Being sidelined in the team, not being selected for an assignment.

[v9991]

In a team environment:

1) How do you (re)act when you realize that you being sidelined!(not considered for an opportunity, assignment(not a promotion/raise ) )

2) to add to it people selected to do the job, neither do a good job nor have attitude towards the assignment. (you will not say this, just because you didn't get the assignment; you will certainly have evidence for that right!)

3) and finally, the senior team is doing nothing about it to improve upon the performance!


In the above situation:

If we move away, neither you nor the team/assignments are benefited; as a professional, we cannot let the team/assignment fail!

If we support the team, the recognition/credit goes to those people without attitude/aptitude. (because they always manage to showcase that they are leading the team to complete the assignment)

Quitting is not an option i guess; I believe that there must be pull factors to leave the current job; (quitting for above reasons comes under push factors)

Thanks for your thoughts/guidance!

 

[Wes Bucey]

?The first thing I would worry about is WHY? [am I being sidelined, ignored, disrespected?]

Without a concrete answer to that question, any other effort on your part may be wasted.

There are lots of reasons bosses and team leaders may ignore or isolate an employee or staff member. Some are good, valid reasons and others are definitely bad news for the one being ignored. The ignored person's opinion of whether he can do the job better and with more value to the organization than the ones chosen is worthless unless he knows why the bosses feel the chosen are better.

Some of the reasons:

1. Most benignly - the bosses just don't know enough about the ignored person's work to feel confident in choosing him. (this is material for a whole new thread!)
2. The ignored person may have a history or reputation of being a "loner" - someone who does OK on his own, but doesn't work well in a team situation.
3. The bosses may be practicing favoritism toward the chosen, regardless of the ignored person's skill or reputation.
4. Worst - the ignored person may be perceived by the bosses as incapable of doing a job, either pure prejudice or something in the ignored person's history which justifies the opinion in the boss's mind.

There are strategies for each situation, but using one where the other strategy is required may only worsen the situation.

Why not conduct some brief research on what the motive may be for sidelining and come back to us for some suggestions on strategy?

 

[adickerson]

If we move away, neither you nor the team/assignments are benefited; as a professional, we cannot let the team/assignment fail!

I hate to say it but if the team leaders do not want on the team the professional thing to do IS let them work on the project without you. A big part of being on a team or being a profesional is following orders. They may have specific reasons for not choosing you and as the manager of the project they chose what resources to allocate including personnel.

I think the important thing to remember is that there are always things that need to get done or improved. If you are confident in your skills, and it seems you are, I would suggest doing your own project. If you are not on assignment it seems like a great opportunity to work on something without the other, less then competent, coworkers getting in your way. Find a interesting project and take it to your management for approval. Just explain that you didn't get picked up for the team but you want to stay motivated and keep adding value to the organization.

 

[v9991]

Wes, that was an wholesome analysis;
adic, that is the most positive/objective action which I can implement.
I totally agree with your thoughts

Further, of the situation Wes has described, here the situation seem to be more of no.3, less of no.1 (definitely not no.2 & no.4)

Wes, could you pl. help me for strategies/plan-of-action. (do or don'ts)!??

 

[Wes Bucey]

Wes, that was an wholesome analysis;
adic, that is the most positive/objective action which I can implement.
I totally agree with your thoughts

Further, of the situation Wes has described, here the situation seem to be more of no.3, less of no.1 (definitely not no.2 & no.4)

Wes, could you pl. help me for strategies/plan-of-action. (do or don'ts)!??

What clues do you have for your conclusions? Does the ignored person have a successful track record of working in teams? Any bosses file good reports or give private praise and thanks? (we call those "attaboys" in the USA)

What positive value has the ignored person provided in the past? (on a team or not) Is it documented? Would there be persons who might attest to it if it is NOT documented?

Positive answers to those foregoing questions makes for an easy strategy. Negative answers require some really creative thinking to map out a potentially successful strategy to put the ignored person back in the loop.