handle office politics

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“In a democracy, someone who fails to get elected to office can always console himself with the thought that there was something not quite fair about it.”

Secrets to Winning at Office Politics

Office politics is an integral part of getting things done, whether you’re the CEO, a salesperson or an intern hired for the summer. So, the secrets of handling office politics are just to accept its existence just like you accepted income tax to avoid your career death.

As Winston Churchill said: “When you mix people and power, you get politics.”

Why work politics is inevitable?

1.  Some people are in the position of authority.
2.  Promotion opportunities are less in a corporate. So, competition for promotions amongst people leads to competition.
3.  Most people care passionately about decisions at work, and this encourages political behavior as they seek to get their way.
4.    Decisions at work are impacted by both work-related goals and personal factors, so there is further scope for goal conflict.
5.    People and teams within organizations often have to compete for limited resources; this leads to a kind of "tribal conflict".

How to handle office politics?

Once you accept the fact that politics at work isn’t taboo word, you need to work on communications and relationships. Top performers are those who have mastered the art of winning in office politics.

To get a handle on office politics, observe how things get done in your organization.

• Ask some key questions: 
• What are the core values and how are they enacted? 
• Are short- or long-term results more valued? 
• How are decisions made? 
• How much risk is tolerated? 

The answers to these questions should give you a good sense of the culture of your organization.

In her research on this topic, Lisa Mainiero interviewed 55 high profile executive women in the 1980s to determine the role corporate politics played in their career histories. Most of the women interviewed felt that “politics” was a dirty word and did not admit to engaging in the politics.

Mainiero stated, “A careful analysis of the career histories of these women, however, showed that they developed a sensitivity to corporate politics that belied their comments. All of them are astute observers of their organizational cultures. They able to build alliances and partnerships with their peers.  In essence, they became politically savvy over time, despite their lack of intention to do so.

Remember what  Plato said, "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

12 Tips to Achieve Your Goals and Increase Your Influence at Work By Mastering Office Politics

1. Uncover and understand the need

Playing politics consists of balancing the needs of multiple people so they can come together to make a decision. In business, people have four general types of needs like personal, career, job or organization. Once you understand your needs (on various levels) and the needs of those you work with, you’re ready to play politics.

2. Build alliances.

Office politics consists of making deals to support the satisfying of another’s needs in return for that person’s support in satisfying your needs.
The keys to making such alliances work are thus (1) figuring out what you want, (2) figuring out what the other person wants, and (3) agreeing to get there together. Take care when building alliances.

3. Track favours and obligations.

As a political savvy person you need to learn trading of favours. It’s a simple concept: you do a favour for somebody and then, at a later date, you get to “call in” the favour by asking that person to do something for you. And vice versa, naturally.
Playing office politics, therefore, requires that you keep close track of whom you owe and about how much, and who owes you and about how much.

4. Line up your ducks.
All this effort comes to fruition at decision-making time. Your goal is to make certain (as far as possible) that as many influencers and decision-makers as possible are supporting the decision you prefer.

5. Don't be afraid to toot your own horn. If no one knows of your good work, you may lose at the game of office politics when you deserve to win. Let others know what you've accomplished whenever you get the opportunity. If you don't know the fine art of diplomacy bragging, you might get lost in the shuffle of your co-workers.

6. Determine strategic initiatives in the company. Update your skills to be relevant to company initiatives. For example, don't lag behind in technology, quality or customer service approaches that are crucial to you and your company's success.

7. Don't align too strongly with one group. While an alliance may be powerful for the moment, new leadership will often oust existing coalitions and surround it with a new team. Bridging across factions may be a more effective strategy for long-term success if you intend to stay in your current organization for some time.

8. Learn to communicate persuasively. Develop an assertive style, backed with solid facts and examples, to focus others' attention to your ideas and proposals. Good politicians can adjust their messages to their audience and always appear well-prepared.

9. Place long-term harmony above short-term gain

If you happen to disagree with a colleague over the best approach to an issue, try and take your ego out of it and stand in their shoes for a moment. Office politics often tend to focus on the person rather than the idea, so try and detach one from the other in evaluating the competing approaches.

10. Respect others’ territory

Often people regard their office competencies as their ‘territory’ and will jealously guard them against all-comers. They might feel they have absolute expertise in the area and are seriously put out if people even question them about what they were doing.

11. Put yourself in other peoples’ shoes all the time to practice empathy. And not judging them.

12.  Understand that your body language belies your true feelings.

Here’s a link for you. About poker. People move their arms differently when they are bluffing. You can read someone’s brain by looking at their body movements.  You need to learn the subtle movement of your body language to make you more likeable.

The act of making yourself likeable is office politicking. You shouldn’t have to be fake if you are a genuinely nice and interested person. Here is a great article by Penelope on social skills matter more than ever, so here’s how to get them.

Work is not only about “getting things done” but also getting people to like you. I applaud those of you are hard workers. But let's face it, most work is easily replaceable, especially when five hundred people would love to have your job. Your personality, however, is not so easily replaced. So get people to appreciate you for your interpersonal skills — and you will not only have job security; you'll probably have a spot on the fast track.

So, use office politics for your advantage.

“You think you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s only some bugger with a torch bringing you more work,” ― David Brent