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Office politics, and for that matter the word "politics", tend to conger up a less than positive image for most people. Pictures
of unfair deals, bad decisions and icky people are many of the
thoughts that come to mind when we speak of anything with a political
orientation to it. It's understandable, especially this year as we are
hit with a daily barrage of political ads and news.
However, it's important to understand
what office politics really consists of before drawing those
judgments, because office politics is how things work. You can ignore
it and suffer the consequences, do it the slimy way where a body count
is taken, or do it well which benefits you and others. In its simplest
form, office politics is about building relationships in order to
achieve some kind of end result. It's how things get done and it's done
100% of the time on all jobs. For those who think engaging in office
politics is something they simply won't stoop to, they're already
wrong; because you can't avoid it so long as you work with others.
Here is the ingredient list for office politics:
Who's who.
When you start your job the first thing you do is figure out who
everyone is and what their role is. The reason you do this is because
your job is a daily assembly line of giving and taking information with
a variety of people. Your ability to be successful is dependent on
others in a very big way.
Who knows what. This
is where office politics start. You eventually learn that there are
certain people who not only know work things at a detailed level, but
are keen observers of human behavior. They know how things really
work. Understand that we picked this up as cavemen as a survival technique. Who you know does matter to your survival.
Goals.
Every job has various goals, and on top of that we have our own goals
we'd like to accomplish within the framework of our job. Perhaps we
want to be successful, to earn a great pay increase or to get a
promotion. It could be that this job is simply a stop over to other
things; but you still want to be perceived as getting the job done. We
all have goals.
Who wields the power & influence.
Power is an interesting thing. We can be given position power like
managing a group, but power also comes from other more informal sources
within any group. You can have power based on the information you
posses, charismatic power because people like you and support you, or
prominence power like a celebrity. Power and influence emerge in
groups in order to get people to take action toward some goal.
It
is at this point where politics can be negative, because of people who
are using power and influence to selfishly advance their own goals,
largely at the exclusion of others. This exclusion is what becomes
unfair and noticeable. On the other hand, when power and influence are
exercised and it benefits the business and those in a work group, it
can be a seriously positive thing. It is usually this type of outcome
that isn't seen as office politics because we tend to think of office
politics in negative terms. Yet, it is the very same mechanics that
was put into play.
Office politics, whether for positive or
negative outcomes, is how things get done in businesses. Politics
exist wherever you have any number of people pulled together in a
group, because we are constantly working with people to achieve some
end result. Your ultimate
career success depends on how well you can make office politics work
for you. Hopefully you'll succeed with "Positive Office Politics".
Thanks to Dorothy Tannahill-Moran / Career Rocketeer
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