Читать книгу Influence and Impact - George B. Bradt - Страница 15

One of the quickest paths to losing influence and impact comes from trying to do jobs that belong to your colleagues. Many clients have told us, “My colleagues aren't getting their work done! And when they do, it's inadequate. That prevents me and my team from being successful. They should let me take that on.” These individuals rarely see themselves as self-interested. They are trying to help their manager, or the organization, succeed more quickly or operate more efficiently. They are trying to have more impact.

But the results are bad. Colleagues come to believe that you see yourself as smarter, more experienced, or more capable than them. They see you as self-interested or self-promoting. This creates a negative spiral in which your influence and impact drops precipitously. Peers stop cooperating. This causes you to push harder since less work is getting done, which increases their lack of collaboration. One person Bill observed while working with a start-up fell into this trap.

Rohit was hired to manage consumer marketing for a start-up clothing company, based on several years’ experience in a large company, where he developed a fledgling direct-to-consumer segment for the company. When he arrived, he was given responsibility for print and e-business development, while social media, institutional sales, and private label deals were left to others.

Almost immediately, Rohit started lobbying to take over other marketing functions. First, he sought responsibility for social media, arguing that the two had sufficient overlap that they needed to be managed together. At the same time, he pushed to take over institutional sales. He argued that the experience from his previous company made him more qualified than anyone else in the organization.

Unfortunately, Rohit had not yet demonstrated any growth in the direct-to-consumer segment. His peers found his efforts to take control arrogant and irritating. The CEO insisted that he demonstrate success in his own sphere before taking on any other roles. In spite of this, he kept lobbying to take on more responsibility, which frustrated everyone. The CEO rapidly lost confidence in him because of his lack of success in his primary role, and became increasingly intolerant of his attitude.

Instead of taking on colleagues’ jobs, some individuals try to take on their own manager's job. We observe this less often, probably because the manager usually moves to stop the behavior quickly. For some people, however, they do not seem to understand the difference between their job and their manager's job, and eventually end up in a power struggle to prove they are equals.

A corollary of this is the person who believes they do not have to discuss their activities or decisions with their manager and should be given total autonomy to make decisions and take action within their remit, without input or oversight. The consistent message we have heard from these individuals is, “I know how to do my job. Why does my manager need to get involved in ‘the details?’”