Do you feel powerless? <\/p>\n
This is not an idle question. Your career depends on how you answer it and you must be able to answer it accurately.<\/p>\n
Feeling powerless can happen at any point in your career curve, and it is essential to your continuing sanity that you learn to recognize what is going on.<\/p>\n
If you are doing a creditable job and applying yourself to making your employer succesful, this can be one of the most important indicators that you are seriously at risk.<\/p>\n
I am not talking here about the fact that you are not getting the
\nnecessary authority to carry out your responsibilities. That
\nunfortunate state of affairs seems to go with being employed. You have
\nto earn authority by demonstrating that you are carrying out the
\nresponsibilities of your position and then you will probably have to
\nfight tooth and nail to actually get enough authority to make the job
\neasier for the future. That is just par for the course of being an
\nemployee.<\/p>\n
When I use the word powerless, I mean that you are being
\nsystematically kept off balance or being deprived of essential
\ninformation. It creates an entirely different level of helpless
\nfrustration than being denied necessary authority.<\/p>\n
This is a deliberately caused condition. There are individuals who
\nfeel that their survival depends on keeping others powerless. It can be
\ndone in a seemingly kind way or it can be done with obvious relish, but
\nit is always a form of insanity. <\/p>\n
When you are the target of this cruelty, you may feel that you are
\nthe only one in the group who is being treated this way. Not so. The
\nperson who does this has an unreasoning fear that other might do them
\nharm if they became more powerful. <\/p>\n
You may feel that you can suck up to this person and get them to
\ntreat you better. You probably can, for a while, but you will lose your
\nintegrity, your self-respect and most of your sanity in the process. If
\nyou observe carefully, you will see that toadies do get treated better,
\nbut they despise themselves. Don’t consider it, even as a last resort.
\nBail out first.<\/p>\n
If you find yourself in the situation where you are feeling
\npowerless and you cannot persuade your manager to give you the
\ninformation you need to get your job done, prepare your exit strategy.
\nLine up your next job without delay.<\/p>\n
If the manager keeps changing the rules on you and you are being
\nblamed for not knowing that the change occured, you are overdue on your
\nexit planning. You probably have less than 90 days before you are
\nnotified that you are excess baggage.<\/p>\n
You may think that you can go around the manager and get the
\ninformation from other sources and still get your job done. Yes, you
\ncertainly can…and it will guarantee that this manager will cut you
\noff at the knees when it comes to your next review or re-org.<\/p>\n
Look for a job where the manager wants you and treats you as a
\nvaluable resource from the very first interview. It will make a
\ntremendous difference in what you can produce and in your morale.<\/p>\n
You have the potential to be a valuable player. Make sure you are part of a team that deserves you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do you feel powerless? <\/p>\n
This is not an idle question. Your career depends on how you answer it and you must be able to answer it accurately.<\/p>\n
Feeling powerless can happen at any point in your career curve, and it is essential to your continuing sanity that you learn to recognize what is going on.<\/p>\n
If you are doing a creditable job and applying yourself to making your employer succesful, this can be one of the most important indicators that you are seriously at risk.<\/p>\n