Rules Of Management

RULE 85 - Don’t slag off other managers

“It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.”

Neil Gaiman and Marc Hempel, The Sandman: The Kindly Ones

Earlier we looked at how competition should spur you on, encourage you, and how you should never be frightened of it. We were talking about the competition of other industries, other organizations. But what of colleagues and other departments? Same goes. Don’t be frightened of anyone or anything. If you are good at what you do, bold, creative, fast on your feet – as I am sure you are – then there is no need. If you refuse to engage in politics then you will be seen as honest and trustworthy. You should never criticize, make interferences about, slag off, condemn, pass judgment on or whinge about your colleagues or people from other departments/divisions.

If you do, you will be seen as weak or a poor performer. Sure, others will, and will be seen to, profit from it at times. But do they sleep at night? Can they, hand on heart, swear they enjoy their job, or do they fear others stitching them up as they have stitched up others? I think not. I’ve worked with quite a few. They carp on about how good they are, how bad everyone else is, but they quake in their boots privately because deep down they know they aren’t as good at their jobs as those whom they criticize. Just because someone points out your fault doesn’t make you any less of an emperor, does it? And if you see another emperor with their new clothes there is no point in pointing it out to them that they have been fooled – no one will thank you.

“If you refuse to engage in politics then you will be seen as honest and trustworthy.”

I worked with one manager who would bang on incessantly about all the other managers and how bad they were. Interesting thing was every fault he pointed out, he was equally guilty of. We laughed because it was so obvious to everyone but him. He couldn’t see he was highlighting his own faults.

posted by Right Ranger @ 9:28 PM