Surviving Office Politics
by Neil I. Clark
People who get results get noticed. It is a sad thing, however,
that this often means that effective people become the target of
attack. This is often referred to as "office politics" (which,
in turn, is a sad reflection on how we view our politicians!).
A small minority of individuals thinks it is easier to steal the
results of someone else than to produce their own worthy results.
The truth of the matter is that they are usually not capable of producing
results! They don’t look at their job from the viewpoint of "how
can I improve my results". They concentrate, instead, on how
they can claim the glory of others around them.
A typical ploy used by these attackers is to notice that you are
doing really well on a particular project, then move in and claim
the results as their own. You may have been working on it for months,
but they come in on the tail end and make it seem that it was their
project all along.
Some do this is in a very obvious and petty way, which is annoying
at worst, but not usually "fatal". Others launch a skilful
PR campaign with upper management to prove that they are responsible
for all the good things that are happening. These PR campaigns can
sometimes be so effective that upper management’s judgement
becomes clouded. They will actually begin to believe you had little
to do with the project, and your hard-won results will slip between
your fingers and end up on another’s lap.
You may be one of those effective people just likes to get on with
the job. You just assume that your good work will be noticed. You
many even feel it is unprofessional to "blow your own trumpet".
This may be a laudable attribute in some circles, but it can also
leave you wide open to the type of attack we are discussing here.
If you work away quietly at something and don’t let anyone
know about it, you lay yourself open to having your results whisked
away from under your nose by some political animal who sees you as
easy prey. So, what can you do about this?
- Make sure you document your actions on any project you are running.
- Keep the relevant people informed as to how you are progressing.
You don’t need to brag about what you produce, but you certainly
need to make sure it is clearly known that you are the one who is
making it happen. In this way, should some unscrupulous person try
to pinch your results, you can counter their attack with hard evidence.
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