Do you have a Self-Promoting Peer?
compitition conflict driving results leadership manufacturing manufacturing supervisor leadership results self-promotion supervisor
Workplace competition occurs an employee's primary objective is self-promotion with their ultimate goal being career advancement. For example when I was a manufacturing supervisor at a large snack food company, there was another supervisor who didn’t really care about the people, the plant or the results, instead they were just looking to be promoted.
Mike was his name and Mike would only do work that was visible to the managers. Mike ignored tasks that were important but not visible and Mike would never talk favorably about anyone else. When someone else did a nice job completing a task or project, Mike took the credit for it. Mike positioned himself to look like a shooting-star to the managers, but to his peers, he was an untrusted coworker. From my perspective, Mike was an okay person, but I never expected anything from him, and I never trusted him.
Adversarial peer relationships can occur in manufacturing when a peer’s primary objective is self-promotion and in these situations, you are their competition. If you are involved in a situation like this, you need to accept that this person is all about self-promotion and that you can’t change them and you can’t change the organizations perception of them. Your managers are either enamored with them or they see through them and you are not going know the truth about how they are really perceived. Unfortunately, you can’t go to your boss or HR about them because it will make you look jealous and petty.
So what can you do? Well the best thing you can do is to simply outperform them. Results always win in the long run. Your peer who self-promotes may very well get a leg-up in the short-term and maybe they will even get promoted before you do, but if you keep delivering solid results, your time will come. I’ve built my career not on politics and not on self-promotion, but by consistently delivering great results and you can too.
So if you have an adversarial relationship with a peer because they are political and self-promoting, just don’t play that game. Let their career run its course. It will catch up to them eventually. Companies need results and they can't afford to carry employees who don't deliver. So, you just focus on your professional development and delivering great results and you will have an incredibly successful career. Meanwhile that political, self-promoting peer is destine for failure.
Stay connected with news and updates!
If you want some weekly T4T wisdom coming straight to your inbox for your reading pleasure - look no further! Join our mailing list to receive the latest blogs and updates.
Don't worry, your information will not be shared.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
CATEGORIES
All Categories 5s 5s standardize 5s sustain 6m's accomplishment accountability accuracy action action plans actions ada addiction addiction help adverserial affordable agenda alcohol alcoholism amazon american disabilities act anderson-darling approachability art artisan assembly assembly line assessment assignments attention to details attribute gage r&r auto industry auto manufacturing auto production automobile manufacturing average avoidance best practices big bend black belt boss boulder city bourbon trail business business case business model business proposals candidate experience candidates capability study capital career cargo cash flow cell design cememt central limit theorem central tendancy ceo certification certification training challenges change change management changeover reduction chaos child labor ci cnc cnc programming cogs communication communitiy company compassion compitition concrete conducting interviews conflict conflict management consistency construction consumption continuous improvement corrective action correlation analysis cost savings costs course cp cp and cpk cpk cross-functional cross-training cross-training matrix crude culture current state current state map customer customer satisfaction customer service customer value customers cv daily goals dallas dam data data collection data transformation debt-free decision maker defects demand department design design of experiment design review design reviews develop development dfm diet direct labor diversity documentation doe drilling driving results drug use duluth dumping e learn e-learning eap ebit education effective effectiveness effectivity effects of change efficiency email empathy empirical rule employee employee assistance program employee development employee engagement employee recgonition employees encouragement enforcement engagement engineer engineering equipment exercise expectations expertise experts facilitate facilitator factories factory family life feedback financial fishing fixed mindset flexibility flexible follow-up ford forecast fossil fuels fred jones freightliners friendships frontline leaders fun gage r&r gasoline gemba general motors goals gold rush good conflict great lakes great teams gross margins gross profits growth growth mindset habits health healthy henry ford heritage hiring histogram history hoover dam housekeeping how to be a great teammate how to thrill customer human relations human resources hydro-electric hydro-electric power hypothesis testing ice breaker illinios river valley illinois illinois river immersion improve improvement industrial industrial engineering industrial heritage industrial heritgage industrial history industry industry 4.0 inequity injury prevention innovation inspection instructions integrity internal promotion interview questions interview skills interview tips interviewing inventory investment irresponsible jack daniels distillery tour job diversity job shop job shops jobs kaizen kanban kappa kentucky knowledge lead leader leaders leadership leadership development leading lean lean champion lean culture lean implementation lean journey lean kickoff lean launch lean manufacturing lean pilot project lean six sigma lean strategy lean tools lean vision learn learning lifestyle logging logistics low prices lumber machine guarding machine speed machines maintenance making a pitch management management by walking around manager managers managing managing conflict managing the floor manpower manufacturing manufacturing leaders manufacturing leadership manufacturing plants manufacturing results manufacturing supervisor manufacturing supervisor leadership marfa material mbwa mean measurement meditation meeting meetings mental health methods metrics midland milk run mindset minnesota model-t mother nature muda multivariant analysis national park nature new products night shift nimble business normal distribution normality test office oil ojt okc oklahoma on line courses on-site factories on-time delivery onboarding one-on-one online open-door operational excellence operators opex ore organization otd output overhead ownership p-value packaging packaging material partner partnering partnership partnerships pdca pdca cycle peers performance performance management performance patterns performance review perimian basis personal accountability personal growth personal grwoth personality petroleum pikes place pitch plan planner planning plant plant costs plastics point of use poka-yoke policy portland cement positive feedback pou power plant pp ppk praise presentation presentation anxiety presentations prices prime costs principles printing private label problem solving problems procedure procedures process process capability process center process controls process engineer process management process variation product development product testing production production flow production supervisor productive conflict productivity products professionalism profit profits profressional development progress project project management projections projects promoted props provide qualifies quality quality control quality tool quick changeover r&d range rapid changeover recognition recognize recruiting recycling red tag referals refinery reliability reputation resolving conflict respect responsibility responsible results resume resume screening resumes revenue rewards rigs roi rolling-5 rolling-5 action plans roots routine safety safety incentives sales sales tips sampling science screening screening applicants seattle self-promotion selling service set in order set-in-order set-up reduction shadow board shareholder shine shipping shopfloor single minute of exchange of die single-piece six-sigma skills sleep slideshow sme smed social life sort specifications specs speed to market staffing staffing model standard cost standard deviation standardize starved rock state-of-the-art statistics steel steel fabrication steel industry stress stress management strong leader success supervision supervisor supervisor development supervisor leadership supervisors supervsior supplier supply chain sustain systems t-test tactical takt teaching team team work team-based teammate teams teamwork technical tennesse whiskey tennessee texas the great depression the hoover dam the normal distribution curve timber time management time-series tools tourism toyota production system tpm tps training training methods travel troubleshooting trust turn around two sample t-test types of change understanding vacation validation value value stream value stream map value-driven values variance variances variation velocity vendor managed inventory video violations visual factory vmi voc volunteering vsm war on waste washington waste waste reduction waterway wellbeing work instructions work rules workforce workplace workplace conflict