You and every person who works in a company have two
things to contend with that affect the nucleus of your
success and that of the company's: 1) yourself, and 2)
the dynamics at your particular firm--and how political
it is.
First, let's talk about you. If you've noticed a pattern
wherever you work--in your case, where things start out
great and quickly go down hill--it probably has something
to do with you.
Perhaps you're not clear on what your boss expects from
you when you start a job. Or you're not communicating.
For example, if you're relying on e-mails to get reviews,
that makes me wonder how much real communication you do
with your bosses. Have you asked for a face-to-face meeting
to find out what's going on? In past situations when things
went sour, what did you do to get to the bottom of it?
At the same time, the dynamics of a place play a huge
part in how things go. If you're in a highly political
work environment, it can be debilitating.
Research shows a world of difference between how people
feel in politically dominant and well-managed organizations.
According to Lawrence B. MacGregor Serven, author of "The
End of Office Politics As Usual" (Amacom), people in political
places feel controlled, confused, invisible, manipulated,
used and angry.
People in well-managed companies feel competent, clear,
comfortable, fulfilled, trusting, happy, strong and excited.
First, honestly look at how you're contributing to your
situation. Second, take a look at your company to see how
the environment affects you.
Here's a quiz to help. When thinking about your company,
write true or false to these questions compiled by Serven:
-
Problems are never fully resolved.
-
Meetings end without making decisions (apart from
further study.)
-
Directions from superiors are ambiguous.
-
Humor in the is office cynical or demeaning.
-
Everyone knows who the scapegoats are.
-
Excuses are accepted from powerful people.
-
Less powerful people are slighted, shunned or marginalized
for perceived failure.
-
Nobody can recite the company's goals.
-
People in meetings don't speak up unless they're asked
for information.
-
You've felt that to get along you've got to go along.
-
You've felt uncomfortable raising a legitimate business
issue.
If you have a lot of "trues," you're probably in a political
environment.
If you decide this isn't a healthy place to be, before
you take your next position, sniff out what kind of workplace
it is. It's subtle, but you can get a sense by asking others
who work there, by asking key questions in the interview
and using your own judgment. When crafting questions, keep
in mind the eight themes that research shows people need
from their workplace to operate at peak performance, says
Serven: Truth, trust, honesty, openness, caring, giving
credit, mentoring and risk taking.
© by Andrea Kay
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