'Mind your nose Mid Manager'...

a Case Study for the week-end

Often times I have seen careers of high potential mid-management professionals getting destroyed purely because they did not know how to manage themselves in the midst of 'Power' conflicts between two Powerful leaders in the enterprise.

Conflicts, Politics and Power struggles at the top are not unknown in the Corporate space. Unknowingly, some mid-managers step on the land-mines in such battles & get killed.

If you are an indiscrete mid-Manager you may accidentally fall into the trap and become a victim. You cannot choose your Manager. You get posted to a department. Yr Manager could be in a power struggle (for whatever agenda) with another equal Manager.

It is natural for that Manager to believe that you are his team (private Army) and as a natural corollary (unfortunately), against that other Manager's team. And so does that other Manager believe you to be his enemy. The imaginary battle-lines are anyways drawn.

The over-enthusiastic mid-managers assume role of the Generals. They take the lead battle role personally on to themselves. They fight the proxy war. Collect the other teams gossips, block their progress, sabotage their work, block their resources. Though ultimately in all this, the CO is the ultimate loser but the mid-Manager is mindful only of the here and now 'brownie' points he hopes to gain from siding with his immediate Manager.

'O my God ! '... now imagine the Sr Manager you so patronised getting transferred...or you getting posted to the other Sr Managers department...or the other Sr Manager getting promoted to a higher more powerful role...or worst, the other Sr Manager sitting on ' Selection Panel' for a key job that you so badly wanted.

Don't make that 'Career Limiting Move'. Don't be a martyr in a second-hand battle.

Have you ever been caught in a trap like that ?Share your rich experiences to help me make a

'Do - Do Not' to help others learn from the battle-scarred !