More on Principles & Dangers

• You will find that you will not be able to deliver results unless you are prepared to be firm and strong.
• You can demonstrate strength at this stage simply by getting work done — despite unexpected obstacles, mistakes of others, excessive workloads or just general inertia.
• When you overcome problems and deliver a positive result, show modesty and avoid humiliating others.
• Letting others take credit can be a sign of strength.

Remember: Firmness, even toughness, is essential if you are directly challenged, tested or unfairly attacked.

• You must start to assert yourself more when the opportunity presents.
• Proceed more boldly to manage tricky situations
• You will often get control by acknowledging a mistake or by giving in.
• A strong offence is sometimes the best defence.
• If you are in a relatively weak position, then of course you can only get control by deferring, being emollient and adapting.

Remember: Getting control is not being controlling, being inflexible, forcing a situation or winning at all costs.

Helpful methods include:

● Accepting responsibility
● Doing favours that earn gratitude
● Being liked
● Accumulating influence through contacts
● Providing knowledge.

Patronage can be important: know which side your bread is buttered on and never offend unnecessarily.

• Act with the authority assigned to you.
• Dominate at times through sheer force of character.
• Push more gently by enabling your subordinates to be strong as well.

Remember: Conformity is intrinsically weak: you will often do far better by standing up for your position, even if it is not popular.

• Assertion is risky but unavoidable. Your colleagues may be decent, hard-working people, but they are competitors; and there are some people, unfortunately, who would gloat if you fell flat on your face.
• Quietly and carefully demonstrate solid achievements.
• Be positive at all times: don't complain, don't blame.
• Maintain self-control in emotional situations and never act impulsively.
• Be careful at office parties; and avoid choosing a sexual partner within your work group (or, more dangerously, being chosen).

• Whenever there are, or will be, changes in the system, or you have achieved success, you have the chance to adjust your relative position: e.g. it may be a good time to accrue or divest a particular duty.
• Discover where power resides and how it flows in the organization, in your industry, and in your profession.
• Don't be blinded by the formal hierarchy of official authority: assess the ability and personal strength of everyone you interact with and, at all times, sense where you stand in the informal hierarchy of power.
• By getting a feel for the culture and knowing your place in it, you can rather easily learn what will be to your advantage.
  

• You must take good care to avoid maltreatment, exploitation and humiliation, especially following inevitable mistakes or mishaps (whether or not you played a part in them).
• Recognise your limitations and do not expose your weaknesses.
• Protect your reputation at all times.
• Whatever you do, avoid arrogance—it is death.

Do not be tempted to succeed at all costs—even if you see others doing this. Once you start breaking rules or compromising your integrity, you are in danger of losing the respect, trust and confidence that will be critical later in your career.

Working the power system enmeshes you within it. You become dependent on it and lose some of your freedom. At the extreme, you become a pawn and not allowed to have a mind of your own. The only sensible advice is: if asked to do something that you know is wrong, don't do it &/or start planning your departure.

By moving to Stage-2, you have accepted that you need to show your mettle; and you must accept that you are entering what is potentially a battle-zone—even if you and those about you are inherently good-natured.

Showing your strength even in the most productive way, may make others feel fearful and inclined to be submissive.

Getting control easily leads others to become passive and submissive, and all too soon you can become a dominating figure that evokes jealousy.

Your power-base, as it develops, will lead to others making demands on you and expecting favours, often unreasonably.

Exerting pressure is only a hair’s breadth away from coercing or intimidating and a few steps away from harassing or bullying.

Winning respect leads to some colleagues feeling inferior, and that is a potent generator of envy, bitterness and aggression.

Jockeying for position combined with any power base tends to generate political infighting with countervailing forces and cliques.

Protecting yourself is potentially evidence of being paranoid; especially when these efforts fail on occasion and you are unreasonably and mercilessly humiliated.