Its Not Who You Know Its Who You Get to Know Politics

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For more than than two decades, I worked equally an executive across the corporate, nonprofit, and public sectors. Throughout these years, I wore my refusal to engage in office politics equally a badge of accolade. To anyone who would listen (and perhaps even a few who wouldn't), I said: "I really don't accept the stomach for all of that stuff. Politics are dreadful, dangerous, and unnecessary, and I'yard simply besides straightforward for all of the subterfuge they require. I don't come up to piece of work to play games — I come up to piece of work to get things done."

Given my approach, it'due south unsurprising that I was entirely unprepared and out of my depth when, several years into my career, I was laid off. It wasn't because I was performing poorly or failing to meet my goals. It was considering I had neglected to form relationships with people who had the power to advocate for my job.

I was let go under the guise of "budget cuts," just in reality, I had been gracefully and expensively fired without question or reproach because someone with authorisation wanted me gone. This is an instance of "role politics" at their worst.

The experience made me realize that my caput-in-the-sand arroyo needed updating. It was high time I became a little more politically intelligent at work. I immersed myself in the topic. I read every commodity, book, and written report I could lay my hands on and sought professional person guidance from a fellow executive-turned-coach.

The more I learned, the more I began to reflect on my career. Though I reached a bang-up deal of success, there were also many opportunities I had missed and many times that I had faltered as a result of my lack of instruction around office politics. Information technology's non discipline covered in nigh colleges or concern schools, despite the fact that information technology's essential to surviving (and thriving) in every work surround.

That's why, in my work now, equally a global consultant, I've made it a priority to brainwash professionals at every phase in their careers on organizational politics and how to navigate them at work.

Agreement the myths

Despite all the negative connotations, office politics are non inherently evil. They are nearly two things: influence and relationships, and the power these two things give you — or don't. Having now lectured about organizational politics to thousands of employees around the world, I have uncovered five myths that are as widespread and harmful every bit they are naïve and as universal as they are wrong. If you lot're starting out in your career and remember information technology's all-time to sit politics out, you lot should learn the truth soother than subsequently.

[Myth 1  ]

Yous can either be a proficient person, or you can play politics.

In every lecture or workshop I run, I start past asking people to apply three words to describe office politics. Ane hundred percent of the fourth dimension, 99% of the words given are negative. "Toxic," "frustrating," "dangerous," "demotivating," "draining," "unfair," "unnecessary," "cliques," and "gossip" almost always rising to the surface. Last calendar week, an employee used the word "heart-breaking."

The fact that these are the words nosotros associate with office politics explains why this first myth is and then prevalent. How could any of united states possibly engage in things that are widely seen as toxic and dangerous, or at the very least unethical and unpleasant, if we are not ourselves toxic, unsafe, unethical, and unpleasant?

This myth is premised on an incomplete and one-sided understanding of what role politics really are. Though office politics can exist used both ethically and unethically, at their cadre they are just the range of breezy, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-scenes efforts that happen in all organizations as people position themselves, their interests, their teams, and their priorities to get things done.

For example, let'due south say you have a big meeting coming upward where stakeholders at your company are going to decide which projects to invest in — including yours. If you're savvy at politics, you know that to go your projection canonical, you first need to understand the priorities and perspectives of those stakeholders. You need to engage with them beforehand and learn what they are looking for so that you lot can more than persuasively present your thought.

This is an example of how office politics tin can exist ethically utilize to help you gain an advantage.

Even so, destructive and negative politics also can — and do ­­— exist. In the aforementioned situation, if you were to spread a rumor about the lack of scientific evidence backside your colleague'due south project in order to get yours chosen over hers, that would be an unethical use of politics.

By painting all political activities with the same brush, we are oblivious to the potential for constructive politics — that is, the range of perfectly ethical and advisable activities that serve to strengthen relationships of support, expand influence, and build a powerful base that allows you and your team to be more effective.

[Myth 2  ]

You can escape role politics.

Organizational politics are inescapable. A few years agone, I was sharing this reality with a group of young managers. One of the delegates was visibly concerned by what I was proverb and so I asked him to share what he was thinking.

"I'one thousand really struggling to accept that there is never going to be a place where I am not going to accept to deal with politics. Surely in that location has to be somewhere?"

"Like where?" I asked.

"Well, what about NGOs? Or a church? You lot know — places where people work for the greater skillful of the world. Surely there are no politics there?"

I suppressed a express mirth and by way of an answer told him the story of a friend of mine who had been a church minister. After having led a congregation for about 10 years, she decided to get into concern. The one thing that really concerned her in making the transition was the dreaded "corporate politics" that colleagues warned her about and that friends in business repeatedly complained about. Undeterred, but still quite nervous, she made the leap into a large auditing firm and after a few months, I couldn't wait to find out how it was going.

"I'm loving it," she told me over java.

"What about the politics? Are you coping?" I asked her.

"Politics? Are you kidding me? Corporate politics are absolutely zip compared to church politics!"

Lee Grand. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal's research hits the nail on the head when information technology states, "the question is not whether organizations will take politics only rather what kind of politics they volition have." As human beings, we are social creatures and the use of relationships, informal influence, and ability plays is part of how we engage — for better or for worse.

[Myth iii  ]

Politics don't bear upon your job performance or career.

How many times have you heard someone say, or mayhap fifty-fifty plant yourself maxim, "I don't exercise politics. My work should speak for itself." Carla Harris, vice chairman at Morgan Stanley, has a saying I like improve: "You can't let your work speak for you; piece of work doesn't speak."

Since it is people that speak, we need to speak well-nigh our work, and nosotros need other people to speak about it likewise. However, "speaking about our piece of work" doesn't mean reciting a laundry list of things that we are doing. Instead, it's most framing what we are doing in terms of the touch it'southward having on the organization and why it matters.

In workshops and lectures, participants and I often accept lengthy discussions most whether "self-promotion" is necessary, or even desirable. Many of us accept a securely held view that talent and difficult piece of work should be all that one needs to succeed. I think what lies at the heart of this belief is that so many of u.s.a. treat work like schoolhouse. When we are at schoolhouse, it is generally a given that if we piece of work hard and primary the discipline textile, nosotros volition go good marks and proceed to the adjacent level. In the workplace though, thinking similar this is a chance and a mistake considering the reality at work is that invisible contributions have no value.

[Myth 4  ]

Politics disappear in virtual environments.

In the absenteeism of in-person interactions, surely all the power play and informal maneuvering tactics employed in role politics disappear? Anyone who has shifted to remote work during the pandemic knows that that this is non the case.

While research shows that office politics diminish in online environments, there'south no testify that they disappear entirely. This isn't surprising — most human beings are much more driven by the informal and political than they are by the formal and prescribed. Again, this can either exist negative or positive, but it is a cardinal part of homo behavior, no matter what kind of environment nosotros are operating in.

People who think they "don't play politics" are often very surprised to hear that when they are "taking something offline," "socializing" their idea with decision makers in advance of a more formal coming together, or "just having a chat" with someone they think tin can help them to be more than effective, they are in fact engaging in political activities. This is true whether you are doing these things in person or remotely.

[Myth 5  ]

Political intelligence is an inherent trait.

I am oft asked whether certain people are more suited to politics than others. My answer is ever the aforementioned — the skills that prevarication at the centre of political intelligence certainly come more naturally to some than to others. Merely they are still skills. They are not traits that nosotros are either born with or non born with. Every bit with all skills, you need to do them to chief them.

After discussing the fundamental skills and strategies of the politically savvy in one of my workshops, a young manager who was looking at me with a mixture of exhaustion and astonishment, sputtered out, "But this is a lot of work!"

She was spot on.

With all the demands on your fourth dimension and energy, it may feel like getting your unread emails downwards to double figures is the biggest achievement you've made all calendar week. At present, you may exist wondering: Am I telling you that, in addition, you need to notice the time and energy to invest in relationships, become strategic almost your supporters and sponsors, wait for ways to increase the influence and power you lot have, and then use all of those things to advance your career?

Well, yes.

Doing so takes intentionality, focus, and do — and it will come more naturally, secondhand fifty-fifty, with fourth dimension. The alternative (i.e. failing to curate your network, build your brand, and all the other things that politically smart people do) is likely to result in an otherwise promising career never reaching the heights that it could. Or even worse, derail you lot career completely.

What you tin can do

Now that you understand the truth behind these myths, let's accept a look at what yous can do to ease yourself into playing "office politics" well.

Reframe what "politics" means to you.

Get-go to be aware of your language and how it is framing your reality, specifically how it frames the way y'all sympathize the piece of work environment and how you choose to show up in information technology.

Are you sucking up or are you focussed on building and agreement new relationships? Are you resentful and irritated that you have to have a bunch of smaller meetings before a big meeting or exercise you recognize the power in being prepared, laying the groundwork, and giving your ideas the best chance of success? Practice you view informal conversations as lobbying (with all the negative connotations this more often than not carries) or practise you meet them as doing important homework?

It'south virtually never about the action itself, only rather the intention behind the activity and the interpretation and sentence we attach to both. Clearly, we tend to put more than free energy into something we see — and label — as positive and important, than into those things we begrudge or don't run across the bespeak of doing.

Alternatively, if the negative connotations of "function politics" are so ingrained in you that you cannot change your mindset, try calling them something else. Tell yourself, "I am edifice strategic relationships with my stakeholders," or "I'chiliad expanding my coalition of support."

What yous call them doesn't matter. What does matter is that you see these things as valuable and important and put effort and energy into them.

Evaluate your mode confronting your organization's political environment.

Rather than spending your fourth dimension and energy bemoaning or resenting the nature of organizations (which are inherently political), focus your time and energy on agreement what kind of political surround you are in.

Is your company minimally, moderately, highly or pathologically politicized? To what caste does the political civilisation fit your (electric current) personal political way and what you want out of your life and career?

Kathleen Kelley Reardon, an adept on organizational politics, classifies political players into 1 of four types:

1. The purist: Do you dislike all idea of politics, and simply want to get on with the job at hand?
2. The street fighter: Do you believe the best way to get alee is through the use of rough tactics, even at the expense of others?
3. The Squad Histrion: Do you believe in getting ahead past working well with others and participate in the politics that accelerate group goals?
4. The Maneuverer: Do you lot believe in getting alee by playing the games of politics in a manner that is skillful and unobtrusive to those who merely take things at face up value?

Of grade, all of us tin develop skills and change our approach if we really want to merely unless nosotros make these changes, it'south very unlikely that a purist volition be happy or productive in a highly politicized surroundings or that a street fighter will be welcome in a minimally politicized environment.

Continuously work to strengthen your "relationship currency."

Focusing but on your performance currency, or the credibility y'all build through your piece of work, is very unlikely to get yous the success you're aiming for — exist information technology a bonus, promotion, or recognition from senior executives. However, investing time in your networks and edifice the connections that can speak for yous and your piece of work will get you those things. This investment in strategic relationships is not a distraction from your "real" task, only in fact, one of the nearly important aspects of it.

While it'southward clearly of import to build relationships deliberately with people who tin can be your allies, don't brand the mistake of neglecting to build relationships with people who have the potential to be your adversaries. Every additional antagonist that you lot take lessens your political upper-case letter and your effectiveness.

You lot also demand to understand where and how relationships are still being built, especially every bit the work environment becomes more than virtual. WhatsApp chats? Virtual java meetings? Hour-long calls where there is no calendar other than to catch up with colleagues? If none of these are happening, perhaps you lot tin can start them; not simply with people who are already in your network merely also with those who you lot would like to have in your network.

Social media offers myriad opportunities to accomplish out to new connections outside of your organization. The value that this can offer your career is immense. A network that is as various and broad every bit possible has repeatedly been shown to exist much more useful than a narrow, homogenous ane.

Constantly improve your "political" savvy.

To get to where you desire to go, yous demand to be articulate on where you are starting from. Understanding the concepts of political intelligence is one matter, just understanding how you stack upwardly against them is some other.

The workbook and videos on my website offering some very useful pointers and self-assessment exercises that allow you to see yourself from a dissimilar viewpoint and gather insights that will help you come up up with a political strategy. Every bit with any strategy, the cardinal is to revisit and update your political strategy regularly equally the context changes. Y'all volition inevitably fail sometimes, just other times you volition succeed. Getting upward and trying again is what matters. Winston Churchill said it well, "In war you can only be killed once. In politics you tin can be killed many times."

Remember that doing politics on your ain terms, with a clear-eyed view of how to exist effective without selling your soul or sacrificing your values, volition not merely do good you but then besides those colleagues and stakeholders who are counting on yous to do the best chore yous tin. All of the states play some form of politics and getting better at the version that nosotros want to play is critical to our career success and our personal wellbeing. Because it actually is truthful — if you don't practice politics, politics volition practice you lot.

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Source: https://hbr.org/2021/07/you-cant-sit-out-office-politics

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