Use and abuse of ‘Power’: Situation Analysis

In the previous post we have discussed the concepts of project politics and misuse of power. In this post let us examine several cases where we see the ’misuse’ of the power.

1. Personal Motives vs. Professional goals
Every team member has separate personal and professional interests & goals. Often, we find team members trying to fulfill their personal goals or interests by means of the work. This is not a bad idea; personal motivations can be used for the fulfillment of project goals. However, misuse of work for personal motivation is harmful. In such a case, team members are bothered more about fulfillment of their personal goals rather than the work/project goals. The project organization should take care that the team members don’t try to misuse their power as this has its impact on the team. Project leadership needs to take care that the team members identify their personal motivations with the project success.

2. Peers with different opinions
Often team members have different perspectives and plans for the project. Display of one’s power may be perceived as misuse of power by another team member. The difference of perceptions among the peers may lead to disputes. In fact members involved in the dispute may be really working for the best use of the power. They might not have any selfish motives.

3. Several teams and divergence of interests
A large project may have several teams working in it. When there are several teams working for a single project, sometimes it may happen that the teams are bothered more about their team benefits rather than the overall project benefit. In such a case there is a misuse of the power by the team players. Therefore, when the divergence in opinions is more, the rate at which the power is misused is also more. To handle such situations organizations need to have a proper leadership which helps in resolving these divergences of interests.

Use and abuse of ‘Power’: Project Politics

Most of the times we discuss about projects and project teams with our peers, we hear ‘Project Politics’ as one of the major concerns. In this post I would like to make an effort to define ‘Project Politics’ and explore some of the common reasons for the misuse and abuse of power, why it happens and how you can recover from it.

Politics @ work
Every team member is given some power as a part of accomplishment of project activities. We know that power is the ability to act or the capability to accomplish some purposeful task. When there is lack of clarity about one’s accomplishments in their work and their project team goals then there is a chance of deviation in one’s contribution to the project. In such situations there is lot of chance of politics at work.

Politics at work is nothing but misuse of given powers. Politics and Power have a correlation; in general, politics is nothing but the ability to manage people effectively without any problems. When we refer ’Politics’ as an adverse entity, we mean the impacts of the misuse of the power, entitled to the team members. Misuse of power is neither useful to the project nor to the project team members.

When does this happen?
In most of the projects, we can find individuals who influence fellow team members and help in the positive growth of the project activities. Such individuals use their power in the motivation of fellow team members and extend their power in support of the project growth. This type of effect of an individual’s power on team members is good for the project and project team members. We can say that the power is misused when an individual focuses on his personal benefits, more than the project goals. When the person misuses power then the personal objectives and the project goals match only to a little extent. This happens only when the project leadership is ineffective.

However, James Bullock in a Roundtable on Project Management put forward above mentioned situation in the following manner, "If you don't know what you are doing, what will deliver which value to whom, and how it will be implemented, the project self-organizes around some other goal or goals. Typically, political wrangling of some kind erupts. This guarantees pointlessness."

Artificial Pressure: Is it a necessary evil?

In the last post, you learnt about natural and artificial pressure. By this time you might have understood that pressure is imposed basically to increase the performance. In this post, I wish to discuss in detail about different forms of artificial pressure.

Positive Artificial Pressure
Artificial pressure may create positive or negative impact based on the levels of the pressure imposed. The artificial pressure may be imposed in a positive manner by promising incentives, promotions etc. This type of pressure yields results in most of the situations as this arouses competitive spirit among team members.

Negative Artificial Pressure
Negative forms of artificial pressure include scolding, guilt-tripping, or threatening as ways to get people to work harder. Sometimes, this involves leaders blaming the team for certain failures, and asking them to work harder to fix the problems that they may have caused. This type of pressure is implemented on the teams which need constant monitoring and disciplining.

However, we need to understand that imposing pressure on team members in artificial manner is necessary; even though it is evil it is necessary evil.

Pressures and its types

Now that, you know what a pressure is, questions that arise in your mind are what is the right method to deal with pressure? Does it have impact on the performance? Before knowing all these, it is necessary to know about the types of pressure in detail. Pressure can be categorized into two basic types’ namely

# Natural pressure

# Artificial pressure

Natural Pressure

Natural pressure is the pressure felt by an individual when he sets some goals by himself and is investing lot of energy for its fulfillment. For instance, consider the work plan of an employee, if he sets target of one week for the completion of a task. The pressure felt by that employee in trying to complete the task within one week by working more hours is natural pressure.

Most of the times the natural pressure has positive effect on the individual, it helps in improving the efficiency of the person. However, if the individual does not reach the targets set, there is a possibility of getting disheartened and losing interest in the goals.

Artificial Pressure

Artificial Pressure is the pressure imposed on a person or persons to increase their performance. Artificial pressure may be imposed by promising incentives, promotions or by shouting, threatening. For instance, consider the example of an employee. You try to increase the performance of that employee by promising some presents, promotions or by threatening, or shouting at him. Your final motive is to increase the performance of the employee by putting some pressure on him to perform more by working more in an organized manner.

However, you should know that artificial pressure may create positive or negative impact based on the levels of the pressure you impose.

Dealing with pressure, emotions, and the ego

Can you guess the most common thing people complain about? People complain about “Pressure”. A student complains about “Exam Pressure”. An employee complains about “Work Pressure”. What is Pressure? What do people imply when they complain about “Pressure”? Pressure is a compelling force or constraint which is additional to the present situation and which cannot be avoided. The constraints related to pressure may be in terms of more effort at work, management of the resources, and usage of less time for the accomplishment of tasks.

Do you have a choice?
Pressure is inevitable part of life. The only choice an individual can make is his reaction towards the pressure he has. People deal with the pressures imposed on them in different manner. The methods to deal with the pressure vary from person to person. Some may choose having a walk in solitude, long drive with loud music and exercise in gym etc. Most of the people really don’t have a clue on how to respond to the pressure.

Help people to deal with it
Pressure related to work or anything adds stress to that individual, suitable stress reliving methods need to be adopted. Adopting methods to relieve from the stress is not a sign of weakness. The team leaders need to take proper care that the stress relieving methods of their team members are not made fun of. Leaders of the team should not try to degrade the morale of the members by discouraging them if the members adopt a stress relieving measure such as meditation, walk or time in gym. It should be noted that time spent on stress relief is nothing when compared’ to the time spent on worrying because of pressure.

However, its time to ponder on Peter Marshall’s words:
“When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure”.

The Power of “Trust”

For every project leader, it is necessary to develop understanding and trust with the team members. As a project leader, clear understanding with the team members helps you in convincing them with your action plans. The trust laid on the team members adds responsibility on them. The more the team members trust you, the easier it becomes for you to convince them. Convincing strong thinkers and intelligent people of the team is a Herculean task. In many cases, team members do not require continuous help and support from you 24 X 7 during the course of the project. The main task lies in convincing them to do the required project tasks.

Use the ‘right power’ in ‘right time’
Granted power and Empowered power have their own advantages and disadvantages. When things in the organization are out of control, using granted power brings everything into an order. This is the quickest way to solve issues in the organization. However, using granted power may not find out the reasons for the problem. Hence, permanent solutions cannot be found. However, empowered power helps in finding the real problems and their solutions.

“If you wish others to believe in you, you must first convince them that you believe in them”~ Harvey MacKay