Political Dilemmas at Work: How to Maintain Your Integrity and Further Your Career

Analyze the Disruption and Prioritize the Action

The apprentice is usually someone outside of your team. He might have been brought in on a mission to find new economies or profit opportunities. Being external, he has little interest in maintaining the day-to-day operations. In fact, he may have a direct mandate to shake things up. Unlike you, he is not rewarded for business as usual. Instead, he is motivated to create change and will work hard to make that happen—often ignoring your objectives. The disruption caused by the apprentice will place significant pressure on you and your team.

It is important to discover exactly what is intended and how the analysis and change will affect your short-term results. Without this understanding, it is difficult to guide your managers to respond to the disruption appropriately. In the absence of clear direction from you, it is likely that things will go wrong and people will become stressed.

To provide clear leadership in this dilemma, you need to consider the disruption in detail. Exactly what is being requested and why? How does each hindrance affect your day-to-day operation? More important, what impact does disruption have on meeting your agreed objectives? Once you know this, then you can make sense of the confusion and identify those disruptions that present the greatest threat to your work.

It is important to realize that change needs to happen and senior management has an obligation to continue to enhance the performance of ...