{"id":638,"date":"2010-09-19T09:09:08","date_gmt":"2010-09-19T16:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/?p=638"},"modified":"2010-09-19T09:09:08","modified_gmt":"2010-09-19T16:09:08","slug":"workplace-alliances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/?p=638","title":{"rendered":"Workplace Alliances"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Forging alliances at work may be the most beneficial strategic career move a person can make.\u00a0 Alliances are more than casual friendships, and are formed to advance common goals or interests.\u00a0 These bonds of common purpose can provide a shield against adversity, and a conduit for opportunity.\u00a0 Making and keeping alliances can improve and maintain your competitive advantage.<\/p>\n

An alliance<\/strong> is an agreement or friendship between two or more parties, made in order to advance common goals and to secure common interests.\u00a0 (alliance<\/a>).\u00a0 Alliances can be formed on all social levels.\u00a0 Countries form alliances among themselves to provide for a common defense, or form non-aggression alliances by which they agree not attack each other. \u00a0Alliances are also formed in the business world and on individual levels.\u00a0 Some key points of alliances that make them work are integrity and trust. Keeping ones part of the bargain is always essential to making an alliance work.\u00a0 Often the parties of an alliance break the alliance to the detriment of one or both parties.\u00a0 Unfortunately, there is no way to know for certain if the parties will keep the alliance.\u00a0 Over the course of time it may in one or both parties interest to break the alliance.\u00a0\u00a0 How this is accomplished is important to maintaining your professional and personal reputation.<\/p>\n

There are several TV shows where making, breaking, and betraying alliances are part of the game. Survivor and Big Brother are two shows where contestants enter into alliances with other players as part of their strategy not to be voted off of the show.\u00a0 Although there are physical and mental challenges that enable contestants to win immunity from being voted off the show, the main strategy is social interactions and making alliances.\u00a0 After watching a few episodes, the group dynamics of the contestants became very similar to that of a workplace environment.\u00a0 There was individual and group competitions, and the social interaction to escape being voted off the show by the other contestants.\u00a0 In the workplace, fortunately co-workers cannot vote you out of the office, but having their co-operation and support is an important part of building a career.\u00a0 In the office, much like these TV shows, those best at making and keeping good alliances seem to fare the best.\u00a0 Gaming the system is part of most contestants\u2019 strategies, but more often than not those who break alliances usually do not succeed in winning the game.\u00a0 Even though it is a game where deceit and manipulation is expected, there is a high level of resentment and disrespect for those who are considered to be untrustworthy.\u00a0\u00a0 The same is true in the workplace.<\/p>\n

Making alliances in the workplace should be part of a carefully thought out career strategy. \u00a0In order for an alliance to be of value it must be of mutual benefit to all parties.\u00a0 For example, there is no benefit in forming an alliance with those who will not keep their part of the bargain. Likewise, it is not beneficial to enter into a lopsided alliance where both parties do not have the same interests.\u00a0 You cannot expect your competitors to support you over their own interests. Some instances where alliances make good strategic sense are; passing along and exchanging office information, helping each other with work assignments, and supporting each other in meetings.\u00a0 Over the years, I formed many alliances with co-workers. Most were beneficial, and worked to everyone\u2019s advantage. There were a few where I was played for sucker and left holding the bag. In those cases I chalked it up to experience, and learned some of the tell tale signs of alliances to steer clear of.<\/p>\n

The PracticaL Mentor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forging alliances at work may be the most beneficial strategic career move a person can make.\u00a0 Alliances are more than casual friendships, and are formed to advance common goals or interests.\u00a0 These bonds of common purpose can provide a shield against adversity, and a conduit for opportunity.\u00a0 Making and keeping alliances can improve and maintain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,20,71,49,1,6,58,22,88,92,102,18,103,63,19],"tags":[209,104,214,51,5,9,39,105,213,54,4,15,3,208,27,106],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-game","category-abundance","category-application","category-aptitude","category-advice","category-career-challenges","category-career-choices","category-challenges","category-competing","category-competitive-challenges","category-confidence","category-mentor-advice","category-self-confidence","category-skills","category-success","tag-abundance","tag-alliances","tag-aptitude","tag-career","tag-career-advice","tag-career-strategies","tag-experience","tag-forming-alliances","tag-goals","tag-guidance-counseling","tag-interactive-career-advice","tag-mentor","tag-practicalmentor","tag-success","tag-tactics","tag-workplace-alliances"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":640,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638\/revisions\/640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}