During our every day work we deal with conflicts and picking sides. I’m not going to write about how to pick side in an argument as this isn’t the purpose of the article, the article deals with picking what is better for your survival in the office and what will contribute to your survival.
As an employee or supervisor you are being asked from time to time to pick a side, but you have to remember that you have to pick a side that it will turn into your benefit.
In order to simplify things let’s assume that there are 2 options that are being offered are the same regarding the needed man power, knowledge, same complexity, and you can do any of them with out any problem – the only difference between them is the implementation.
Never give an answer on the spot – tell the parties that you need some time to think about it. There isn’t really something to think about as you already know that you can do any of the given options, this is more for you to think and understand which part can give you more advantage at the office (in long or short term).
Now it’s time to use your office politics and inform the parties what in your mind is the best option. There is also another option but this is for the “friends person” as this employee will go with his friend and won’t look further the line , therefore most chances he won’t success and won’t be able to survive the office politics, and I’m not going to refer to him in this article. In order to make things more clearly I’ll provide 2 examples:
- A software company wishes to implement a new feature in their product and they came to you, their shining rising star in the R&D with 2 options to implement it — the VP R&D has his way and the PM has his way. As a developer you know that the VP R&D can provide you more power at work, promote you, giving you a raise in your salary but on the other side the PM can “help” you if you want to switch your position and join team in the office, at this point you’ll examine what you want to achieve at work and to where you want to promote yourself and according to that you can pick your side.
- A software company wishes to implement a new feature in their product as a customer request and they came to you, their shining rising star pre-sell engineer. At this time you have a “conflict” between VP R&D and VP SELLS; once again you look at the sides and see where you can get more. At this situation you have someone who’s your boss (VP sells) and someone who isn’t your direct supervisor, once again you have to choose and see what they (can) offer for long and short terms.
Anyone who’s going to pick a side knows deep inside that this is going to influence both the participate sides and both him , as he is going to work with them , the real question that you need to ask yourself is “what is there for me?” and that what will help you to survive.
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