Ruthless = “having or showing no pity or compassion for others.”

Mary was torn inside. She had to make a cut in the team, and she had to make it now. Although Bill was a good friend, and despite the fact he brought significant industry experience to the team, he lacked the vision and drive to push the team forward. If anything, he was unconsciously sabotaging the progress of the team, squandering away precious resources and poisoning morale. It was time. Mary sat back at her computer, and sent the dreaded meeting invite. “Bill, we need to talk….”

Mary’s decision is one of the many ruthless, yet necessary, decisions many a leader has to make at work. When I say “leader”, I don’t just mean those in position of authority or power. There are countless times in any of our careers, when we have to make decisions to advance our work, vision and purpose, and be leaders in our own way. Those times almost inevitably involve other people, situations and circumstances we must act upon or influence to bring our goals to pass. And some of those times more than likely involve being ruthless for the greater good…

Being ruthless at work doesn’t mean stepping all over others to establish yourself in a selfish and personal way. Instead, it’s letting go of the sense of obligated pity or compassion for others when it doesn’t serve the greater good. When the choice is between damaging your career or team efforts, or tolerating negative work influences out of misplaced pity or compassion. 

While I’m a proponent of helping each other as we climb the corporate ladder, there are a few situations when you have to ruthlessly act to further yours, and others’, career interests:

1. When you need to set the vision: Imagine putting together a strategic and critical project for your Company. Your vision for it is precise, defined and sharp. This is when you know who to trust, who to cut, when to push or pull your own, or your team efforts. Even when it seems what you’re working on is not as critical or priority as other projects, every time you’re seeing and setting the vision for a project or endeavor, being ruthless in your decisions is one way to drive your vision to completion.
2. When you need to protect your career or your team: It’s one thing to be nice, it’s another to let your career sink for fear of taking the right opportunities to push yourself and your team forward. This includes seizing opportunities and asserting yourself, as well as understanding when setting aside some people and ideas is necessary to progress. So write that email to your boss to compete for that position and present yourself as the best. Assign responsibilities in your team to drive success, or push that co-worker aside who threatens the integrity and effectiveness of your team.
3. When you need to get past the crisis: We all experience moments of crisis in our career. When you miss the promotion. When the project is going to hell in a hand basket. When the performance talk turns sour at year-end. When the economy turns awry like in 2008. In order to pull yourself by the bootstraps, and weather the storm, you must make decisions that may hurt some in order to save your bigger purpose. This may mean leaving your employer or team for a better one, re-allocate people and resources to finish strong, or simply re-focus your efforts at the expense of ditching former priorities.

Would you be ruthless at work in these situations? What other situations would you be ruthless in your career?

Love,

The Corporate Sis.