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Surviving Corporate Politics
by: Gary Whittaker
Opportunities Are Made, Not Created
In the business of corporate politics, one thing has
become very clear: Most business decisions are grown
from the grassroots level. Sure, it may all seem likes
it’s coming from corporate HQ, with announcements
and presentations that have their organisations in
perpetual flux, but make no mistake about it, most
of those decisions have been influenced by lobbyists
in the lower levels. The bigger the organization, the
harder it may be to see, but that does not make it
any less relevant, only more difficult to find. Executives
do not know enough about the true inner workings of
a company to be able to form a strategic plan capable
of reaching the lower levels of business. Executives
rely heavily on input from ladder seekers within their
own organisations on which they build their business
cases.
How can the everyday negro (or lower level manager)
take advantage? The easiest way is by following the
old adage, “Necessity is the mother of invention”.
I can’t tell you how many positions and even whole
departments have been created based on creative folks
jumping in to take on gapped responsibilities that other
teams have shirked due to lack of funding or inadequate
training. If managed properly, stepping up to meet corporate
deficiencies can lead to influencing corporate decisions.
How so? Advertising works! Never step up to addressing
a problem without due recognition for it once it has
been resolved. A great example would be to send out
a broadcast email congratulating everyone for a great
effort resolving the issue. Identify which actions were
taken by what group, and what the resulting positive
impacts where in terms of improved financial numbers,
lowered costs of doing business and/or increased employee/customer
satisfaction. Make sure to not only send this out to
all the people within your organisation that were involved,
but to their bosses as well. You would now have succeeded
in improving your own image by enhancing those around
you that is subtle enough to get score you points, and
keeps folks happy about working with you at the same
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Opportunities are easy to come by. They are stated
at meetings, identified in corporate memo’s,
or spoken about in various work related social gatherings.
Follow up a complaint from a colleague with more questions
as to the details of the issue. Find out their take
on the source of the problem, who or what is the cause,
and what measures they have implemented as a work around.
History about the issue(s) can also be learned by asking
casual questions as to how many other departments or
customers are affected, and for how long, as well as
finding out who has been implicated in the past. Take
the information learned back into your own team and
try and find solutions that are mutually advantageous.
Some teams may feel like you are stepping into ‘their’ territory,
but that can usually be countered with the simple argument
that taking away problem issues will lead to improved
efficiencies in their remaining tasks. You must always
remain in partnership with the departments with which
you are working. The business world has been getting
smaller and smaller. Cases were Executives have lost
and taken back over specific teams multiple times over
the course of only a few years is becoming a common
occurrence. If you try to start empire building, you
had better succeed, otherwise you will be forever branded,
and no one will help you. It is not a good deal in
the long run. People used to be able to jump companies
and start again, but acquisitions, take-overs and turn-over
rates can put you back in reporting position to someone
with which you are no longer are on good terms.
Most important of all, take the new Adidas motto, “Impossible
is Nothing”. How many people believed the United
States was unbreakable before September 11th? How many
people believed the Red Sox would be forever cursed?
How many people thought that Nortel would be a Blue
Chip and not go into a sudden nose dive? Impossible
simply means that a solution has not been successfully
implemented yet. Use the resources at your disposal,
be it colleagues, friends, web tools, whatever, and
put together your plan in a way that will turn your
boss’ head and earn his approval. If you know
that your boss will not be receptive to your plans
in advance, then plan for it it a non-confrontational
way. Set up a meeting after you have gathered all your
supporters. Try and get other people at his level that
believe in the benefits of your objectives and get
a meeting all together. Propose your plans in a team
setting so that it does not just pit you against your
boss.
Make it happen.
How can the everyday negro (or lower level manager)
take advantage? The easiest way is by following the
old adage, “Necessity is the mother of invention”.
I can’t tell you how many positions and even
whole departments have been created based on creative
folks jumping in to take on gapped responsibilities
that other teams have shirked due to lack of funding
or inadequate training. If managed properly, stepping
up to meet corporate deficiencies can lead to influencing
corporate decisions. How so? Advertising works! Never
step up to addressing a problem without due recognition
for it once it has been resolved. A great example would
be to send out a broadcast email congratulating everyone
for a great effort resolving the issue. Identify which
actions were taken by what group, and what the resulting
positive impacts where in terms of improved financial
numbers, lowered costs of doing business and/or increased
employee/customer satisfaction. Make sure to not only
send this out to all the people within your organisation
that were involved, but to their bosses as well. You
would now have succeeded in improving your own image
by enhancing those around you that is subtle enough
to get score you points, and keeps folks happy about
working with you at the same time.
Opportunities are easy to come by. They are stated
at meetings, identified in corporate memo’s,
or spoken about in various work related social gatherings.
Follow up a complaint from a colleague with more questions
as to the details of the issue. Find out their take
on the source of the problem, who or what is the cause,
and what measures they have implemented as a work around.
History about the issue(s) can also be learned by asking
casual questions as to how many other departments or
customers are affected, and for how long, as well as
finding out who has been implicated in the past. Take
the information learned back into your own team and
try and find solutions that are mutually advantageous.
Some teams may feel like you are stepping into ‘their’ territory,
but that can usually be countered with the simple argument
that taking away problem issues will lead to improved
efficiencies in their remaining tasks. You must always
remain in partnership with the departments with which
you are working. The business world has been getting
smaller and smaller. Cases were Executives have lost
and taken back over specific teams multiple times over
the course of only a few years is becoming a common
occurrence. If you try to start empire building, you
had better succeed, otherwise you will be forever branded,
and no one will help you. It is not a good deal in
the long run. People used to be able to jump companies
and start again, but acquisitions, take-overs and turn-over
rates can put you back in reporting position to someone
with which you are no longer are on good terms.
Most important of all, take the new Adidas motto, “Impossible
is Nothing”. How many people believed the United
States was unbreakable before September 11th? How many
people believed the Red Sox would be forever cursed?
How many people thought that Nortel would be a Blue
Chip and not go into a sudden nose dive? Impossible
simply means that a solution has not been successfully
implemented yet. Use the resources at your disposal,
be it colleagues, friends, web tools, whatever, and
put together your plan in a way that will turn your
boss’ head and earn his approval. If you know
that your boss will not be receptive to your plans
in advance, then plan for it it a non-confrontational
way. Set up a meeting after you have gathered all your
supporters. Try and get other people at his level that
believe in the benefits of your objectives and get
a meeting all together. Propose your plans in a team
setting so that it does not just pit you against your
boss.
Make it happen.
About The Author
Gary Whittaker is the editor of tenwebzine.com, a social
and sports commentary webzine with balls! Check out
more articles at http://www.tenwebzine.com.
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