Political Dilemmas at Work: How to Maintain Your Integrity and Further Your Career

Chapter Ten

THE APPRENTICE

The new guy has arrived and is strongly favored by the CEO. He is creating lots of disruption for your team.

 

 

 

 

Anyone who has been working in an organization—particularly a large one—knows that disruption is common and often uncomfortable. While we may be able to skillfully manage our own work, the competitive environment places continuous pressure on all of us to perform better and in different ways. Today, our ability to handle this relentless pressure to change—and the ambiguity that comes with it—is critical to success.

What do we do when the disruption is coming from someone new to the organization? Someone who is outside of our direct control and has powerful connections? Then, we find ourselves with the apprentice dilemma. How can we confront this without unsettling people in high places? What do we do as our own objectives begin to slide? How can we turn this dilemma to our advantage? We need to arrive quickly at answers to these questions, and more, before we are overwhelmed, our work suffers, and the apprentice damages our career.

The Apprentice Dilemma

Goddamn upstart. I’ve seen his type before—they come and they go. Yet this one is causing me a real pain in the ass. Maybe I’m getting too old for all this trouble.

My responsibility is to run a smooth operation that delivers to our customers on time every day. We have to be very well disciplined and stick to the process. We’ve been doing this for years and have only needed to ...