Office Politics?

An interesting perspective written by people at NOBL.

You should be engaging in office politics. If you want to see a difference in your organization, you have to get involved. Your unwillingness to engage in the political system at work could even hold back your career.

You may have very good reasons for not playing politics:

• “Because good people don’t.”
• “Because good work should be recognized on its own merits.”
• “Because I’d rather go somewhere else.”
• “Because we don’t have any politics here.”
• “Because that’s just not who I am.”

Unfortunately, those are myths. Self-limiting myths. So let’s start breaking them down.

First, office politics is the use of relationships as a means to get things done. And yes, it can be manipulative. Inefficient. Self-interested. But it doesn’t have to be. You can balance individual needs with what’s best for the organization and customers. And it’s important to remember that, because there is no such thing as an organization without office politics. You can’t find a politics-free workplace, or assume it doesn’t exist in yours. In every human organization, relationships play a part in how the work gets done.

Now, let’s pop the bubble of meritocracy. Yes, it would be great if only the best ideas rose to the top, only “good” people got promotions, and only good arguments won debates. But the world is messier than that, and busier—people are working too hard to actively seek out good ideas. So ideas need advocates. People need champions.

Look, we get it. A lot of us wish we wouldn’t be roped into participating in power games at work. When we stand outside the system, we think we’re setting an example or upholding the moral high ground. And we keep thinking those thoughts riiiiiiiight up to the point we’re laid off, or our ideas dismissed. Standing outside the system doesn’t mean you won’t be affected by it—just that you won’t influence it.

Here’s the good news: you don’t have to sell your soul. Your advocacy and influence can be wielded for nobler aims.

• Find a cause worth fighting for. If your own career isn’t enough for you, then seek out another worthy mission: maybe it’s a new idea, the benefit to your customers, or the welfare of your teams.
• Take the judgment out of the activities. You’re not sucking up to power, you’re laying the groundwork for a positive decision. You’re not manipulating someone, you’re persuading them and winning them over to your cause.
• Take the judgment out of the people. Playing politics means interacting with people we don’t know well, or might have drawn harsh conclusions about. Before letting those criticisms calcify, interact with those people and understand their needs (just as you’d hope they’d treat you).
• Settle into your own style. Some people push back on politics because they’ve only seen it done maliciously. Decide for yourself how you want to build relationships and influence at work. And please, do self-reflect from time to time so that your cause, and not your ego, are driving your actions.

You must join the fray of office politics because it desperately needs healthy competition. We need leaders who are willing to balance their own self-interest along with collective needs and organizational goals. If you’re reading this and squirming, or even hovering over the unsubscribe link, then you’re the person that your organization needs to step up.