While it is true that there are people out there in the corporate world operating exactly in this manner, for the mast majority of us office politics is a less dramatic affair.
In this article from the New York Times Marie G. McIntyre, a career coach, organisational psychologist and author of “Secrets to Winning at Office Politics” provides the far tamer definition of office politics as simply, ‘being smart about how you manage your relationships at work.’
It is this more sensible approach that we should all be thinking of when we approach the world of office politics, and, don’t be fooled, approach it we must. Office politics are not an optional elective. Managing relationships with colleagues and forming positive ones with those who wield power can be as essential in advancing up the ladder as your day to day competence.
The first part of being an effective player of any game is understanding the rules. So rather than taking the oft-stated, in my opinion, rarely practised, moral high ground of ‘I don’t really play those games’ or ‘I’m not bothered with all that stuff’, try to be aware and understand the office dynamics. Learn the lay of the land. Be aware of who is lunching with who and who yields power, not always the most senior person, in the office. I am not advising you here to be false in your relationships with co-workers but rather to pay attention to their idiosyncrasies and moods with the aim of handling them more effectively.
On entering any new work place, the onus is on you to set about building positive relationships with your colleagues and inevitably that will be with those closest to you initially. However, although it is imperative that your strongest relationships are with those you work most closely with it can be very beneficial to form alliances further afield too, in different departments, sectors and groups. Doing so promotes your professional image as that of a ‘people person’ who can forge relationships across departmental divides as well as helping you to understand the company from a different perspective. They might even provide you with valuable sources of information you otherwise would not have been made aware of.
It is an irony of office politics that one of the most fundamental elements of fostering positive personal relationships is to avoid making issues about people rather than seeking solutions to problems. I get it. We’re human. You won’t like all your colleagues, certainly not all of the time anyway, and things can get fraught when people are under pressure but you must endeavour to resist personalising moments of workplace conflict. People remember being humiliated and a few words spoken in haste can turn a friend into enemy. So when things get tight. Redirect the conversation to the issue at hand and seek a mutually viable solution.
One of the most powerful antidotes to increasing conflict is a genuine attempt to view things from the other’s perspective. The most effective sales people and negotiators are those who look at the situation from the customer’s or the other side’s eyes and seek to understand what makes them tic, why they place such importance on certain things and try to grant them as much of what they want as you can.
In the competitive corporate world it can be tempting to project a very tough, unyielding image in an effort not to be seen as ‘weak’; however, the reality is that being completely unwilling to compromise will only create tension between different sides and make both more entrenched in their viewpoints. Compromise is at the heart of all human relations and those in business are no different. Simply making proper eye contact and listening, not merely waiting for them to stop so you can start talking, but truly listening can have a profoundly unifying effect on two parties with disparate points of view.
Business language often divides people into neatly opposing factions: us and our competitors, winners and losers, success and failure, and it’s true that the corporate world does require people to be ruthless at times; however, when it comes to human relations, particularly those within our own company it serves us to change our perspective.
If we take ‘seeking to understand the other person’s position’ as the base of our approach to conflict in the work place, then, our next step should be envisioning a solution that allows everyone to ‘win’. Well, at least not lose. People simply don’t like to lose or feel humiliated and so, while, a person may get away with ‘win-lose’ tactics once or twice, if continued, they will find themselves without allies.
Therefore, we must see envision a way in which both sides can achieve as much of what they want as is possible while making sure that we get what we really want from any compromise. Here the much quoted Sun Tzu’s Art of War remains as relevant today as when it was written in the 5th century BC, when the Chinese general wrote, ‘’Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across.’’
To get what we really want from any situation involving compromise it is important for us to know where our priorities lie. Having our priorities clearly defined allows us to ‘keep our eyes on the prize’ and acts as a further barrier for us to get involved with personal issues.
This article by Kristi Hedges on negotiation techniques in business draws on the work of Wharton professor Adam Grant and his book Give and Take in which the professor contradicts the traditional clandestine methods of business negotiation in favour of a very open approach. Grant recommends a negotiation technique called ‘rank ordering’ in which you lay all desires about a particular deal out on the table in order of priority. For example, if you were negotiating a new contract in work you would openly display the conditions you would like in order of preference. The benefit of this open approach is that it gives the other side complete disclosure around the various options they can combine to reach a satisfactory compromise. For example, they might not be willing to meet your first priority which is a certain level of pay but they may be willing to combine various other priorities to reach a deal which satisfies you.
A more cunning version of this, which does contradict the transparency suggested by Grant, is to include several desires which you are not really interested in and are ready to give them up as ‘concessions’ so as to appear more compromising than you actually are.
Okay, we’re human. We all enjoy a bit of office gossip and we all like to know exactly what happened at the office party but, be careful. Dealing in gossip or even criticising others behind their backs may provide us with a momentary release from work pressure or colleague tension but it can very quickly come back to bite us. Aside from the dubious morality of speaking ill of others behind their back for the purpose of entertainment, or as a means to influence others, these behaviours can very quickly ruin our own professional reputation and use up the energy which we should be putting into our daily tasks.
I think we have all heard of, or witnessed, a situation in which, a person, we’ll call her Angela, comes to a colleague, we’ll call her Jane, with a grievance about another colleague, in this case, Bob. Jane shows empathy to Angela, without necessarily agreeing that she is completely right, and when the situation is aired in public Angela states that, ‘and Jane agrees with me.’ So be careful when you find yourself in this position regarding what you say. Often the best thing is to say nothing at all and work on redirecting the conversation to finding a solution to the issue.
A lot has been written in business literature in recent years about bringing your authentic self to your career. For one reason: it’s exhausting playing a part and it’s energising being you. When you are being your authentic self and working according to your principles you bring a credibility and integrity to your professional self that others will respond to.
To finish I will return to Sun Tzu’s Art of War for another quote, ‘He who knows when he can fight, and when he can not, will be victorious’. This sentiment has been expressed in many different ways down through the years with the above headline one of the most succinct, choose your battles. Know what is important to you and what is not. Know you cannot fight, nor is it worth fighting, every battle, so don’t try, and let the small things pass. Conserve your energy for when you need it. Choose your battles wisely.
Written for CareerJunction by Mark Dempsey.
