(By personal excellence) What Is Backstabbing And Why Should You Care About Defending Yourself When you interact with a group, it is only natural that you will get along well some people and less well with others. However, if everybody plays with the cards on the table, at least the interactions happen on a fair basis. You can stand up for yourself if the case. Everything is transparent. In real life, things are different. Even more so when there is something at stake. In an office environment, people are in competition for career development opportunities, power, money. Some people choose to get ahead by any or by almost any means. This is how backstabbing comes into the picture. So what is the backstabbing all about? In short, it refers to actions of other people that are done behind your back and which are directed against you. Backstabbing is dangerous because most of the time you don’t know something is happening, until it’s too late. The damage is done and you get in a reactive mode, i.e. you need to manage the outcome. Backstabbing can be a long term endeavor or a one time event. For example, a colleague that acts positively in direct interaction may consistently undermine your position behind your back with your other colleagues, bosses or with the entire organization. He may steal your ideas and present them further before you are able to do it. He may take credit for your hard work. Or he may suddenly turn against you in a context in which you were counting on the support he promised. There are many forms of backstabbing and sometimes you are in for big surprises, as people whom you consider good friends turn out to be fierce enemies. People behave funny when they smell a real opportunity to get more power and more money. Some may be good friends for years and then change dramatically in certain circumstances. In any case, is it worth worrying about backstabbing? The truth is that backstabbing is dangerous. In some cases it may not do more than leaving a bad taste in your mouth. However, in other situations you may lose significant career development opportunities. Or your career can be completely ruined in that company. So I firmly believe you need to have a strategy for dealing with office politics in general and with office backstabbing in particular. Always Be At Least One Step Ahead Of The Game The most effective defense is to apply a blanket protection strategy in advance. When you are only reacting to a situation, it means you have already been backstabbed. One of the most devastating types of backstabbing happens when someone discredits you in front of the key leaders in your organization, whether formal or informal. This may have consequences in terms of slowing down your career, losing a specific promotion and so on.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:34:52 +0000
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