Your boss just recommended the dumbest idea. Worse yet, the Senior Vice President - for whom you are slated to lead her key strategic initiative - just demanded an implementation schedule that is unrealistic. Your boss’s boss just asked you to fill a key role on your team with his inexperienced protégé.
There is enough power-related insanity in the bigger world these days. Now it seems to be invading your own working world.
Yikes! What to do?
Well, not to belabor the obvious, but you have two choices: acquiesce, or object.
Your first thought is to acquiesce, because not to do so would be a CLM (career limiting move).
But here’s my thought for your consideration. Sometimes, life gives you only two choices: make a potential career-changing decision now, or have an actual one made for you later.
One thing is certain. People who ask you to do the impossible don’t know as much – and aren’t as experienced – as you are in the specific domain under discussion. Furthermore, it is entirely likely that if they are pushed (e.g. you say the you can’t be successful, but perhaps they can find someone else who will), they will quickly re-evaluate and back off their demands.
On the other hand, they may not, and will punish you for insubordination. Now there’s an alternate universe that seems highly unattractive!
So when your gut tells you it is wrong, know that you have the hard-earned experience to be confident that you are right!
Do you want to make a choice now, or have one made for you later?
Simple choice, but not an easy decision. True for project managers, and now, apparently, true for citizens and elected officials.
Comments