The Power Playbook’s Rose Herceg reports from whichever city she finds herself in about the stories she sees and hears (or overhears) in boardrooms, business lunches and dinners across Australia (and sometimes the world).
Time: 6pm
Place: Polly, Melbourne
Players: Co-workers who don’t have any chemistry at all pretending to share a pleasant meal together
The scene: Male takes offense at female telling their boss that she thinks man is taking all the credit for their (joint) efforts. He sees it as a personal swipe and thinks she should have told him alone and not in front of the entire team and boss. Female loses it completely, raises her voice in the bar, tells him he’s impossible to work with and then stops talking to him – as he tries desperately to get her to start talking to him again.
Power play do-over? (If this woman could turn back the clock and have that moment again)
If someone has a problem with your behaviour (even if you think they are full of it) you have to address it because it never goes away.
The conversation should go something like this:
“That’s fair and if the situation were reversed I’d probably appreciate a word in private as well. So it’s just us now. Here’s my problem with you. You take all the credit for our work. We’re either a team of we’re not. If we’re not, then speak up now and I’ll get moved to someplace where I work with someone I trust because I don’t trust you. You need me and we could make a good team, but if you think I’m going to sit by and let you claim all the credit and stay quiet, I’m not that girl”.
It’s fair and honest and shows great character. Very powerful too.
Next week we observe a late night cram session between colleagues…