Mary Chapin Carpenter says it best in Mark Knopfler’s song The Bug when she wails “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug…”
Regardless of the view you have at the moment, knowing the difference between a leap of faith based on available facts versus the risky notion of jumping in with your eyes closed can save you time and the discomfort of the blade's whoosh.
Survival in today’s fast moving, highly charged work environments call for flexibility in managing changing situations. Your ability to adapt on your feet can mean the difference between stress level and career enjoyment.
The Corporate Entrepreneur’s 10 Point Survival Checklist helps you to identify risks and “red flags”, as well as opportunities where your strengths and skills can shine.
1. The requesters performance is credible but you don’t trust him on a personal level.
2. You’ve never worked with this person and she has no history with the company.
3. The Program Manager requesting your help recently experienced personal setbacks, possibly politically motivated, rather than a true reflection of the person’s skills.
4. You share responsibility for a high-risk project where you aren’t part of the decision-making process.
5. You must define and cross-sell a business or technical process not sponsored or championed by an executive or senior manager.
6. You lead the launch of a re-engineered product where your development team resides in more than two geographical locations.
7. Your manager assigns you the responsibility of representing your department on a cross-functional team where he has little influence.
8. The company’s new initiative calls on managers to implement a new change management policy throughout the organization’s ranks.
9. You assume ownership for an existing project that recently reorganized its team, and discover that the funding pipeline could dry up half way through the due date.
10. A corporate wide reorganization leaves you reporting to a manager with a reputation for unethical tactics and behaviors.
The more questions you answer ‘Yes’ to the more you need to prepare, whether this means re-tooling for the situation, sharpening your existing strengths and skills, or developing some new ones.
Going into a situation prepared increases your chances of surviving and thriving, while reducing the chances of your being the bug on the windshield!
© 2006 DA McCrorey
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