June 15, 2005	Volume 5, Issue 24
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When Others Curry Favor

by Rick Brenner

When peers curry favor with the boss, many of us feel contempt, an urge for revenge, anger or worse. Trying to stop those who curry favor probably isn't an effective strategy. What is?

urning the last corner on his way to his boss's office, Matt heard laughter, and he instantly knew that Robert was again working on Will. He paused and took a breath, but when he turned into the doorway and looked into Will's office, he was hurt by what he saw.

Robert was in Will's chair, at Will's desk. Robert looked at Will as if to say "Up to you."

"Excuse me," Matt said to Will. "I can come back."

Will turned to Matt. "No, come in, come in," he said.

'So it's come this far,' Matt thought. 'Robert sitting at Will's desk, telling Will what to do and what to think.'

"It's OK," Matt said. "I'll be back after lunch. No problem." He turned and left, but he knew there was a problem.

When a peer curries favor with your boss, your options are limited. Before you act, think carefully.

Time is short

The current favorite has probably been working on your boss for longer than you know. If you're considered a threat, you've been targeted. And for aggressive operators, truth is no constraint.

Unless something changes, your current job probably won't last.

Assess the competition

Those who curry favor are usually well practiced. They expect their peers to respond somehow, and they're probably ready for all the obvious or typical counter-tactics.

Know their level of expertise. Unless you can deal with their tactics, taking direct action could further jeopardize your tenure.

Don't respond in writing Writing, either
electronic or hardcopy,
is dangerous

Writing, either electronic or hardcopy, is dangerous. Pretend that you've been given an organizational Miranda warning: Anything you put in writing could be used against you.

Email can be especially risky. If you do take action, do so in person.

If you act, expect a response

Responses to your actions might be difficult to handle. The boss might feel accused of favoritism. The current favorites will likely defend their positions. Others on the sidelines might view your action as an attempt to become the new favorite.

Choose actions that take account of these risks.

Open your mind, not your mouth

Keep an open mind about what you see happening around you. The really effective operators are so clever that they're very hard to detect. They can curry favor with you at the same time that they do with your boss.

Trusting the wrong person can be a serious mistake — one I've made myself.

If the favorites are making headway, the boss is partly responsible. Possibly the boss knows what's happening and chooses to play along, or your peers are exploiting a vulnerability that the boss cannot control.

The situation is unstable in either case. If you manage to restore fairness, and the boss remains in place, a recurrence is likely. Any progress you make has to be considered temporary, until you can permanently discredit the favorite. Consider moving on.

All this can be hard to hear, I know. I can say it only because I'm not trying to curry favor with you.  Top    Next Issue

According to The Dictionary of Word Origins (Joseph T. Shipley. Published by Rowman & Littlefield, 1967), the original expression was not to "curry favor," but to curry favel. In medieval times, Favel was used as the name of a horse. The etymology is complex but fascinating. Check it out.

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More articles on Workplace Politics:

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The Three-Legged Race is a tactic that some managers use to avoid giving one person new authority. Some of the more cynical among us use it to sabotage projects or even careers. How can you survive a three-legged race?

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What happens when you learn that your new boss is younger than you are? Or when the first two applicants you interview for a position reporting to you are ten years older than you are? Do you have a noticeable reaction to org chart age inversions?

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Patterns of Everyday Conversation

Many conversations follow identifiable patterns. Recognizing those patterns, and preparing yourself to deal with them, can keep you out of trouble and make you more effective and influential.

See also Workplace Politics, Managing Your Boss and Ethics at Work for more related articles.

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Organizational Politics for People Who Hate Politics

Have you ever felt powerless to implement an important new idea? Have you ever been "blind-sided" at a meeting? Have you ever lost two good employees because you could find no way to keep them from attacking each other? These are some of the issues of organizational politics. Many of us have become enmeshed in them from time to time, but we've also known some people who seem to be able to engage and prosper. How is that done? We'll inventory the challenges of organizational politics, and provide tools for anticipating and addressing them. The focus of this program is practical — attendees learn concrete techniques for dealing with the problems that arise in workplace politics, while keeping their integrity intact. Read more about this program. Here are some upcoming dates for this program:

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The Race to the South Pole: Ten Lessons for Project Managers

On 14 December 1911, four men led by Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. Thirty-five days later, Robert F. Scott and four others followed. Amundsen had won the race to the pole. Amundsen's party returned to base on 26 January 1912. Scott's party perished. As historical drama, why this happened is interesting enough, but to project managers, the story is fascinating. Lessons abound. Read more about this program. Here are some upcoming dates for this program:

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Person-to-Person Communication for Project Managers

When we talk, listen, send or read emails, read or write memos, or when we leave or listen to voice mail messages, we're communicating person-to-person. And whenever we communicate person-to-person, we risk being misunderstood, offending others, feeling hurt, and being confused. There are so many ways for things to go wrong that we could never learn how to fix all the problems. A more effective approach avoids problems altogether, or at least minimizes their occurrence. In this very interactive program you'll learn a model of inter-personal communications that can help you stay out of the ditch. In those moments of intense involvement, when we're most likely to slip, you'll have a new tool to use to keep things constructive. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

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The Politics of Meetings for People Who Hate Politics

There's a lot more to running an effective meeting than having the right room, the right equipment, and the right people. With meetings, the whole really is more than the sum of its parts. How the parts interact with each other and with external elements is as important as the parts themselves. And those interactions are the essence of politics for meetings. This program explores techniques for leading meetings that are based on understanding political interactions, and using that knowledge effectively to meet organizational goals. Read more about this program. Here are some upcoming dates for this program:

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Human-Centered Risk Management

Most of us can assess technological risks, but risks related to human behavior tend to resist our best efforts. This session provides a framework for evaluating risks related to the behavior of individuals, teams, organizations and people generally. Human-centered risk differs from technological or market risk, because objective evaluation requires acknowledging personal and organizational limitations and failures. Since some of those limitations and failures might apply to the people assessing the risks, or to their superiors, there's a tendency to deny them or to explain them away. Our approach examines capability, organization, context, risk mitigation, and workplace politics. It has tools for guiding the assessment and management of human-centered risk, and we show how to extend these tools to suit your situation. You'll learn how to identify sources of risk in human behavior; recognize systemic and individual barriers to acknowledging risk; assess the effects of organizational turbulence; determine the risk associated with inappropriate internal risk transfer; estimate the effects of team dysfunction, toxic conflict and turnover; and measure the impact of workplace politics. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

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Managing global or dispersed teams is challenging — miscommunications, misunderstandings, and interpersonal conflict all thrive in the typical environment of the distributed team. And they're even more common in global teams, because of time-zone offsets and language and cultural differences. We'll inventory the challenges distributed and global teams face, and provide tools for anticipating and addressing them. The focus of this program is practical — attendees will learn concrete techniques for preventing and dealing with the problems that accompany global and distributed teams. Read more about this program. Here's an upcoming date for this program:

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