The shield and the spear

Act I: The TTC

An old manager of mine once said something like, “Look out for 'x' kind of behaviour. If you notice it happening you tell me, don’t try to address it yourself.”

Emphasis on the “…you tell ME…”

It’s like that saying on the TTC, “If you see something, say something”. It doesn’t say, “If you see something, go deal with it yourself”

Dealing with the problem yourself is a respectable thing to do, but at that point you are inviting a certain amount of risk along that needs to be acknowledged.

What TO DO

In the TTC example, imagine you’re on the subway platform; you see something, you say something to the staff. They use a combo of their past experience in dealing with concerns in the station, they utilize their specific training in neutralizing situations in a calm manner, they discreetly alert police or security, they reroute the trains accordingly, they use their PA system to alert people nearby and other staff members. All the while you’re simply waiting to carry on with your day, maybe you even jump to another task temporarily, until everything is sorted and the only inconvenience you’ve encountered is a slight delay…

This is a decent metaphor I think for how your manager should operate within the context of the workplace (ie the public transit system). They are the TTC staff member that reacts accordingly. They carry a certain amount of knowledge and authority that they are expected to wield.

You as the IC (ie the TTC rider) are expected to have common sense and be aware of your surroundings, but you aren’t expected (and people don’t want you to be) the office vigilante. That’s why Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne are virtually different people from their super hero alter egos. They play different, important roles - but to preserve their effectiveness they need to remain mutually exclusive from Spider Man and Batman.

What NOT to do

Now imagine you’re back on the subway platform. You see something, but instead of saying something to the staff you decide to take care of it yourself. You approach the person in question. You get whacked in the head and you get a concussion. You may have even subdued or otherwise solved the problem at hand, but now every time you ride the subway (or do anything for that matter) you have to be worried about the knock on effects of having now had a concussion, and the risks of getting another.

In a similar way, within the workplace, that damage can be lasting and get projected onto future interactions that you have with others.

At that point, you become that guy (or gal). You become known as an idealist who knows what the right thing is, but not how to balance it with the views of others and the operational constraints of the team. The risk of this approach is that coworkers might withhold crucial details to maintain progress and harmony in their work. You're essentially creating an environment of expectation and fear that inhibits people from trusting you and communicating openly.

Not only does this affect you though, I find that these actions can have ripple effects impacting innocent bystanders within your own team as perceptions of your own actions become conflated with how people perceive your entire team - in turn pulling away valuable trust and influence.

Trust and influence are crucial currencies we strive to earn at work, so to spend them so passively is not ideal.

Act II: The flip side

All of this said, you also need some kind of spine so people know not to walk all over you. We get hired for our expertise, our knowledge, and our ability to execute, so it’s important to actually fulfill those expectations. That means finding a balance of confidence in your own knowledge of a subject, confidence in your opinions, but also discretion in your actions. I’ve found that this is a valuable formula in growing respect within a team. It can really benefit our career growth, but if we don’t have that 3rd piece - showing discretion, knowing when to bow out of a debate, being polite, being flexible with others - then our knowledge and expertise can work against us.

I think this is why it’s important to do two things;

1. Pick your battles

Collect your data, think about your past experiences and knowledge on a subject, form your opinions, maybe even do some maths on the potential value of a decision were it to follow your direction. What’s the real impact it might make?

Is it worth a bit of a debate? If so, then go for it. If not, then let it go. Do the work exactly as you’re being asked, despite any perceived pitfalls you may have already called attention to. Once that work is complete, there’s a couple different ways I typically like to proceed:

If you have the bandwidth, do the work that’s been asked AND do what you believe would work best as well. Provide both. [insert 'why not both' meme here] At least in that scenario you have a case to make in your pocket that’s backed up with artifacts that you can directly refer back to in the future.

Alternatively you can say something like, “Okay, no problem. I’d like to get [insert manager’s name here]’s opinion on the matter.” And that leads me to my second option below:

2. Let your manager do the heavy lifting

I gave the example previously. Imagine your manager is the TTC employee that you are alerting after you’ve seen that something is afoot. Know when to show discretion in the moment, and then speak openly with your manager afterwards. They can help to guide you and generally will agree with you if what you’re arguing for is something of value to the business or to the customer. Your manager can then go laterally and speak with management of the other stakeholders that are working on the same problem with you, or upward to their management to do the same.

It wont always be a home run, but over time you should begin to earn that trust and influence that ends up paying for product updates that are beneficial for both the business and the customer.

To wrap up

The workplace reminds me of those video games where your different responses to people in conversations have consequential ripple effects. By relying on your manager more you’re relinquishing a bit of autonomy, but think of it as boosting your stability and efficiency skill points in the game.

Your manager should be your shield and your spear, but you are the body - the controller - that needs to know where to point them.

Until next time,

Nat.