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Peer Power: Transforming Workplace Relationships

Peer Power provides the keys to effective interpersonal collaboration. Building on a foundation of four principles (Be Real, Extend Respect, Take Responsibility, and Build Relationships), you will expand your ability to positively influence others. The authors share common mistakes they’ve made, along with the choices they recommend to work effectively with challenging people. From the “drive-by boss” and the “faux-smart” boss to the “whiner” and the “clueless colleague,” the book exposes nine behavior patterns that may bedevil you at work. Rather than pointing fingers at others, Peer Power encourages you to modify your behavior so you can influence changes in their behavior. If your selected strategy fails, Peer Power offers a “Plan B” for your next best option.

Peer Power: Transforming Workplace Relationships

Cynthia Clay

Ray Olitt

Ray Olitt has over 25 years of experience in the training and organizational development field. He currently consults with and coaches leaders in a variety of for-profit and non-profit organizations. He retired as Manager of Organizational Development for a health insurance company in 2003. Prior to that, he served as Manager of Management and Professional Development for a bank and as a Management and Organizational Development Specialist for two aerospace companies.

Ray’s skills at engaging audiences with practical content have resulted in dozens of invitations to present workshops at home and abroad. Ray designed and frequently taught the very popular workshop “Working Well with People Over Whom You Have No Authority” for a human resources organization serving all of Washington state. This workshop has attracted more attendees than any comparable program in the organization’s history. Ray earned an Ed.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a specialization in Adult Curriculum Development.

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Peer Power: Working with the Drive-by Boss

The drive-by manager usually has bigger, more critical issues to deal with than you do. Or at least, that's what they think. Case in point . . .

Peer Power: Transforming Workplace Relationships explores the communication approaches that support positive relationships with your colleagues at work. This content summarizes the constructive methods you can use with someone who thinks their time is more precious than yours.

Cheat Sheet for the Drive-by Boss

Definition: A drive-by boss seems to be ignoring some of his key management responsibilities and doesn’t meet the needs of his employees or the organization.

Clues

The drive-by boss:

Misses meetings or holds them infrequently or without planning
Fails to provide you with clear expectations or assignments
Pays very little attention to or has unrealistic expectations about your work or workload
Gives limited praise
Fails to respond to messages
Avoids conducting performance appraisals or providing regular feedback
Ignores critical paperwork
Fails to keep you informed on important developments
Provides insufficient resources
Procrastinates in making decisions
Limits your training opportunities
Ignores performance problems and team conflicts
Seems stressed and harried
Achieves poor results
Has a demoralized team
Ignores management functions of planning and monitoring tasks and processes
Lacks the respect of his colleagues

Helpful Assumptions

Your drive-by boss’s actions may be due to real needs and not negative motives.
Your boss may be failing to give information or feedback because he is extremely busy.
It may not be his style to give out praise.
Though overloading you with work, he may not realize that you’re busy or trusts that you can deliver.
You might be unaware of the tasks your boss is actually performing.
His actions may be based on fear and uncertainty.
His behavior might be influenced by your own.
Your boss has strengths; respect them.
You may have shown some of the same weaknesses.

Key Principles and Practices

--Take Responsibility

Look at your contribution to the situation.
Focus on what you can do about the drive-by boss. Help him and educate him.
Communicate. Keep your boss informed.
Perform well (so your boss will want to help you).

--Extend Respect

Listen carefully to his reasons for delaying actions.
Respect the organization’s structure and culture.
Honor differences in style or work method.

--Be Real

Bring up issues that are on your mind.

Strategy: Collaborating or Coaching

--Collaborating (when the issue mostly affects you personally)

Schedule face-to-face discussions to resolve issues.
Make assertive requests that meet your boss’s needs. Acknowledge his good intentions.
Don’t get defensive or try to convince him he’s wrong.
Paraphrase frequently to demonstrate you are listening.
Explore alternatives and seek joint solutions.
When you reach agreement, discuss implementation.
Acknowledge any improvements afterwards.

--Coaching (when the issue mostly affects the organization, not you)

Approach the issue using sincerity and tact.
Ask for permission to provide coaching.
Allow face saving.
Ask questions that help your boss assess the situation, determine goals, and come up with solutions.
Listen well to his ideas and paraphrase without arguing.
Don’t dominate the conversation. Get his ideas first.
Give options rather than a single solution.
Let your boss come to his own conclusions and decisions.

Plan B (If Your Initial Strategy Fails)

Avoid venting to others.
Avoid arguing with your boss.
Avoid making end-runs around your boss.
When Collaborating fails, move to Compromising.
Caring-for-Self: Get information or praise elsewhere; manage your time well; gain as much autonomy as possible; look for another job.

Here is a role play that offers up a way to engage a boss in the work that needs doing.

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NetSpeed Learning Solutions offers Peer Power courses for the face-to-face and virtual classrooms.

Labels: cindy clay cynthia clay drive-by boss peer power transforming workplace relationships