No matter how little control you have, you’ve always got your influence.

Throughout your career you will undoubtedly be assigned the responsibility to perform a task that has never been completed successfully. This task could look simple on the surface but as the saying goes “the devil is in the details.” To achieve this objective, you will eventually find yourself at the mercy of another person for resources (their time, their money, their vote, data,  etc.). It is also very likely that these individual(s) are not able to get you the resources you need, they may intentionally not try to help.

At this point you have two choices or you can look at the problem in two ways.

• Give Up – feel defeated and presume the project is not worth the effort, which will find you in poor standing with your leadership team just for the fact that you’re giving up.
• Be Creative – realize you may not be able to coerce someone to give you resources, but everyone can be influenced by something and it is just a matter of focus and creativity to realize what must be done and how you’re going to do it.

The next time someone dumps something on you, take it as a compliment and a challenge to show them what you can do. You’ll win the praise of management and your customers if you can succeed without formal authority and inadequate resources.

These are challenging circumstances, but I see them as opportunities to shine as the bright star.

You feel challenged, do you accept it, reject it, or cripple under its weight?How often do other’s expectations have you stuck between a rock and a hard place? How did you take it and how did you handle it?