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Playing office politics: Survival of the savvy
By Barbara Poole
Career Coach
Political savvy is a vital competence for any executive, but it’s not taught in leadership or graduate school courses.
In fact, the term “office politics” has received a bad rap. Words like “Machiavellian,” “manipulative” and “conspiratorial” come to mind. Tales of political sabotage, power plays and turf wars are part of any organization’s history. Nonetheless, political competence is the one skill most people wish they had more of, but no one wants to talk about it.
It’s naive to suggest that all office politics are destructive and unethical. If you define politics in such a narrow and negative way, you overlook the value of political awareness and skill. If political astuteness is combined with the right values, it can be a huge advantage for you, your team and your organization.
According to Professor Samuel B. Bacharach, director of Cornell University’s Institute for Workplace Studies, political competence is the “ability to understand what you can and cannot control, when to take action, who is going to resist your agenda, and whom you need on your side. It’s about knowing how to map the political terrain and get others on your side, as well as lead coalitions.”
Many people have good ideas that, if implemented, could yield positive results for their companies. Sometimes, however, these ideas fall flat because the leaders who propose them cannot gain support from key people.
There are several important reasons to develop your political savvy:
1. When political astuteness is combined with ethics and integrity, it can produce positive results for you and your business.
2. By avoiding or denying its existence, you underestimate how political behavior can destroy careers, a company’s reputation and overall performance.
3. If you define politics in only negative terms, you are naively under-political, which leaves you vulnerable to overly political, self-serving individuals.
Positive political skills are one of the key competencies necessary to survive and thrive in any organization. Overly political people can and do earn positions of power, and they can damage competent, loyal individuals who don’t play their game. High-integrity political tactics are what’s required to play a better game. Non-manipulative tactics can help you harness the power of politics in a way that brings results. Political astuteness can be a personal strength and a company asset, if you know how to use it ethically.
Achieving political competence involves a three-phase process:
Map your political terrain. First, identify all stakeholders—anyone who has an interest in, or who would be affected by, your idea—and how they will react. Some resistance is inevitable. It’s important to anticipate others’ reactions, identify allies and resisters, analyze their goals and understand their agendas.
When you face objections, don’t go to individuals’ bosses or peers to undercut their arguments. Instead, ask them questions to determine their goals. A stakeholder may: share your goal, but not your implementation approach; disagree with your goal, but share your approach to change; share neither; or share both. You can identify potential allies and resisters with direct questioning.
Attract others to your side. Build your coalition. A politically mobilized group committed to implementing your idea will generate valued benefits.
Creating coalitions is the most critical step in exercising your political competence. How do you win support? You need to be credible. Share your expertise, emphasize common goals, demonstrate personal integrity and show that you have access to important people and information.
Make things happen. Winning others’ buy-in involves helping them understand how your idea will be a benefit to them and their business interests. Show how implementing your idea can help ease their workload, increase their visibility within the organization or help them produce superior results.
Once you’ve persuaded people to join your coalition, you’ve established a base that will legitimize your idea. Coalition members will then use their networks to spread the word about the value of your ideas and the need to lend support.
As the coalition grows, don’t lose sight of the need for active leadership to keep members focused and sustain momentum. Watch for complacency and manage conflicts and disagreements over goals or processes. When your ideas have merit and yield good business results, people will rally behind them. The stronger your track record of this kind of success, the higher your stock value will grow and the more people will trust you.
Building your political competence is one of the most important things you can do for your career. Get beyond the negative connotations and understand how this skill set is essential to your success.
Barbara Poole is a leadership and career development coach with Success Builders Inc. E-mail her at coachbarbara@successbuildersinc.com.
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