Good Power

**Author:** Ginni Rometty

**Estimated Reading Time:** 45 minutes

**What You'll Learn:**

- How to transform personal hardship into leadership strength - The five principles of "good power" that drive lasting change - How to build belief in others during times of uncertainty - Why skills-based hiring represents the next frontier of economic opportunity - How to steward technology responsibly in an age of rapid change

**Who This Book Is For:**

This book is for anyone who wants to lead with integrity. It is for the manager navigating organizational change, the entrepreneur building something from nothing, the parent wondering how to prepare children for an uncertain future, and the citizen concerned about how technology is reshaping society. It is for people who suspect that power does not have to corrupt, that influence can be wielded with compassion, and that doing good and doing well are not mutually exclusive.

Ginni Rometty grew up in a world where power was something other people had. Her father abandoned the family when she was fifteen. Her mother, with no college degree and four children to support, went to work. The family lived with relatives. Money was scarce. The future was uncertain. Yet Rometty would go on to become the first female CEO of IBM, one of the world's most consequential technology companies. She would lead a workforce of hundreds of thousands of people through one of the most turbulent periods in corporate history. She would make decisions that affected economies, communities, and the trajectory of technology itself. This book is not a victory lap. It is not a memoir designed to celebrate achievement. It is an attempt to answer a question that has become urgent in our time: What is power for? We live in an era of profound skepticism about leadership. Trust in institutions has collapsed. The word "power" itself has become suspect, associated with abuse, self-dealing, and the ruthless pursuit of advantage. Many people, especially young people, have concluded that power is inherently corrupting. They want nothing to do with it. Rometty's argument is different. She believes that power, properly understood and properly wielded, is essential to fixing what is broken. She calls this "good power." It is not soft power. It is not power avoided or power denied. It is power embraced and then directed toward something larger than oneself. The journey to this understanding began in childhood. Growing up in a family that struggled financially, Rometty learned early that hardship is not something to hide from. It is something to move through. Her mother, who worked multiple jobs and never complained, taught her that dignity comes from effort, not from circumstances. Her grandmother, who lived with the family, modeled a kind…