Don't get predictable by using this Power Play badly. It's not fair that you need to be twice as careful as everyone else in the room, but that's the price you pay for power. Practice this: when someone does something boneheaded, choose not to be that final nail in his or her coffin. Either find a way to help them or shut up. That's real power.

Aspiring Power Players should remember this very important piece of advice: once you start to have some power in a room, your words and actions pack twice the punch.

And they know their words carry extra calories. This is why they are careful with their words.

People say it all the time because it's true. Power Players are aware of the responsibility that comes with power. When they enter a room it can feel like Moses parting the Red Sea.