How do you handle “gatekeepers” at work?

Our reader poll today asks: How do you handle “gatekeepers” at work?

• I work directly with them to persuade them to “open the gate” 59.68%
• I find other ways to get the information I need 25.81%
• I work around them to force them to work with me 9.68%
• I give up when they provide too much resistance 4.83%

Collaborate with the Gatekeepers. Information is power and some people can tend to hoard it. Whether it’s someone who “owns” certain data or someone who manages a senior executive’s calendar, these people can stymie your efforts to get information or access you need. That said, going around them can create more problems than you expect. If they’re cut out of a process or conversation, they may feel threatened or disrespected and could seek to make future requests of yours impossible to fulfill. Seek to form a relationship outside of asking them for things. When you go to them with a request and only speak to them then, it can feel transactional and impersonal. If you build real relationships with them when you don’t need anything and you do so sheerly for the purpose of building a relationship, it can make getting future requests fulfilled a lot easier.

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.