Handling Information

Hi friends,

Yesterday's post was about the office middleman where I explained my take on how the middleman is important in the chain of workflow. So today I want to write about handling information which I think is a good segue to further expand on the idea of a middleman.

I believe in any organizational workplace, the person who wield the most information wins. In my experience, the whole dynamic of my workplace is such that all the workers are essentially competing for the attention of their superiors. The victor in this competition dynamic will be the first person to pop in the superior's head when deciding who will be the next person to enjoy higher importance within the organization. 

To win the their attention is to give them an image of yourself where you appear to be full of merit. And among the way to do so is through handling information and packing them in a way that leans towards the superior's interest. What I mean by this is that you have to be prepared with the right answers to an expected questions, knowing when to disclose the answer and when to keep them in your pocket.

The whole persona of a middleman is to know what to say and when to say it. A middleman doesn't need to be an expert in doing a work. They just need to know the keywords in order to explain the job progress in layman's term to the superiors. Being the person who views the worker's job from the third perspective also gives the middleman a greater sight on what are the details to be passed through to the superiors and which details to omit due to its complexity and unnecessary jargon.

When the middleman already knows the question that the superior wants to ask and are already prepared with the answers with layers of scripted backup plans, they will ensure that the ball being played is never in their court. Instead, it's at the superior's side and make them play the ball your way.

Cheers friends.