I HAVE heard it said before that when there are two people in a room, there will always be politics. You can never get away from it even if you want to. Those who say they are apolitical have already, ironically, become political because when they say so they already have made a stance against, well, everybody. And in the workplace, you can never really get away from politics especially if you deal with a lot of people.
While you cannot get away from office politics, there are some things you can do to keep from being caught in its gnarly web.
One of the most important skills you can learn to avoid becoming a victim of the political machinery in the workplace is to be observant and be very discerning. You should have the rudimentary skills of reading people and how they interact with other people in the organization. Read up or watch videos on how to read people’s body language so you can be aware of what to look for and what they mean.
A good place to start is with your team. Observe your team and how they interact with each other. In time, you will know who only goes to you when they need help and ignores you the rest of the time. You will also notice people who work well together and those who tolerate each other. Each person has their own personality so they will naturally gravitate toward people they like working with. As a leader, you can take advantage of those good working relationships to increase motivation and engagement.
And of all the members in your team, learn how to read your immediate supervisor. At the end of the day, they will be the one evaluating and rating your performance. Learn what ticks him off and what kind of work he expects from the team and, if there is an occasion, specific expectations from you. Learn fast and apply whatever you discover into everything you do until it becomes second nature to you. Knowing how your manager reacts to certain situations helps you anticipate questions so you can prepare better.
Then go to the organizational chart and familiarize yourself with the reporting lines. This will give you an idea who to go for approval of projects. But if you really want to get things done faster, look for the key players and influencers in the organization. And you will only know these by immersing yourself in the workings of the organization. When I transfer to a new organization, I usually do not say “no” to tasks and projects where I am involved with a lot of people. This will help me find my bearings and leverage on opportunities where I excel. You then create a network of connections maximizing your strengths.
If there is a formal hierarchy in the organization, there are also informal ones. Just like with team members working well with certain people in your team, departments and offices have a history of how they work together. It would do you good to understand which departments are cooperative and which ones you need to convince. Tenured members of your team can help you identify which those departments and offices are. And if you are a new member of the team, that will give you an opportunity to strengthen the working relationship by building new bridges.
And speaking of bridges, build your own influence. Start making connections and building relationships with people you closely work with. Always put your best foot forward by noticing and praising people for their ideas and successes. What you give comes back to you hundredfold. Do not be afraid to go out of your way to help when you can. Encourage people with positivity and catch people doing good. Keep an open mind by taking other people’s opinion as another perspective and always find common ground.
If you find these hard to do, then work on your people skills. Like any other skill, people skills can be learned with practice, patience and a few unsuspecting guinea pigs. Some have the natural skill of making people at ease with them, while some just rub people the wrong way. Take time for self-reflection and asking trusted people with what they think you need to improve in your personality.
When you have mastered a significant amount of people skills, pay it forward. As you improve yourself, make an inventory of what you need help on so you can look for resources to help you develop them. And then write another list of what you can teach others. Mentoring others can help you solidify your own personal values and in the long run create a group of people who will support you. It also galvanizes what you have learned because the best way to retain a skill is to teach it to others.
But also, do not be naive. Think well of people but be guarded against manipulative people who will use you for their own reasons. There are people so good at pretending to be your ally when they are only using you as a leg up. The sad part is you will only know after the fact. So, guard your heart by using your head—that is the reason why your head is above your heart.
Be warned of people who say bad things about other people. In the company of trusted colleagues and when it is used as an intervention, a group can be effective in implementing change in the behavior of a team member. But when the gossip is destructive, be the buffer and let it stop with you. Even if it is true but you are not part of the solution, do not propagate the information. Foster trust by being a model of trust. Keep with you what is said in private.
Office politics is a tricky business primarily because people are involved, and people are unpredictable. However, you can manage your reaction and your team’s behavior when you understand your organization’s culture and how things get done. But when you do know how to work your way in the organization, you will discover that working smarter is a lot easier than working hard.
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