ANALYZING WORK RELATIONSHIP ETHICS

In the words of one of my mentors, Muyiwa Afolabi while dealing with this subject, he asked a salient question: You are a goal getter, committed, passionate, brilliant and hardworking employee and on top of your job, yet you don't get promoted as it ought. So what do you do?

Year in year out other people probably on your level within other teams are rising and moving up the ladder very fast but your case is different. Every year you achieve something greater than the last. Your team head relies on you and believes in your ability and capacity to deliver. He calls on you in emergencies and for information and ways out; you're the first one he calls.

Every other team member respect and value your contribution. They can see how much you know and how hard you work. It's obvious by now you ought to have been promoted after so long yet it's not coming and everyone is indifferent.

You've complained to the relevant people when occasions for review and appraisals came up. They listened to your complaint and promised to do something about it. Yet nothing is being done. You're confused, perplexed and getting discouraged.

Well, as far as rising within your organisation is concerned; performance on the job may probably not be enough?

Yes you're good at what you do but are you good with the people you work with?

Let me explain, in career and organisations no man is an island, you work in teams and you must be a fantastic team player to qualify to lead one. Knowing your job is not sufficient, you must also know how to work together with others in achieving collective goals.

Many top performing employees today experiencing stagnation do so probably because they are yet to develop efficient team relationship skills.

They can't relate well with members of their immediate teams - their superiors, their subordinates and even members of other teams. They are probably quarrelsome and difficult; arrogant and full of themselves.

You see, when you become absolutely good at what you do and always on top of your job to the end that you are somewhat a performance celebrity in your organisation, there is a tendency for pride to creep in without you realizing it.

When you frequently enjoy the praise of other employees and the commendation of your superiors, it could get to you and you begin to see yourself different from other employees and team mates.

Subsequently, you begin to see the flaws of your supervisor and immediate bosses, and the urge to always want to correct them begin to rise.

You could begin to criticize and complain about the lapses of your boss and tell as many people as care to listen his flaws, errors and how you have been saving him and bailing him out of his mess. Hmm mm Guess what, they're telling him.

Gradually you begin to think you know it all, you understand everything and you're better than everyone else in the team. You dominate every meeting, selling your point of view aggressively and almost imposing your opinion and recommendation on everyone else, your boss inclusive.

When your views or suggestion is not considered for implementation, you take it personal, have a bad attitude towards the assignment, refuse to co-operate with others hoping it would fail. You go around telling how ignorant everyone in your team is and blaming team challenges on their refusal to always carry out your suggestion. Hmmm. Everyone is listening, they're taking note.

In life everyone can miss it, make mistakes and fail, we naturally get criticized occasionally. But because in your case you've enjoyed so much praise and commendation for a while, you can't handle criticism anymore. To your mind you cannot make a mistake, you can't goof. Nooo, you're too good to make mistakes, hence when your boss is correcting you, you can't handle it, you don't listen, you don't take responsibility, you wriggle out of it, you keep arguing to convince him you're not to blame. Your success and pride have made you insecure. You want to hold on to that believe desperately that you can only do well, you can't make mistakes. You eventually become difficult to talk to, difficult to deal with. Your competence and performance have entrapped you. Ego has become a problem and setting you up for stagnation or a great fall. Hmmm

Simply because of this arrogant mind set, you begin to assign unto yourself the responsibility of fault finding in everyone else, you do this to keep convincing yourself you're still better than everyone else.

You attend meetings with a list of errors and faults of other team members with the hope to attack them, embarrass them and present them as incompetent before everyone.

You wish and hope they make mistakes that you will pick up and raise in a general forum where top management can see that you didn't miss what everybody else missed. Hmmm everyone knows what you're doing. You could tell them privately if you're sincere, why do it publicly? Your motive is obvious to all.

Your competence and capacity at work has blinded you to the strengths and efforts of others. All you see is their errors. But the fact that you're better than them today does not mean they're no good at all, but your pride will not let you see that, so you frequently talk down on others, criticize, and condemn; you're caustic with words and sarcastic with compliments. You do this to not just your subordinates but even your contemporaries and some superiors. You believe you'll get away with anything because you're too important to the organisation. Hmmm don't be deceived.

Dear friend, at times being good and relevant in your organisation can be tricky.

You begin to feel very important and indispensable probably because you see more clearly the weaknesses of others as you have a clearer understanding of the workings of the business.

Being arrogant over your achievement can generate a lot of negative reaction and perception for you from other team members.

The better you get, the more humble you should become. The collective success of your team should be your focus and priority not your personal achievements and prospects. Once you see things from a team-perspective, you become more considerate, objective and cooperative.

You will be able to connect and relate with the weaknesses of others and help rather than criticise.

You will be patient enough to teach, coach and support others with their tasks. On your account, everyone will be better, perform better and deliver faster.

The team will grow and perform, the commendation will be collective and the success will be for all. And guess what, everyone will know you made it happen.

Your subordinates will love and respect you, your colleagues will appreciate you and your superiors will promote you.

You will indeed be a superstar and everyone will want you as the leader.

Competence and humility is the fastest way to the top. Competence and arrogance will stagnate you career journey. Stay humble to move forward. See you at the Top