Bypassing the Chain of Command
Don’t Turn a Simple Objection Into a Career-Threatening Move
Say you are a technical professional, reporting to a low-level manager who knows far less than you do. You recommend a particular approach to solving a technical problem. Your manager rejects it and insists on taking a different path. In response, you decide to go to your manager’s boss and appeal the decision.
This is a trap. Not only will you almost certainly not get what you want, you’re likely to look bad to both your boss and your boss’s boss, and severely damage the loyalty relationship with your own manager.
Asking for Trouble
Consider an example from popular media. In Star Trek: The Next Generation (ST:TNG), the season three finale episode was called “The Best of Both Worlds,” and is still considered one of the best in the entire run of the show. In case you don’t remember it, here are the basics.
The Enterprise responds to a distress call at one of the Federation’s outermost colonies, and when they get there they find only a giant hole in the ground. The damage suggests that the colony was attacked by the Borg, their most powerful enemy. To investigate, an admiral travels to the Enterprise, bringing along his protegé, Commander Shelby, played by Elizabeth Dennehy.
