Stage-2: Work the System

Now Absorb some Power-Centred Principles

Building a career requires you to stand up for yourself, be strong, and deal effectively with unfair behaviour by handling people and situations firmly and positively.

This advice is not about your job—it is about your survival.
More… Whenever power is exerted, countervailing power is required to ensure a viable balance. So rescue can only come from respecting principles derived from the power-centred mentality. There is no other mentality that can provide you with the necessary guidance and relief.

These principles and dangers are described in detail here. However, here is the Power-centred story in a nutshell:

Once established in a job, you become part of an ever-evolving social system—like it or not—and you must somehow get ahead within it, by getting along with it.

Know This: 

You have no alternative but to accept the culture, its hierarchy and its informal relationships and loyalties. So use these judiciously and to your advantage. The system, comprising your organization and wider society, is more powerful than anyone—you cannot possibly fight it and expect to win. If you value a future in employment, resist temptations to expose its numerous follies, humiliate its weak managers, and flout its dysfunctional conventions.

Focus on your biggest challenges:

• To act so as to be well spoken of and respected.
• To handle people skilfully to get work done and secure your position.

If you discover you can’t stand office politics, consider your alternatives.

Soon it's Time to Boost Your Value

• Sure: you are fitting in well, but … you have not demonstrated that you have a mind of your own.
• People are ready to listen to you and you can make them listen, but … aside from driving performance and fashioning compromises, what have you got to say?
• You can dominate effectively, but ... to what end? Power for its own sake is not inherently productive.

Power is a necessity but you need much more than brute strength if you want to make a distinctive contribution to the business. In truth, you do not possess much power at this point: you have moved up a rung or two on the ladder and you are a little more street-wise and secure—that is all.

To move beyond working day-to-day in a secure position, i.e. to prosper and progress, you must offer the organization more: more knowledge, more skill, more competence. But how to do this? How can you can become unequivocally more valuable than others? Useful principles in this personal development are naturally provided by the cause-centred mode.

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• If you have settled, or want to settle, at this Stage, or you know that you are primarily power-centred, go here now.

• Everyone can read more about power-centred principles & their dangers.

• Otherwise, continue your journey to Stage-3: Committing to a meaningful path.

Originally posted: July 2009