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

Stay focussed

"Stay focused, go after your dreams and keep moving toward your goals." LL Cool J

How  to stay focused at work

The focus is something of a novelty these days, but it's not easy. The focus is not something that automatically switches on when you want to. You have to make sure your surroundings are perfect for working if you want to be focused. Today's workplace is full of stress that often results in attention deficit - people feel impatient, distracted and rushed.

Staying focus at work 

As per research by Gloria Mark, a professor in the department of Informatics at the University of California the length of time office workers focuses on a computer screen before shifting their attention dropped to 1 minute, 15 seconds in 2012—down from 2 minutes, 18 seconds in 2008.

Experts believe this is a worldwide epidemic. This challenge can be addressed  by proper planning and forming good habits. 

24 tips to form good habits to remain more productive at work and successful at managing crisis, which are not rare at the workplace.

1. Declutter your work area and have a comfortable chair in your work place.  
2. Do the things which you like to do
3. Be passionate in your work
4. Have a clear agenda
5. Do necessary communication and may be over communication better.
6. Avoid negative mindsets like 'nothing is working'. 
7. I normally have a separate userid and password to access computer for work so that I can't access Gmail, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter  from that account. Also. I would recommend to work offline to avoid instant message system like Lync. Here are 10 top tech time saving tips. 
8. I don't suggest to follow a "to do" as it creates stress. You should know your critical activity and have a plan to finish them. You can have a long term 'To Do ' list say for 3 months.
9. Keep water and coffee near to your room. Avoid any gossip near the coffee machine. If you are a smoker (bad for you) never go  with a group. 
10. Never plan parallel work because we human beings can do best output if we work in a sequential way. Always do a small chunk of work. Here is an interesting video by Paolo Cardini: Forget multitasking, try monotasking
11. Never procrastinate  to avoid living in an always urgent syndrome. 
12. Try to avoid unplanned meeting or a long conversation with somebody
13. Take calculated risks for success. Avoid fear of losing
14. Know your customers. This is big as you actually work for them. 
15. Avoid taking rash decisions and behaviors.
16. If you are distracted by noise, use headphones and music. You can use a device like Joe, a small gadget that blocks all surrounding noises.
17. Give yourself enough rest and relaxation outside of work, so that you can come to work and put in your best. Talk to people who are not part of business life.
18. Keep your personal life, or any personal problems at home. Distractions can lead to mistakes, and mistakes, large or small, can affect how your supervisors view and respond to you.
19. Avoid saying 'Yes' for all work
20. Don't set up unrealistic expectations 
21. Will power and discipline might not keep you focused for a long time. So, you also need to structure your environment also.
22. Award yourself  and stop comparing yourself with others.
23. Practice mediation, daily exercise and self introspection 
24. Align yourself with your company's purpose. This will give you a sense of fulfillment and happiness at work.  

Anna Vital's super cool infographics on how to stay focused at work and increase productivity.

How to stay focused

You need to do a deep soul search and introspection to identify which are the actual culprits for your attention deficit trait and make a plan to overcome it. I recommend to read  Driven to Distraction at Work: How to Focus and Be More Productive by HBR press. 

Click the link to get best career advice.

Do not gossip at work

“A slip of the foot, you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over” – Benjamin Franklin.

Gossip

In the workplace, it is prudent never to say something behind someone’s back that you wouldn’t say to his or her face.

 Not only does gossiping make you look petty and unprofessional, but also the gossip will most likely find its way back to the person you talked about, creating tension in the workplace. If you have to talk about someone, do it away from work, and to someone that has no connection to your workplace, like a spouse, friend, or pet.

It destroys your image, team morale, productivity.

When gossip is good?

Dr Bianca Beersma and Professor Gerben Van Kleef, researchers at the Department of Work and Organisational Psychology at the University of Amsterdam found that gossip serves as a kind of “social cement” and that organizations can “benefit from gossip that is instigated for positive reasons”.

The team of researchers who work with Dr Beersma and Professor Van Kleef on this ongoing study found that as much as two-thirds of our conversation is gossip, but it is not necessarily nasty. Instead, the study found that gossip is used to warn colleagues about workmates who are not pulling their weight or should not be trusted. Fear of gossip can also ensure that lazy workers fall into line and do their bit. “The threat of gossip seems to function as social pressure that motivates group members to ‘stay in line’ and behave in accordance with what they think their group members want them to do”, said Dr Beersma of the research.

 Here is a great article on New Managers: 5 Ways To Stop Negative Office Gossip

My Career Expectation

Tips On Career Expectation and Goal setting

Are you sure about about your career expectation?

This is more important than setting a goal. Always keep your career goals updated and at the front of your mind, and do not settle for less than you expect.

One way to stay motivated and on track is to write down your career goals for 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years, marking them off as you obtain them. Another way is to create a vision board, where you have all of your goals represented in pictures or photos. Keep your goals or vision board where you can see them every day, and never stop working toward them.

Don’t give up on yourself, and you will see that you can make your goals a reality.

Protect Your Career Expectation From These Nine  Sins

1. Getting complacent with your present career. 

2. Not doing active networking outside your known circle. If you are technical guru, make networking with finance people.

3. Failing to track your achievements and collecting letters of recommendation

4. Underestimate your worth 

5. Don't plan your career based on your core values and strengths

6. Not getting enough transferable skills

7. Not learning how to negotiate and winning arguments without being emotional

8. Keep yourself organized

9. Have you though about any possible second career?

Goodwill in relationship

Use Goodwill in Relationship

You don’t want your workplace to be a battleground, where you constantly have to watch your back or worry that someone will betray you. Be friendly and respectful to others you work with, and in return, you will receive a network of people who are willing to help you.

To advance your career, you must know how to win office arguments.

My other recommendation is read the book the "48  Laws of Power" which I consider ABSOLUTELY must to overcome office politics.

Office Arguments

5 Ways To End Office Arguments 

We have all been in meetings or conversations where some wise guy (or gal) has felt the need to poke the proverbial elephant in the room, attack other people’s opinions, bring up heated issues from the past, or play the blame game. What usually occurs afterwards is a flaming tailspin of morale and an outbreak of arguing, and no one leaves without bitter feelings.

These types of scenarios leave us all asking, isn’t there a better way? 

Yes, there is! Recently, I experienced how careful planning and meaningful conversation can head off this negative pattern of conversational destruction, leave everyone’s self-respect and dignity intact, and heck, maybe even allow you to make actual progress during meetings and conversations, instead of just banging your head against the table. 

Let me introduce you to Vanessa Agnew, our company’s CMO.

Last month, Ms. Agnew called a meeting to discuss our company’s website launch progress. This may seem like no big deal, but over the past few months, these meetings had started to resemble an active volcano, ready to erupt at any minute. Tensions ran high, there were verbal attacks, and little ever got accomplished. To say the least, no one looked forward to them.

During this particular meeting, Mr. Albertus from finance gave his report and mentioned that the CFO had not approved the additional $5,000 the tech team had requested to complete the website project. A black cloud descended on the room and the finger-pointing and insults commenced. 

Just as it started to look like this meeting would become another casualty of infighting, something unusual happened: 

Ms. Agnew calmly got our attention and asked us to return to that discussion at the end of the meeting. After a couple of minutes, we all regrouped and continued the meeting. 

However, as I started to report on the technical status of the project and give a summary of the team’s expectations, another argument almost broke out, as the production team started pointing out my team’s failure to deliver certain functionalities on time. 

Before I could retaliate, Ms. Agnew stopped me and redirected the conversation again. She encouraged us to move past our usual blamefest and started engaging us in solution-driven conversation by asking opinions and giving everyone a chance to express their views. 

Once we pushed our emotions to the side and stopped trying to defend our failures by pointing out other teams’ faults, the environment calmed, we started being more friendly to each other, and we started finding solutions to our problems. 

Then, just as we thought things couldn’t get any better, the marketing team, whose presentation usually focused only on the shortcomings of the project, seemed to have made a complete turnaround. They talked about their plan for the coming weeks, along with dependencies for all of us. Their meticulous planning, passion, and confidence was contagious, and they left us with no objections.

Once her team had completed their presentation, Ms. Agnew encouraged us all to continue to work together toward the desired outcome, even though we faced many challenges.  There was no hesitation and no doubt in her voice, as if she could see the destination vividly. 

There was a renewed enthusiasm in the room, and we all quickly agreed on a plan of action for the following weeks to bring the project back on schedule.

Mr. Cobus, the new project manager, closed the meeting by going over the main points we had discussed. He also provided the following five points to help us stop the arguing and have more meaningful conversations in the future:

1.    Always prepare for a meeting beforehand. Know what you will discuss and make sure that you have any necessary information on hand. Preparing for objections and difficult conversations will allow you to have meaningful discussions and help you avoid feeling like you have to be on the defensive.

2.    Have desired outcomes in mind and work toward meeting them by having meaningful conversations and negotiating with others.

3.     Fortify yourself in the truth of what you are going to say, and rely on your strength to carry you through the conversation. Hesitation and fear will keep you from communicating effectively and reaching your goal.

 4.    Be assertive, not aggressive, so your voice will be heard, and others will feel safe enough to state their opinions and opposing views without the fear of confrontation. Here is a great article on

"How to resolve office arguments"

5. Listen to others and show your respect for what they have to say, even if it differs from your viewpoint. This will build trust and open the door for better collaboration. 

Since that fateful day, our meetings have improved—but our productivity has soared. 

I invite you to start using these five rules for having meaningful conversations and to watch how things change for you!

Find a mentor

How To Find A Mentor To Be Successful 

Yes, you may be a superwoman, but the truth is that you can't do everything on your own. Be it a job or business. A different perspective is what you need to go higher and farther.

Finding a mentor is hard, but finding a good one can change your life.

Why finding a mentor is so important?

A mentor in general somebody who already walked the same path as you and had  relevant experience. A mentor can diagnose where you are currently succeeding and failing. You can build a plan with your mentor to increase the probability of your success. .

7  Tips To Find A Mentor Now

1. Try  to join and speak at conferences and seminars. These are the great places to know people. You can join your local chamber of commerce that  is an excellent place to start. Chambers of commerce often host networking events and meetings that bring beginning entrepreneurs and successful business people together. You should talk to people, listen to their stories  to get more insides of what they do. Find  a possible mentor and pursue further meetings because you can learn from them.

2. Go to online routes like reading blogs, listening to podcasts, joining Facebook groups, joining conferences, participating in a mastermind group.

3. Identify and define what you expect from a mentor. The clearer your expectations, the more you can focus on what you need. Setting forth your expectations up front allows you to manage effectively  the relationship.

4. Mentors need to be people – who know how you think, act, communicate and contribute.

5. Take more responsibility, contribute to the success of your would-be mentor. Have the mentality of the giver.

6. Be sure that you choose someone who has experience and connections within your area and level of business

7. Just get out there and find the right mentor to help you along the path to success. You can try the website like FindAMentor.com  is a free self-serve web matching service for mentors and mentee’s.

The bottom line is - real mentors are interested in helping others succeed. You need to find them and make them interested in  your success.

Click here to read the next article on the best career advice: goodwill in the relationship