To manage relationships with subordinates, colleagues, bosses and others, executives first need to know how to classify those people accurately.
Many executives lack an effective framework for accurately classifying — let alone developing strategies for — their work relationships, leading to bad misjudgments and costly mistakes. The authors contend that professional relationships should be defined along one of two continuums: unconditional and conditional. Many career-ending mistakes can be traced back to a fundamental misunderstanding of the difference.
Relationships that are independent of situation and context are called unconditional. At one end of this spectrum are friends; at the other end are enemies. A friend inspires unconditional trust, whereas an enemy is someone who continually works against another person’s interests regardless of the circumstances. Although the most intense (and often the most time-consuming) connections are those with friends and enemies, the vast majority of business relationships are conditional, with allies and adversaries on opposite ends of the spectrum. Allies will promote another’s interests as long as doing so also serves their own self-interest. In contrast, adversaries will work against someone because their self-interest conflicts with the other person’s interests. The most important thing about such relationships is their transitory nature: An ally can easily turn into an adversary (and vice versa) given a change in circumstances.
1 Comment On: Friend, Foe, Ally, Adversary … or Something Else?
This is really a great article. But regarding Sheila’s example I just think what the authors had suggested doing her is highly impractical and to an extent impossible in my opinion. The facts are not adequate to figure out what kind of mistake Sheila committed. But if somebody has been literally ‘chucked out’ of the office in a humiliating and indecent manner and if the CEO was highly responsible for such an eventuality to have happened, she has every right and also justified to snub the CEO despite the consequences of that action. Life is not just about becoming a CEO. It’s about dignity and only dignity. When I make a mistake if the boss goes overboard in putting me down and humiliating it speaks of his low character as well. I am not suggesting to be hyper-emotional but a human being is made of emotions.
But I liked the article so much that I have decided to share this with few of my friends immediately.