So, you know that politics are going to happen and sometimes you cannot get out of the way.  What follows is a very common example that applies broadly, but mostly to full time employees at peer levels. 

As recommended in my previous post, 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” as highly recommended in a previous post 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.

There is no doubt about it. The games, deceit and stress can turn a good job into a miserable one, and the fact is you will never get away from politics. Anytime people are set in competition and there is money or power at stake, you will have to deal with it.

For those of you that really hate office politics, don’t kid yourself into thinking that if you don’t play the game then you won’t get run over. It doesn’t work that way. You could be pulled in whether you want to be or not, if you are not paying attention. It takes active management to stay out of many political situations. Consultants have the best chance of minimizing involvement, but you are still at risk of getting hurt.

These are dangerous waters, and as a consultant you are vulnerable. The outcome for a mistake usually results in you getting fired, which sucks, especially when you had no business being involved in the conflict to begin with.

The situation that seems to blindside the most consultants is the “Power Struggle.” Your direct manager is engaged in a battle with a competing manager. Whose turf, Whose project, Whose fault, whatever… you end up involved and it is sometimes hard to see coming.

You are in the game simply because of who you report to.

You need to get out of the way of this battle, and do it quickly. You want to be viewed as loyal to the project and to the company, but clearly not interested in the power structure. Even if you were to “pick a side” and your side wins, you will still lose in the long run.

These power struggles leave marks that last a long time; well into future projects, jobs and contracts.

Your objective is to stay as neutral as possible and just do a great job. I find a way to talk to each of the people involved privately, acknowledge that there appears to be some conflict, and I clearly state that my goal is to not be involved and to help the company by adding as much value as I can. “I have no horse in this race.”

I do not recommend trying to negotiate the peace or the solution. You will not be able to fix a battle of wills.

If you get aligned with one side or the other it will bite you in the long run. If you can stay productive and well respected as a high performer, simply focused on the work in the middle of the power struggle, you will be seen as a peacemaker and your reputation as a professional will improve. You will in fact be a consultant that can work in a very political environment without making enemies and still get the job done. This is a good objective.

How have you handled these situations?

Mark

Hey Everyone,

The feedback about the book so far has been great.  I am glad that people like it.

One piece of advice was so direct and insightful that I had to react to it immediately.   I want to send out a very sincere thank you to all of those that are giving me feedback and helping me make this blog better.  I am clearly new to blogging and I am learning a great deal about the process and technologies.

I know how to get people jobs, not necessarily how to blog well.  (yet)

So, this can be a two way street.  I will tell you what I know about finding, getting and keeping a good job, and you can help me with the stuff that I am new at.

This subscriber’s comment was that the purpose and intent of my blog was unclear when they first discovered my site.  Hmm.  I hadn’t really given that a lot of thought.  I figured out how to install WordPress (with a little help) and then I just started writing.

So, after careful consideration and pestering everyone that I know for their opinions, I have decided to rename this Blog.

I want it to be immediately clear as to what I am trying to do so the new blog title will be

I have also changed the domain name to AspireInspireAchieve.com

This new site is up and active now and I will be redirecting this domain shortly.  I promise I won’t change it again so, if you could change your bookmarks and RSS subsciptions we should be good to go from here.

I have to say that I am really digging this whole blog thing and I hope that you like it too.  That is it for now.

The next topic that I wanted to discuss is Surviving Office Politics.  I am going to run a 3 part series from the perspectives of Consultant, Employee and Senior Manager.  If you have a particular situation or question that would make a good case study, please send it to me email@mark-malone.com

What is your biggest Office Politics problem?

Have a great weekend.

-Mark