By Eugene Malone
Office politics are going to happen you may or may not like it and sometimes you cannot get out of the way. The Power Play or Power Struggle is a very common situation and it happens in many work environments. The most common situation is among peer as full time employees.
Consultants should steer completely away from these issues. Consultants do not have turf to defend, raise the issue to your manager and ask for direction. If you engage as a consultant you will lose, period.
What should you do when you are involved in a Power Struggle against your will? Take the scenario where you have certain responsibilities explicitly assigned to you, and someone else it trying to take control and take credit for what is clearly your job.
You have a couple of choices here, but ignoring the situation is not one of them. You always need to be adding value to the organization and you need to own your responsibilities. Allowing someone else to push you out of the way is not helping your career and you will be perceived as worthless if someone else is doing your job.
Why does this situation occur?
The individual taking control believes that they are right and justified in their actions. If you have read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" which is highly recommended, then you would know that everyone always believes that their actions are right and appropriate. Their perception of the issue is probably that they are just trying to get things done, whereas you are not getting it done. And as such they feel as though they are doing the right thing for the company by taking it from you.
Your Options:
Option 1
Stand up and engage in the conflict, hold your ground and defend your turf. This approach is sometimes required, but there are consequences. If you opt to engage, it must be done in a very professional and respectable way. For better or worse you will demonstrate to the organization that you are willing to defend your space, you have to decide if this is a good message for your situation. If you opt for this option, there will be residual emotions between you and the other party as a result of the conflict.
In both public and private interactions with the other person you must make it well known that you are going to protect your jurisdiction.
* Use Job Descriptions or Project Charters to define the boundaries
* Your goal is to agree on boundaries and rules of engagement for future interactions
* Take the matter to a higher authority for resolution if required
* Never raise your voice
* Never lose your temper
* Never be insulting
* Be Professional at all times
* And most importantly, if you choose this route do not waiver.
You must pick your battles wisely, but always win the ones you pick!
Option 2
Sometimes Option 1 could cause enough disruption to put all of your objectives at risk. So your alternative is to negotiate around the issue without engaging and still keeping your credibility intact. This is harder to do, but is absolutely possible. This is the Dale Carnegie approach, and a successful outcome can build better relationships while achieving the goals.
With the other person
* The goal is the same to agree on boundaries and rules of engagement for future interactions.
* With this approach you have to make it clearly visible that you are capable, competent, and interested in handling your responsibilities.
* You have to work with the other party to come to agreement. Private sit down discussions are best.
* You want to cast the new approach as a better partnership for the good of the company.
* You have to be sincere in trying to find a collective solution.
* Understand that the other person believes that they are doing the right thing, so the resolution has to be a win-win
* Focus the dialog on the tasks or objectives as much as possible.
* Do not allow discussions to escalate into an argument.
* Acknowledge that the lines of responsibility are unclear and with clarity will come better effectiveness
With your manager
* Make sure that your direct manager is involved and understands what is happening and how you are choosing to handle it.
* He or she may have good advice for you, and they will definitely respect you for choosing the high road.
* The key to success is to make it very clear to your manager that you recognize a power play is underway and that you are "managing" the situation as you might manage any other problem or risk.
* Make it known that your objective is to achieve the best outcome for the project or company.
job, jobs, career
Consultants should steer completely away from these issues. Consultants do not have turf to defend, raise the issue to your manager and ask for direction. If you engage as a consultant you will lose, period.
What should you do when you are involved in a Power Struggle against your will? Take the scenario where you have certain responsibilities explicitly assigned to you, and someone else it trying to take control and take credit for what is clearly your job.
You have a couple of choices here, but ignoring the situation is not one of them. You always need to be adding value to the organization and you need to own your responsibilities. Allowing someone else to push you out of the way is not helping your career and you will be perceived as worthless if someone else is doing your job.
Why does this situation occur?
The individual taking control believes that they are right and justified in their actions. If you have read "How to Win Friends and Influence People" which is highly recommended, then you would know that everyone always believes that their actions are right and appropriate. Their perception of the issue is probably that they are just trying to get things done, whereas you are not getting it done. And as such they feel as though they are doing the right thing for the company by taking it from you.
Your Options:
Option 1
Stand up and engage in the conflict, hold your ground and defend your turf. This approach is sometimes required, but there are consequences. If you opt to engage, it must be done in a very professional and respectable way. For better or worse you will demonstrate to the organization that you are willing to defend your space, you have to decide if this is a good message for your situation. If you opt for this option, there will be residual emotions between you and the other party as a result of the conflict.
In both public and private interactions with the other person you must make it well known that you are going to protect your jurisdiction.
* Use Job Descriptions or Project Charters to define the boundaries
* Your goal is to agree on boundaries and rules of engagement for future interactions
* Take the matter to a higher authority for resolution if required
* Never raise your voice
* Never lose your temper
* Never be insulting
* Be Professional at all times
* And most importantly, if you choose this route do not waiver.
You must pick your battles wisely, but always win the ones you pick!
Option 2
Sometimes Option 1 could cause enough disruption to put all of your objectives at risk. So your alternative is to negotiate around the issue without engaging and still keeping your credibility intact. This is harder to do, but is absolutely possible. This is the Dale Carnegie approach, and a successful outcome can build better relationships while achieving the goals.
With the other person
* The goal is the same to agree on boundaries and rules of engagement for future interactions.
* With this approach you have to make it clearly visible that you are capable, competent, and interested in handling your responsibilities.
* You have to work with the other party to come to agreement. Private sit down discussions are best.
* You want to cast the new approach as a better partnership for the good of the company.
* You have to be sincere in trying to find a collective solution.
* Understand that the other person believes that they are doing the right thing, so the resolution has to be a win-win
* Focus the dialog on the tasks or objectives as much as possible.
* Do not allow discussions to escalate into an argument.
* Acknowledge that the lines of responsibility are unclear and with clarity will come better effectiveness
With your manager
* Make sure that your direct manager is involved and understands what is happening and how you are choosing to handle it.
* He or she may have good advice for you, and they will definitely respect you for choosing the high road.
* The key to success is to make it very clear to your manager that you recognize a power play is underway and that you are "managing" the situation as you might manage any other problem or risk.
* Make it known that your objective is to achieve the best outcome for the project or company.
job, jobs, career
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