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When people go to work, they often go to play. I’m sure work is a serious place for many, and I’m not talking about child’s play, but the serious work of the gang of selfish people who are fine to take advantage of their naive colleagues. People who have a strong sense of integrity often find themselves maneuvered and destined to arrive watching the podium from a distance as the winners show off their trophies.
You’ll be amazed at how simple it is to equip yourself with self-defense knowledge and skills. Ever since I wrote 21 Dirty Tricks at Work, I’ve loved the way avid readers have studied and been able to learn the techniques for winning with integrity.
The priority is to build your awareness. Here are some of the most common dirty tricks played in the office…
CreativeMapie: Exaggerating participation in the ideas and good work of others or blatantly stealing them while hiding the valuable contributions of the creators.
Development opportunity: The tactic of motivating someone to take on a task, project, or assignment that they could reasonably turn down by pretending it is a development opportunity.
Email to the gods: Using email to embarrass or coerce another. This is usually an email that comes from a colleague (including true or false information) that makes accusations of blame, which are also copied to bosses, directors, clients, suppliers, etc.
Then you need to learn to protect yourself. Here are my top 5 tips…
Tip #1: Be curious and ask questions. Don’t ask them in an accusing way. Make sure you keep it clear and keep asking until you get to the bottom of what’s really going on.
Tip #2: Control your emotions. Sure he can get mad when he sees a “Fall Guy” dirty trick coming his way, but if he loses his temper, it’ll be harder for him to cope. So keep a cool head.
Tip #3: Try to find out why they are doing it. There must be a reason: what benefit do they get if you fall for the trap? If you can figure this out, you might be able to implement the next tip more easily.
Tip #4: Be constructive. Once you’ve asked a lot of questions, try to come up with some creative solutions where you can both win.
Tip #5: Try to maintain your own integrity. Don’t be tempted to play tricks on him; chances are they see it coming and are ready to trip you up.
If you practice these tips, you’ll soon begin to realize how quickly you can make progress without getting into an argument. You’ll find that you don’t have to be a victim of office politics. And the more positive action you take, the less likely your more Machiavellian colleagues will try a game with you. So take heart, there is something you can do to deal with political games and dirty tricks without joining!