The essence of power lies in participation; you can only wield it through action, otherwise you will inevitably be sidelined.

The difference between humans and beasts of burden lies in the fact that humans can think, and humans have the potential to contend for discursive power, while beasts of burden do not. So the more a beast of burden does, the more exhausted it becomes. It could work itself to death and still not gain a shred of power.

But humans are not like that.

Humans have thoughts. As long as you're not exclusively taking on those unwanted odd jobs, as long as you're fighting for important matters, then as you get things done, you inevitably increase your own weight.

Your boss won't care whether you live or die, but when cannons roar, gold flows in rivers. As you go forth on expeditions and bring risk to the company, he cannot fail to consider it.
If you never go forth, you'll never get resources. If you want resources, you must bind yourself to the task. The bigger the task you bind yourself to, the greater your chance of getting resources, and the more resources you'll get. The more resources you hold, the more people's livelihoods depend on you. At that moment, whatever you want can be discussed, and even if you don't want to succeed, everyone will push you to succeed.

Only by doing things, by doing big things, important things, and things worthy of the spotlight, can your power grow ever larger. Only as your power grows can your freedom at work expand. The smaller the scope you manage, the stricter you're controlled. The larger the scope you manage, the higher your freedom.

Through doing things, you seize real power. Doing things means deeply understanding the working environment and finding solutions.

A corporate structure is about breaking a matter into a matrix. Looking vertically, you divide by functional departments; looking horizontally, you divide by project business product lines. As long as you can separate the vertical and horizontal dimensions so that people can each do their duty while the organization operates smoothly and adapts to market needs, you are an excellent manager.

You need to know how to break things down so they split into many subsets—mutually exclusive, non-overlapping, with no ambiguous责任的叠加 or three-no-man's-land zones.

Power and responsibility must be commensurate; rewards and punishments must be commensurate. If power is great but responsibility is small, it breeds indulgence. If power is small but responsibility is great, nothing gets pushed forward. If rewards are great but punishments are small, it encourages recklessness. If rewards are small but punishments are great, it breeds timidity and inaction.

It takes a village to carry the palanquin. You all lift me up; I return the favor with plums. The plum here is also礼 (courtesy). You all烘托 me, and I demonstrate my humility and courtesy.

You can only manage everyone's expectations—and draw more people from the ranks of the不懂事 into the懂事的 camp—if you give sweetness to those who understand the game and bitterness to those who don't. Only then can your power expand further.

Power isn't something you can hold onto indefinitely just by gripping it tightly. When facing a collapsing empire, if you're unsure you can prop it up, you have two choices. One is to始终牢牢握住权柄 yourself, in which case you must prepare to face criticism—because whoever does the work bears the responsibility.
At that point, you have another choice: find a substitute and let someone else try. If after a round of attempts no one succeeds, then you can step back in, and it'll be well-deserved. Those who previously opposed you won't have much grounds to object.