuals limit the negative impacts of powerplays used against them?

Here are some ways individuals can effectively respond to powerplays used against them:

Tactic	Example
Avoid escalation	Do not retaliate or overreact – this fuels a vicious cycle.
Collect evidence	Document incidences discreetly should formal complaint be needed.
Align with others	Band together with colleagues negatively affected.
Set boundaries	Make clear which behaviors you will not accept.
Get support	Confide in trusted allies or third parties like HR.
Confront tactfully	Respectfully explain impact of behaviors requesting change.
Use policies	Leverage formal complaint procedures as needed.
Stay professional	Do not allow their unethical behavior to be an excuse for yours.
Preserve dignity	Remember their actions reflect on them, not your worth or capability.

Those subject to powerplays should avoid retribution and remain poised. By collecting evidence, increasing visibility, leveraging policies, and confronting issues professionally, they can mitigate much of the harm without sinking to the same level.

Conclusion

Powerplay refers to the use of manipulation, politics, and other tactics to gain disproportionate control and influence over others. While powerplays may help individuals advance goals in the short-term, they breed distrust, dysfunction, and conflict. Organizations and relationships suffer greatly when power dynamics become severely imbalanced.

Lasting success requires power balancing enlightened self-interest with care for others’ interests. Within organizations and relationships, people should shift focus from defeating perceived opponents to achieving shared goals and positive-sum outcomes. A culture of transparency, dignity, and wisdom must supersede one of secrecy, fear, and self-interest.