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

Develop Your Own Capability to Influence

It sounds like a crazy idea, but there is such a thing as unhelpful support, and it is often an important aspect of the home alone dilemma. Most of the support you receive from an ally will most likely be hugely beneficial. However, there is a strong possibility that some aspects will not be. The more someone else does for you, the more your learning, skills, and capabilities are obstructed. Anyone with small children knows that when teaching them to ride a bike, there comes a time when you need to take your hand off the saddle and let them cope for themselves—even if there is a good chance that they might fall.

With powerful and supportive allies, you need to ensure that you do not allow them to overparent you. An essential aspect of the relationship is support. However, your ally’s ability to challenge and know when to leave you to it, is equally important. When you work with your allies you must resist the temptation to allow them to influence events or do things that you could—and should—easily do yourself. To allow this, is to breed an unhelpful dependency on them, and should you find yourself home alone, then you will be less equipped and less capable than you should be.

Raj views his relationship with Donna in hugely positive terms but has failed to notice and appreciate that his boss was in fact stifling the development of his own political skills. In being supportive, Donna has perhaps inadvertently put a barrier between ...