You have a suggestion to make and you know if you make it to your boss she will say something like, we tried that before or find a reason why it wouldn’t work.  You have at least two options: take a chance and give your boss your idea or circumvent your boss and take it to someone further up in the hierarchy who can act on it.

In the book, “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene, his very first law is “Don’t outshine the master”.    He defines this law saying an effort to display your talent does not always impress others, it can inadvertently inspire fear and insecurity.

Here are some reasons why you may decide to circumvent a boss, friend, family member, a peer or a member of your support staff.

No Voice

Many times I witness supervisors and managers who have no voice in an organization because of a past mistake or current performance issues.   If a supervisor has no voice, they can’t be the voice of their direct reports so their direct reports have to choose between circumventing the hierarchy if they want to be heard and keeping quiet to protect their supervisor.

Negative attitude

No-one likes to be around a person with a negative attitude unless this is their comfort zone.  Know-it-alls, condescending people,  gossips, bullies, blamers are all examples of types of people who are avoided.  While some of you have no problem facing bearers of negativity, others of you prefer to reduce your ‘face time’ with them.  If you obviously circumvent someone who is negative, brace yourself for his or her negativism to be directed at you but keep in mind that sometimes it is worth the risk…

Insecurity

People are insecure for any number of reasons.  None of those reasons probably have anything to do with you.  They could be insecure about your idea being better than theirs or they could be uncomfortable with you are dressed up all the time. 

Awareness is part of the battle.  Many of us refuse to see the truth because it is uncomfortable so we opt to stay in a comfortable, unaware space.  If you choose to see the truth and act, circumvention is one of your options.

Procrastination

Procrastination is the enemy of many well laid plans.  If there is a procrastinator on your team, your productivity is impacted because you are reliant on the procrastinator for their part of the plan.  Procrastinotors are not easy to circumvent so you can either decide to let them sink or you can help them.  If you have the authority you can reassign the work.  

A Complaint

It takes emotional discipline and the ability to articulate your complaint in a constructive way to complain to the person you are complaining about.  Even with effective communication skills, this kind of conversation can go off track so persons with complaints tend to circumvent the perceived perpetrator.

Fear

In some work environments there are employees or bosses whose sole purpose seems to be to keep you in a state of suspended terror.  They are bullies and they often know no other way to be.  They either bully you into submission and you lose your voice or you circumvent them and brace yourself for the fallout.

Dependence

Some people believe their power resides in keeping others dependent on them.  If you don’t want to get caught in this trap you will need to learn what you are not being shown by circumventing the system of dependence.

Circumvention guidelines:

Here are a few tips to help you decide if you will circumvent:

• Decide on your objectives and your priority values given the situation and circumvent if it aligns with your objectives.  In other words, choose your battles.
• Remember one of the Laws of Power, if you outshine the Master be prepared for the possible consequences.
• Think ahead and consider the possible positive and negative consequences of your actions.  Then determine the worst-case scenario and whether or not you can live with it.

If you decide to circumvent, you can do it in a few different ways.

• You can provide information to the appropriate person understanding that one possible outcome of this is that you will not be trusted.   To get around this I have seen people “accidentally” tip off a person in authority.
• There are others of you who will circumvent a dysfunctional system with no regard for the possible fallout.
• You can give information to someone “off the record” but remember that it is sometimes their job to put it on the record.
• Set up someone to represent you.
In all of this, remember that circumvention in and of itself is neither right nor wrong.  It all depends on how you play the circumvention game.