Six more ideas about how to build positive, supportive, effective alliances at work follow.
- When working on a project together, always put forth your best efforts. Be the person who is willing to do extra to strengthen the collaboration and the outcome or product. Produce work that allies are proud to support.
- Choose your battles wisely. A colleague gave in to another coworker recently on a staffing decision. When I inquired why he let the other person’s opinion prevail, he responded that he needed the colleague’s support on much more important issues. Give in on the little decisions, or the decisions that appear to be much more important to the coworker. You’ll more easily gain support for the decisions that are important to you.
- Keep your promises. If you say you will do something, do it. People need to depend upon you and the deadlines to which you commit. Again, it is a matter of developing trust.
- Resolve any conflicts or disputes at your earliest opportunity. Unresolved conflict festers just under the surface in organizations. Unresolved conflict undermines alliance-building and mutual, purposeful progress toward accomplishing personal and organizational missions.
- Be an ally. Support your colleague’s ability to accomplish his or her mission, too. Give credit for ideas and solutions. Publicly express support for your ally’s desired direction. Assuming you actually do support an idea (no fabrication allowed), be among the first to verbally support the idea. Don’t wait until you see in which direction the rest of the group is heading. Demonstrate professional courage and speak up early. I had the opportunity to support the opening of a facility in a different state recently. The numbers worked to my company’s advantage and my colleague appreciated my early and verbal support.
- Finally, never back-stab or blind-side an ally. If you have a problem with their actions, talk to your ally directly. Don’t talk to their boss or your boss because if that is the first person your ally hears from about a problem, you have blown the most fundamental understanding of an alliance. If you let your ally down, you could spend years redeveloping the relationship, if trust at the prior level is ever again even possible.
Alliance-building is a delicate process that can easily go astray. Alliance-building takes time, effort, commitment and sometimes not getting what you want. But, if you want to accomplish your personal work mission, assuming that your mission is positive and congruent with your organization’s mission, you must have allies at work.
Wonder why you'd want work alliances? Want four more tips about building alliances? Read on ...
