Strategize to Win: The New Way to Start Out, Step Up, or Start Over in Your Career by Carla A Harris

Author:Carla A Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2014-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

The Trust Factor

One of the things that causes professionals to have trouble developing and building meaningful relationships is lack of trust. If a professional feels that they have been slighted at work, treated unfairly, or his or her confidence has been betrayed, then they start not to trust specific individuals; and before long, they start not to trust the environment that they work in. If someone feels that they can’t trust the environment that they work in, they typically will start to pull back from investing in relationships. They won’t share much about who they are and won’t engage authentically in interactions with peers, people more senior to them, and sponsors. This is all counterproductive to acquiring relationship currency.

If this happens to you, please remember that you can’t let one or two interactions cause you to mistrust your entire organization or department. If you do not trust the environment, then you will be guarded and not fully engaged and eventually that will compromise your overall success. People who might be interested in building a relationship with you, or even better, sponsoring you, will be hesitant to do so because they can sense your hesitancy to interact with others.

Trevor had a tough boss who he felt had never really supported him to move ahead in the organization. His boss was often critical of his work, sometimes embarrassed him in meetings, but yet kept requesting Trevor to work on his projects. Trevor had been with the organization for two years. He felt that he had done a stellar job and had invested in his projects over and above what was required of him. As a result, he felt that it was time for him to be promoted to the next level. However, when he approached his boss about moving to the next level, he was told, “We’ll see.”

At the end of the year, when promotions were announced, Trevor’s name was not on the list and he was angry. He also did not trust that his boss would support him the next year. Trevor took an “I will just do my job and no more” attitude and began to withdraw from engaging in the organization. He spent very little time with coworkers, and did not meet with colleagues outside his department nor with people more senior to his boss. He came in every day, did what was assigned to him, and then left every day at 5:00 p.m.

Within the next twelve months, Trevor was feeling stuck and trapped in his role. He had no relationships to help him create a pathway to move outside of his current role because no one really knew him. After being disappointed by his boss, Trevor did not trust the environment enough to engage with anyone else to build the kind of relationships that were essential to his ability to move within the organization.

You may think you can fool people, pretending to engage colleagues while you really keep them at arm’s length. And while you may be able

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