Dear Juniper: Good Gracious

One of my team is jostling with me for the leadership position. A few weeks ago he went to see my manager to undermine my decisions on our strategy.

Other colleagues tell me that he has plans to take over our group. I reacted graciously by taking my rival out for a "friendly" drink during which I apprised him that his job is to make me look good if he wants to get on.

You would think he had taken the hint, but today in a cross-divisional meeting he again challenged some of my ideas.

I don't want to fire him but I do need to get my message across. What can I do?

Charlie B.

Dear Charlie

What a sport - being gracious and friendly enough to tell your colleague that his job is to make you look good. Without your "hint" he might have blindly gone on thinking that he was free to hold his own opinions and express them in the spirit of open debate.

If it is odd to you that he is still challenging your ideas in front of other people then you might want to consider whether, in these particularly turbulent and unpredictable times, a leadership stance of "no head higher then mine" is the right one for motivating the team to its best performance.

If you don't want to fire him and yet still want to get the message across, invite him to say more about his thinking and ask what it is you could do to make things better.

Suddenly he might seem less contentious and you might also seem more like his leader.

You never know. Juniper

Fall Guy

I am a senior analyst in a well-known investment bank. Until this summer I was researching some big-name companies which are now looking altogether less big.

I have come under a lot of pressure from my research director for not spotting this downturn before it happened. I told him that expecting me to take flak after the fact, when my job over the last few years has been "to keep banking happy", is unreasonable.

Since saying this I have learned that I have gone on to the company's difficult list and yesterday I was asked to see an executive coach about my attitude.

I can smell where this is going and it is burning me up in rage. It is just too easy to blame the analyst instead of examining the many other factors involved. I know I need to keep my cool, but how? Guy

Dear Guy

If my mailbox is indicative then the analyst's problems are under-rated. Your situation is not unique.

To maintain some semblance of cool my advice is to tackle three things: conflicts of interest, your spot on the difficult list and how this links to your rage.

Keeping banking happy, as you put it, must be getting easier as most investment banks are now redefining the relationship between bankers and analysts. If it isn't, then you might want to persist in drawing management's attention to this matter.

This brings us to your difficult label. If you are boiling with rage, then your perceived attitude problem might have more to do with the manner in which you are handling this issue rather than its substance.

Try the executive coach and explain your circumstances openly. Ask your coach to help you become more attuned to the organisation's sensitivities.

For example, no one likes to get bad news but there are ways of breaking it more gently.

If you can get your message across tactfully, the organisation will be more likely to understand its responsibility for the problems that the conflicts of interest have created for you.

Trust this helps the rage to subside and you to avoid looking altogether less big.

Good luck. Juniper

Big Foot

When I wrote to you last month about some things I said to my boss at our department's offsite, you told me to take soundings about how a big a deal this was with her. The news isn't encouraging.

Apparently I did insult my senior, as you suggested I might have.

Although I blatantly disagreed with her opinions and policies in one workshop session she seemed to bear no grudges at the time, or in the week that I first wrote to you.

Unfortunately, though, I rather compounded my fate.

Somehow it has seeped out that I continued to blast off about her in the bar after she had gone to bed, and the atmosphere has now turned distinctly chilly.

I heard that she now apparently regrets being so magnanimous about my criticisms and, believe me, she is not the type to let things drop. What do I do now? G O Brian

Dear G O Brian

Your boss might not be the type to let things drop but it sounds like you are - and in the bar of all places.

How could you have imagined this wouldn't get back to her and why were you so sheepish with me about the magnitude of your gaffe the first time you wrote to me?

I did say take soundings, but I also advised a sincere apology and some kindly corrective action. How much time do you need to lose before you make amends? It isn't as though you find it hard to express yourself now, is it?

Say sorry fast. Juniper