Workplace Warrior: Insights and Advice for Winning on the Corporate Battlefield

459 Pages·2000·0.93 MB·English

by  Kay Hammer

Workplace Warrior : Insights and Advice for
title:
Winning On the Corporate Battlefield
author: Hammer, Kay.
publisher: AMACOM Books
isbn10 | asin: 0814404944
print isbn13: 9780814404942
ebook isbn13: 9780585210728
language: English
Hammer, Kay, Women executives--United
subject
States--Biography.
publication date: 2000
lcc: HD6054.2.U6H35 2000eb
ddc: 650.1/082
Hammer, Kay, Women executives--United
subject:
States--Biography.
Page iii
Workplace Warrior
Insights and Advice for Winning on the Corporate
Battlefield
Kay Hammer
Page iv
Special discount on bulk quantities of AMACOM books are available
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For details, contact Special Sales Department, AMACOM, an imprint
of AMA Publications, a division of American Management
Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019. Tel: 212-903-
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This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative
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Permissions information is to be found on pg. xiv.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hammer, Kay.
Workplace warrior: insights and advice for winning on the corpo-
rate battlefield/Kay Hammer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8144-0494-4
1. Hammer, Kay. 2. Women executivesUnited States
Biography. I. Title.
HD6054.2. U6H35 2000
650.1'082dc21
00-025280
© 2000 Katherine G. Hammer
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
This publication may not be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in whole or in part,
in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of AMACOM,
an imprint of AMA Publications, a division of
American Management Association, 1601 Broadway,
New York, NY 10019.
Printing number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Page v
To Kat and Evie
Page vii
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction: The Need to Take Arms 1
Three Levels of Professional Maturation
Section I: Rules of Engagement
Chapter 1: The Regional Conflict 29
Issues in Running a Private Company
Chapter 2: The Global Conflict 51
Issues in Planning an Exit Strategy
Section II: Basic Training
Chapter 3: Mastery of Weapons 73
Effective Communication in the Workplace
Chapter 4: Modes of Battle 107
Strategies for Dealing with Conflict
Page viii
Chapter 5: Acquiring Allies 135
How to Gain Support
Section III: The Battle and Beyond
Chapter 6: Going to War 167
Maximizing Your Chances for Victory
Chapter 7: Learning to Lead 193
Why We Love and Fear Authority
Chapter 8: Victory from Defeat 215
Learning from Loss as a Precursor to Success
Epilogue: The Path to Peace 229
Index 231
Page ix
PREFACE
In our scriptures, it is said that there are four kinds of horses: excellent ones,
good ones, poor ones, and bad ones. The best horse will run slow and fast,
right and left, at the driver's will, before it sees the shadow of a whip; the
second best will run as well as the first one, just before the whip reaches the
skin; the third one will run when it feels pain on its body; the fourth one will
run after the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones . . .
When we hear this story, almost all of us want to be the best horse. If it is
impossible to be the best one, we want to be the second best. . . . But those
who find great difficulties in practicing Zen will find more meaning in it. So
sometimes I think that the best horse may be the worst horse, and the worst
horse can be the best one.
Shunryu Suzuki,
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
1
Most of the insights I have gained into how to succeed in the
workplace came from being a "poor horse." I was naive about the way
the world worked and unsure of what I wanted from it and what it
would take for me to get it once I knew. Consequently, in the struggle
to figure out why I was not successful or satisfied, I hit on a number
of self-limiting misconceptions that I believe most people share. The
purpose of this book is to articulate these misconceptions and to
discuss the effective and, equally important, ineffective means I have
found for breaking free from them.
Page x
For the first two-thirds of my life, I made life-changing decisions
impulsively not to achieve some goal or desire, but to escape
emotionally untenable situations. At nineteen, I married my
sophomore literature teacher after a six-week courtship and moved to
Iowa to get away from my father and the limitations of life in
Shreveport, Louisiana. After twelve years of marriage, two daughters,
and two advanced degrees, I divorced my husband to escape a
relationship devoid of trust and filled with betrayals.
But at thirty-one, I found myself in a position where I couldn't run
away or rush headlong into a new life. I had custody of my daughters.
My ex-husband, devastated by the divorce, had moved to New York to
pursue his dream of an acting career. I had to assume the roles of
father and provider as well as mother. Fortunately, I had completed
my doctorate and, by the time of my divorce, was up for tenure at
Washington State University teaching literature and linguistics in the
Department of English.
I could provide my girls with a reasonably comfortable life but not
make up for the emotional assault they had suffered in the divorce.
But as each semester passed, I felt more trappednot by the children,
but by my dwindling sense of hope for a happier life. With double-
digit inflation and single-digit raises, the thought of growing old in
Pullman, a town with 16,000-plus students and approximately 12,000
residents, was grim.
Then I had an epiphany. The week before classes started in the fall of
1979, I was preparing syllabi in my office, looking out on the wheat
fields of Pullman and the mountains in Idaho, when I faced the hard
realization that nothing substantive would change in my life unless I
made it happen. No Prince Charming was going to do it.
That day, I decided to make a conscious effort to change my life.
From that day forward, though I may not have been happy with some
aspects of my life, my life was my own.