A common office scenario which many of us must have experienced in our career to date .. I am keen to know how you would handle this situation :
you know when you are doing really well performance wise and you have hopes of being promoted to the next level , perhaps a management grade .. but then one day you find out that your peers been given that role and you have been left out.
How do you deal with the negativity of this situation? would you just carry on working with the same zeal and try to forget that this incident happened? or will you talk to your manager about this?
Would you show difficult behaviour to the newly selected manager? or would you start looking for another job coz this made you really unhappy ..
I would at least voice my dissatisfaction. Then based on the reply, I would use that to gauge how valuable I REALLY am to the company. If i feel there is still something there then i would stay if not then im off. Go where you are wanted not where you are tolerated
how would you handle the opposite, if you have a competitive colleague both of you report to the same person and then you get moved to that person's role but your former competitive colleague now reports to you, who may feel that they deserved the role and not you etc. How do u manage that?
X2, all through my career, I have been in both these situations. The Situation I decribed was much harder to deal with. Particularly because it was hard to manage my own expectations v/s reward v/s hard work and dedication .. eventually I saw politics is that one quality that gives anyone a winning edge .. Unfortunately I never had that.
Then , not so long ago I found myself in the situation you mentioned. It was hard but manageable. The hardest part was to not get bogged down with unnecessary politics because at the end of the day it was my team that reported into me , I was responsible for them. That took alot of time to happen, convincing my ownself that I am the boss and cannot lose control.
Next challenge was to ensure they and I both realize the change of equation in relationship. No longer peers and now sharing a manager-reportee relationship . Infact I had two troublesome ex-peers who were a part of a team of 8 people. I realized that if I were to tackle those two, I would first need to get the rest of the team on board. So I focused on the team communication, targets, goals etc for the first few weeks and then picked the strongest out of that team to become my A players. Only after that I opened border with the two ex-peers ..
Due to aggressive politics I realized things could get a bit out of hand, so had to be very careful but ruthless at the same time. My own manager wasnt too keen to help much in this situation. He had his own pressures to deal with.
Alot of times, I was put in a situation where I would almost start defending my position but then realized if I did that I would lose the "boss" factor and stopped myself in time. Eventually I put in alot of effort to lead by example to win the team's respect. I had to ensure I struck the right balance between when to let go and when not to let go and be tough. Initial few weeks I got intimidated by this whole situation and that showed in my decision making. But soon I realized that, as a weakness and focused on stronger decisionmaking .. that made a lot of difference to my relationship with the team.
And here's the mega lesson I learnt within the first few weeks:
Their mission was to bogg me down. Mine was to impress my own manager and let them know they took the right decision in promoting me!
They succeeded initially in taking the control out of my hands until I realized that was taking me away from my goal. Then I focused solely on ensuring the performance of the team as a whole remained consistent because the day those two peers would fall back on their performance would be my time to respond to them and tell them where their focus should be !
I must admit this whole process was very very challenging !
Have not been in this situation. Probably because I truly feel fortunate to work in an organization where one is not constantly pitted vs the other. If you do well your peers recognize you. It I a relief not to have to think politics every moment. Plus I personally don't gossip. Eventually that works in your favor. You earn trust.
Southie, its brilliant that you have such a positive work environment. Unfortunately for us here in the UK, people know how to remain within corporate limits yet try find a way around to hit others with dirty political tactics .. The higher up the ladder you go , the more you face it ..
My case has always been the same, I dont gossip, neither do I take part in any and that has actually always gone against me :(
Somehow I felt those who gossiped were closer to each other from bonding perspective .. I guess at the end of the day one needs to maintain a balance between a healthy gossip and a negative one !
Southie even if you are not pitted against each other, if you are picked to take your boss' role then your former peers become your direct reports. While there may be mutual respect as peers, there is also the factor of competitiveness at the minimum which has to be tackled.
@ X2 that is true. Our org structure is such that there is a Technical ladder and axManager ladder. I did not choose the latter. So haven't had to deal with that. I don't think my DNA is manager material.
@CB suffice to say I am not high up the corporate ladder. I like working with technical people who are smarter than I am. Competition most times is not an issue.
yes Southie, I know that working environment , its actually quite a good one to work in .. I too have enjoyed working in flat structure organizations .. bascially you get to learn more and grow in achieveing multiple skill set , much quicker.
In leadership based Org structures , I feel, the minute you start getting on top of the leadership ladder , even if its just a team senior or team leader ... you start losing out on learning the technical skills and become more sales and management focused. I have never enjoyed that ..
CB - you got it! You expressed more clearly what I was trying to communicate. In one project you may be someones boss. In another they are your boss.
Talking abt politics, I ran across similar situation here also. Most times when a mod is engaged in heated debate, other mods stop by for reinforcement. An unwritten code, thou shall fortify the position of a fellow mod.
I would work hard and let my management know my intentions in clear way that what I want in performance review etc. If even after that i am not given that position then I would talk to find out the reason. If I am still not satisfied and feel that I would had been offered the role then I would look for the job outside and without any heated debate I would move.
During the last year of my Phd, was hired by NG as a distribution engineer and was assured that will get the senior post (GIS/Transformer specialist) on the completion of my Phd. After almost two years of hard work, when finally the position was announced, they rejected my application claiming that the position is only for the native ppl (british) and promoted a guy who was less experienced, less educated than me. I resigned and left uk for goods.
During the last year of my Phd, was hired by NG as a distribution engineer and was assured that will get the senior post (GIS/Transformer specialist) on the completion of my Phd. After almost two years of hard work, when finally the position was announced, they rejected my application claiming that the position is only for the native ppl (british) and promoted a guy who was less experienced, less educated than me. I resigned and left uk for goods.