How to become an Office Politician and Be OK with it

October 9, 2007 at 11:19 am | In Business | Leave a Comment
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Office politics generally has a negative connotation in the Australian culture. People who play office politics can be seen as pushy, arrogant and self centred and perhaps sometimes this is the case. However it could also be the case that these people are value centred and are living a life in alignment with their personal values while at the same time helping their organisation achieve their goals.

Wikipedia (I know that is not 100% reliable but for this purpose it does the job) defines “Office Politics” as “the productive and counterproductive competitive human factors present between co-workers, in any office environment”. I saw productive and counter productive politics during my career working in offices (my brother in law unkindly suggested that I should not write about this subject because all I have for competitive human factors in my current job is the family dog and he is not even human). Also, I have seen recently in the TV show “Damages” and the movie “The Bourne Ultimatum” some great examples of office politics. In the movie a CIA agent, Pam Landy, is moved into a position so that she can take the fall if things fail. However, Pam in turn uses politics by utilising people loyal to her and her own political skills to achieve an outcome that was consistent with those of the organisation and in alignment with her own values. (I don’t think that gives away too much for people who haven’t seen the movie).

Steven Covey in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (I didn’t read this book for 15 years because I didn’t like the title but I found it a thought provoking read) discusses a former colleague who utilised politics in the office. He worked for a organisation that was headed by a president with a dictatorial style of leadership. He made all the decisions and used his executive team as “gofers” (go for this, go for that). Most of the executive team would grumble to each other about their president. The former colleague decided to compensate for the president’s weakness (his style) and work with his strengths (vision and creativity). He shielded his own people from the president’s style and while still being treated as a gofer he used his own skills to identify the president’s underlying concerns. When he did present information to the president he did more than what was directly asked. He addressed the underlying concern and provided his own recommendations. The result of this action was that the president still used the other members of the executive team as gofers but now sourced the opinion of Covey’s former colleague.

The colleague used politics in an ethical way in alignment with his own values and advanced his career and served the needs of the organisation.

So the key points about office politics are:

  • It is a fact of life (whenever people gather politics will come into play)
  • It is a social lubricant (It is a way of making things happen)
  • It is about influence (Influencing others to help achieve goals)
  • Anyone can be an office politician
  • Using politics with integrity can help you advance your career with a clear conscience.

Is being so serious helpful?

October 9, 2007 at 11:18 am | In Life | Leave a Comment
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Life can be serious business. We try our best to earn enough to pay the bills and perhaps a bit extra for the holiday or for the new TV. We get through the daily must dos and try to improve our life and do a good a job at work or school and be a good partner, friend, brother, daughter, parent. It is serious stuff and there are always ways to do it better (generally found with hindsight). It can be a lot of pressure. It can be so much pressure that we are hard on ourselves and mark ourselves down for not doing “better”. Is being harsh on ourselves helping us to live the life we want to live?

You might remember my friend “Joe” from last month who was getting frustrated because he was not aware of what he was truly committed to (providing for the financial needs of his family). He was trying to change jobs. Over the month he became aware that he could change jobs while still providing for the financial needs for his family. He is now facing another hurdle; he has not been successful in getting any of the 10 jobs for which he applied. This is getting Joe down, he is losing confidence and it is impacting on all parts of his life. He is a grouch at home because he is not feeling good about himself and he hates his current job because he feels trapped. He is not “living a life of no regrets”. Luckily he does have a good life coach who is helping him achieve his goals. His coach is working on strategies to help Joe through the job search process. This is what he has suggested.

1. Take a different view of failure

Joe has determined that to achieve his career goals he needs to change jobs. His coach has helped keep Joe’s focus on this. The coach has suggested to Joe that rather than take the view that an unsuccessful job application is a failure take the view that it is another way that he has discovered how not to apply for a job. Joe had two reactions to this new perspective, a feeling and a behaviour. The feeling outcome for Joe was that instead of getting disheartened and serious about “failing” to land a new job he felt that he was learning more about how to successfully apply for a job with each knock back. The behavioural outcome was that he continued to feel motivated to achieve his goal of developing his career by changing the current job. He also was less grouchy around home and was able to get through his days at work by recognising that each day brought him closer to his goal.

If we all gave up after “failing” we would still be in the cave eating grass.

The coach’s second suggestion was

2. Lighten Up

Joe was letting his work life negatively impact all other aspects of his life. The coach asked Joe that famous question “What is the worst thing that could happen?”. They then worked together until Joe realised that if the worst does happen he could handle it. Joe determined that the worst thing that could happen would be that he could not find a new job. With the assistance of his coach Joe developed a plan of action if he did not find a new job. The plan included being proactive about initiating change in his current role. It also included investing his time that he would have available (as he was not investing time in making his mark in his new role) in becoming more involved in the school life of his kids. Getting the new job is still very important for Joe but he is not going to allow the learnings (that he used to call failures) along the way negatively impact his life.

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm” – Winston Churchill

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