Career Opportunity or Career Trap: I

Some "career opportunities" are once-in-a-career gifts from the career gods. And some are dangerous traps to be avoided without further investigation. Some traps are custom-designed for just one person — carefully configured to appeal by matching in every detail the template the target is looking for. They're so carefully crafted that when we first encounter them, we're vulnerable to being trapped.

To see how these things work, consider the vignette below. I've given you more of a hint about it being a trap than you'd have in a real situation, but read it and see how many indicators of trouble you can find.

They shake hands and the meeting is over.

It's a dream situation for some people. Substitute "project manager" for whatever position you hold, and imagine what you might do with such an offer.

In general though, do not fall for this.

It's very likely a trap, set by a psychopathic project sponsor. The term psychopathic isn't slang, and it isn't a joke; organizational psychopathy is a real thing. [Babiak 2007]

In this Part I and next in Part II, I'll list nine indicators that an "opportunity" might actually be a trap. In what follows, I'll use the term probable psychopath or the name Paul to indicate the potentially psychopathic project sponsor, and the term target or the name Terry to indicate Paul's target for entrapment. These first three indicators are somewhat obvious, but they can serve as suggestions for the kind of thing to look for.

The project is in big trouble

Even if Paul isn't an organizational psychopath, it can be It can be risky to accept an
offer of a position of leadership
of a project or other entity that
everyone knows is in troublerisky to accept his offer of a position of leadership for a project or other entity that everyone acknowledges is in trouble. That alone should give one pause, but it's a stronger indicator of risk when the probability of Paul's organizational psychopathy is elevated.

For example, an organizational psychopath might have an interest in placing the new project manager in a position in which the looming failure affords him, the psychopath, leverage over the project manager. That leverage can be exploited for favors, including misrepresenting the true status of the effort. If Terry succumbs to these pressures, the result can be serious damage to his career, in ways that enable Paul to shift responsibility from himself to Terry, when Paul "discovers" that Terry has been concealing the true status of the effort.

The offered position has had several previous occupants

A pattern of repeatedly replacing the occupant of any given position is always a risk indicator. But if there are indicators that the position's supervisor might be an organizational psychopath, the risk is elevated.

Blaming the previous occupants of the position for problems in the effort in question is almost always questionable. Success or failure of any collaborative effort in a modern organization rarely rests on the contributions of only one person. To blame one person, even a leader of the effort, one must ignore or minimize the effects of two important factors. The first is the collection of resource allocations and other policies determined elsewhere in the organization. And second, few leaders are free to shape their situations independently. Most leaders work within constraints imposed by their collaborators. Thus, one-person blame is often misplaced. When Paul claims that he had to "let go" Marigold's third project manager, he's suggesting what is unlikely to be true — that the previous project managers are responsible for the trouble. If Terry accepts the position, he risks being the next person to be blamed.

The "pitch" is flattering

When the offer is couched in flattering terms, be alert. Flattery can be disarming. It can cause us to set aside all defenses, even the defenses that protect us from the effects of flattery. It works because most people want to think well of themselves, and they want that thought to be confirmed by others.

Flattery is therefore an indicator of risk, but it is an even stronger indicator when someone not known for grace or consideration delivers it. Organizational psychopaths use flattery when they believe that their targets are susceptible to it.

In Part II of this exploration, we'll list some less obvious indicators of entrapment. Between now and next week, see how many more you can find in the story of Paul and Terry.   Next issue in this series   Top    Next Issue

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