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When a Colleague’s Mistake Affects You
- By Chris Uba
- Published February 8th, 2010
- Business School
- Unrated
IT was Tacott Parsons, a renowned American sociologist, who first muted the idea that a society can be studied as a structure with interrelated parts. The concept which is known in social science parlance as structural functionalism addresses social structure in terms of the function of its constituent elements, namely norms, customs, traditions and institutions. According to this theory, when any of the constituent elements suffers stress, the other elements are affected.
This theory can be applied to work place when viewed against the backdrop of today’s organisations that are built on matrices of collaborative partnerships, making more and more of ones work dependent on someone else’s work. So what do you do when a colleague is not doing his or her part?
The type of mistakes you might be affected by vary greatly. A colleague may miss deadlines, not produce the work required, make errors in calculations or even provide you with misinformation. These may all be innocent mistakes fueled by lack of knowledge, experience, or awareness, but without more information you can’t be sure and won’t be able to act.
The first step in addressing your colleague’s behavior is to understand what’s really going on. Try to determine if the problem is short-term, such as a personal issue at home, a particularly heavy workload, or a health problem — or long-term, such as a lack of skill or a poor cultural fit with the organization.
It is possible that you’ll discover your colleague is intentionally making mistakes to undermine you or take credit for your work. “These political situations are far messier to deal with,” says Deborah Ancona, Seley Distinguished Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of X-Teams: How to Build Teams that Lead, Innovate, and Succeed. Fortunately they are far rarer as well.
Allan Cohen, the Edward A. Madden Distinguished Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College and author of Influence without Authority says he has only met a handful of people throughout his career that are “true snakes.” He advises, “It should be your last assumption that the colleague is making mistakes deliberately.”
Ancona offers, “You can try to confront the person directly, hoping that may make him or her back down.” If that doesn’t work you can use the following tactics:
Make your work visible. Avoid bragging. Use the active voice instead of the passive voice. For example, try saying “I prepared these analyses that show where we should be investing resources” rather than “These analyses show where we should be investing resources.”
Offer to lead a presentation when joint work is being shared. People often think of the person in the front of the room as the leader, or at least one of the more active participants in a project.
Take credit where credit is due. This doesn’t mean you brag. Instead, showcase your involvement or let your manager know exactly what part of the project is the result of your efforts.
In these political situations, don’t resort to badmouthing your colleague. Negative comments often reflect as badly on you as they do on the person you are speaking about.
Despite all your efforts and care in handling the situation, it is possible that the mistakes will continue. This isn’t only an inconvenience, it could hinder your career. The experts suggest you take a few approaches to preserving your reputation. If possible, avoid working with that person in the future.
If that’s not possible you can employ some of the same tactics listed above if the person were undermining you. Also, you should consider approaching your manager. Explain what you’ve done to date and ask for her advice. Be clear you are not asking her to intervene
Further Studies
•Harvard Business Review October 2009
This theory can be applied to work place when viewed against the backdrop of today’s organisations that are built on matrices of collaborative partnerships, making more and more of ones work dependent on someone else’s work. So what do you do when a colleague is not doing his or her part?
The type of mistakes you might be affected by vary greatly. A colleague may miss deadlines, not produce the work required, make errors in calculations or even provide you with misinformation. These may all be innocent mistakes fueled by lack of knowledge, experience, or awareness, but without more information you can’t be sure and won’t be able to act.
The first step in addressing your colleague’s behavior is to understand what’s really going on. Try to determine if the problem is short-term, such as a personal issue at home, a particularly heavy workload, or a health problem — or long-term, such as a lack of skill or a poor cultural fit with the organization.
It is possible that you’ll discover your colleague is intentionally making mistakes to undermine you or take credit for your work. “These political situations are far messier to deal with,” says Deborah Ancona, Seley Distinguished Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of X-Teams: How to Build Teams that Lead, Innovate, and Succeed. Fortunately they are far rarer as well.
Allan Cohen, the Edward A. Madden Distinguished Professor of Global Leadership at Babson College and author of Influence without Authority says he has only met a handful of people throughout his career that are “true snakes.” He advises, “It should be your last assumption that the colleague is making mistakes deliberately.”
Ancona offers, “You can try to confront the person directly, hoping that may make him or her back down.” If that doesn’t work you can use the following tactics:
Make your work visible. Avoid bragging. Use the active voice instead of the passive voice. For example, try saying “I prepared these analyses that show where we should be investing resources” rather than “These analyses show where we should be investing resources.”
Offer to lead a presentation when joint work is being shared. People often think of the person in the front of the room as the leader, or at least one of the more active participants in a project.
Take credit where credit is due. This doesn’t mean you brag. Instead, showcase your involvement or let your manager know exactly what part of the project is the result of your efforts.
In these political situations, don’t resort to badmouthing your colleague. Negative comments often reflect as badly on you as they do on the person you are speaking about.
Despite all your efforts and care in handling the situation, it is possible that the mistakes will continue. This isn’t only an inconvenience, it could hinder your career. The experts suggest you take a few approaches to preserving your reputation. If possible, avoid working with that person in the future.
If that’s not possible you can employ some of the same tactics listed above if the person were undermining you. Also, you should consider approaching your manager. Explain what you’ve done to date and ask for her advice. Be clear you are not asking her to intervene
Further Studies
•Harvard Business Review October 2009
