David Ramos

Before joining Strategy Development I worked for two big companies. During my tenure with the first, I was young, naïve and clueless about the fact that politics were even a part of the fabric in corporate America. It was at the second company, where once I got to a senior leadership level position and I was swimming with barracudas and sharks on a daily basis (and if you climbers, snivelers and back stabbers are reading this, you know who you are) that I learned the value of mastering the art of office politics.

Believe it or not, almost every workplace is a political environment. While many say that they don’t engage in the game of office politics, there’s actually little truth to that. In the corporate world office politics typically means doing absolutely anything to get ahead.

In reality office politics is all about building relationships to get things moving at work. As an employer your take on office politics may differ significantly from those whom you supervise. While managing office politics can be a difficult thing to do in diverse companies, trying to maintain a healthy, productive political environment is crucial for success in today’s complex workplace.

Being an office politician might come naturally to some but to others it can develop over time out of necessity. With that being said, one fact remains the same: top performers are those who master the art of winning in office politics.

Why work politics are inevitable:

Some people have more power than others, either through hierarchy or some other basis of influence.
For many people, gaining promotion is important, and this can create competition between individuals, or misalignment between the team’s objectives and those of individuals within it.
Most people care passionately about decisions at work and this encourages political behavior as they seek to get their way.
Decisions at work are impacted by both work-related goals and personal factors, so there is further scope for goal conflict.
People and teams within organizations often have to compete for limited resources; this can lead to a kind of ‘tribal conflict’ where teams compete to satisfy their needs and objectives, even when this is against the greater good.

Making Politics Work for You

To deal effectively with office politics and use it in a positive way, you must first to accept the reality of it. Once you’ve done this, you then need to develop strategies to deal with the political behavior that is going on around you. The best way to do this is to be a good observer and then use the information you gather to build yourself a strong network to operate in. Here are some tips:

Re-Map the Organization Chart

Office Politics often circumvent the formal organization chart. Sit back and watch for a while and then re-map the organization chart in terms of political power.

Who are the real influencers?
Who has authority but doesn’t exercise it?
Who is respected?
Who champions or mentors others?
Who is “the brains behind the organization”?

Understand the informal network

Once you know who’s who in the organization, you have a good idea of where the power and influence lay. Now you have to understand the social networks.

Who gets along with whom?
Are there groups or cliques that have formed?
Who is involved in interpersonal conflict?
Who has the most trouble getting along with others?
What is the basis for the interrelationship? Friendship, respect, manipulation?
How does the influence flow between the parties?

Build Relationships

Now that you know how the existing relationships work, you need to build your own social network accordingly.

Do not be afraid of politically powerful people in the organization. Get to know them.
Ensure you have relationships that cross the formal hierarchy in all directions (peers, bosses, executives).
Start to build relationships with those who have the informal power.
Build your relationships on trust and respect – avoid empty flattery.
Be friendly with everyone but don’t align yourself with one group or another.
Be a part of multiple networks – this way you can keep your finger on the pulse of the organization.

Listen Carefully

When you spend more time listening, you are less likely to say something that will come back to bite you later. Also, people like people who listen to them.

Make the Most of Your Network

As you build your relationships, you need to learn to use them to stay clear of negative politicking, and also to promote yourself positively. It is up to you to communicate your own abilities and successes to the right people, and you do this through positive political action. Use your network to:

Gain access to information.
Build visibility of your achievements.
Improve difficult relationships.
Attract opportunities where you can to shine.
Seek out ways to make yourself, your team and your boss look good.

Neutralize Negative Play

Your mapping of the informal spheres of influence in the organization will have helped you to identify those people who use others for their own purposes (I believe I referred to them as barracudas and sharks earlier.), and not necessarily for the common good. It’s natural to want to distance yourself from these people as much as possible. But what can often be needed is the opposite reaction. The expression, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” applies perfectly to office politics. Trust me on this one; I have the scars in my back to prove it from the climbers and sniveling back stabbers that I tried to ignore. If you deny the ‘bad politics’ that may be going on around you, and avoid dealing with them, you may needlessly suffer and others will take unfair advantage.

Get to know these people better and be courteous to them, but always be very careful what you say to them.
Understand what motivates these people and what their goals are, and so learn how to avoid or counter the impact of their negative politicking.
Be aware that these people typically don’t think much of their talents (that’s why they rely on aggressive politicking to get ahead).

Office politicking happens whether we admit it or not. Some people may try to be noble and refuse to play the political game; they try to focus their efforts on their tasks and hard work hoping that they will be noticed and rewarded. But in fact, there is no such thing as not being part of it. Business is all about competition; from time to time it is with important colleagues, or about prestige, recognition, bigger salaries, and of course – power. Positive or negative – politics happens. The philosopher Plato said, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” And this hold true today in the workplace: If you don’t participate in the political game, you risk not having a say in what happens and allowing people with less experience, skill or knowledge to influence the decisions being made around you.

Don’t hate the game of politics; step out of your comfort zone and play it to win!

About the author: David Ramos is sales operations consultant for Strategy Development, an industry management consulting and advance sales training firm providing sales, service & MPS information, including workshops for the BTA as well as a MPS Sales eLearning program with InfoTrends. He also instructs a selling skills workshop called “Sell With Success”. You can reach him at www.strategydevelopment.com or ramos@strategydevelopment.com.