Social science has a lot to say about practicing good politics. Research by Gerald Ferris and colleagues indicates that political skills can be broken down into four dimensions:. An accumulation of research shows that high standing on these dimensions enhances job performance, influence, leadership, and advancement.
On the one hand, political skill can compensate for being less outgoing or not being the smartest person in the room. On the other hand, a deficit of political skill can derail otherwise intelligent, honest, and hard-working people. These political skills also spell the difference between an overbearing boss and one who is appreciated for being clear about expectations and direct with feedback. One study found that managers who were less politically savvy had a disengaging impact on employees when they told them what to do and provided them with feedback on their performance.
In contrast, employees reporting to more politically skilled managers saw these same behaviors in a much more favorable light.
The key to appearing influential rather than sly, selfish, or manipulative is the apparent sincerity component of political skill. People will have more trust and confidence in you and will be more willing to consider your ideas to the extent that they do not sense a hidden agenda. And this gets back to the main difference between good and bad politics.
To paraphrase Plato , the risk of refusing to participate in politics is that the big decisions that affect you wind up being made by those with less experience, less insight, and fewer honorable intentions. There is a way to use the unspoken rules to contribute to the greater good, advance your interests, and maintain your honor and dignity.
You have 1 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access. Create an account to read 2 more. Why couldn't you speak with them openly and establish a strong rapport? How would you know that they were less qualified or less experienced?
Did you read their CV? Did you ever take any time to get to really know them? Why did you listen to malicious rumours without getting to know the person? The other person may have wished to be an equal team member, with a wholesome desire to see the division achieve, with a desire to improve all systems, not her own standing or career. Instead of forming a team with the person, not only did you reject her, refused to work with her, but you had also employed underhand tactics, that you imagined she was using, to get rid of her from the organisation.
Her livelihood and career shot down because of your overactive delusional imagination and refusal to form rapport with the colleague. Now you are gloating how your project entered into the organisations strategic plan. Your project? It is a company project, you are just an employee. Had you worked with the woman on the project, and other projects, not only would it have been completed much sooner but other areas and projects could have been worked on jointly as well, and completed much sooner.
Two heads are always better than one when working together. Do you at all care about what may have happened with the woman you manouvred out of the company? How is she? Everyone seems to be forgetting that one cannot live in society and this world without an income. It is so vitally important to work together, to assist each other, to care about one's colleagues and company simply for the fact that it is their livelihood.
Their work leads to income that funds their food, education, family home, children, clothing, holidays, etc You seem to forget, that everyone has a sense of justice. You might argue that these 'pureist' are losers but please keep in mind that they also have some sense of justice.
You seem to understand that they, the 'pureist', would get angry so at least you acknowledge that they are intelligent enough to understand what you are doing, yet you dismiss their lack of retaliations as being losers. Could it be that their personalities are such that they bottle up their emotions.
If they were not stupid, they would know what you are up to. If they were stupid, you did not need to bother with them in the first place. You should be afriad, very afriad. The most dangerous people are the ones that keep their emotions bottled up. You should feel very uncomfortable when their anger oozes out of their body.
People are irrational, you know that of course. I only ask you to take a moment to apply the same irrationality to these 'losers' instead of just applying it to your boss. This article makes some intersting points, but I think the article is full of 'half truths' and incidents that do not take into account the full story or all of the facts.
You see, I am an introvert, which means to the core of my character I am naturally more inclined to be that hardworking, honest, kind, and fair worker that the author described as a loser. In reality, I first want to say, since when do the above qualities represent a 'loser'? Unfortunately this is usually found out, too little too late. In my opinion, we need to get back to the so called 'loser' mentalities and work ethics that the author described so that we Americans can get on with the business of getting back in the game of being a substantial world power.
American Greed and overcompetitiveness has cost us a lot, just look at what state it put our country in. I am African-American If you dont believe me, check the world numbers and economy and they will tell the story louder than I can. Yes, sometimes it seems as if people who dont do the right thing seem to get ahead, but I am a Christian and my bible addresses these things saying that it does happen but 'then I saw there end Greed driven or character driven?
Which one last longe in the end? Lets take a look at our country's state and do an objective evaluation on that subject.
I got the last laugh, even though it took a long time to come. And dont be a political bully This article has a lot of repitition but doesn't really go into detail of what is meant by polliticking.
The truth is we need all sorts of souls to contribute effectively to an organization. What is most important is that there is a good balance of political and non political individuals and harmony among staff. This was a wasted read. I thought I would get some good pointers on how to play the political game since it is an ugly reality.
I already know that I should play I just don't know how. A good judgment is to seek deep the ultimate causes of things. Know the issue by its first and universal principle accepted subjectively but verified objectively. We can present two poles here of viewing work; that of work in the category of having and work in the category of being. Having is simply stated as work is the total sum of all human actions with the end of mind of acquiring the highest possible monetary value through legitimate profession.
On the other hand, being states that work is essentially a human activity that defines man's meaning, direction and being. By logical reasoning, being precedes having. Thus, there is still a deep reality which we people in the world of business can work on and worth investing for - Business in the category of Being - a Business which takes precedence being over having. Office politics is clearly not giving us the output of quality work. It is like a weed in a firm.
Its effects are pervasive, from top to bottom, managers and subordinates alike. It decays trust and honesty in work. It can sabotage important principles governing the firm and can sap the positive energy of subordinates. Even, customers can see this from us and in turn we are the only ones who repel them. They will look for firms who have more energy in dedication than the energy of competition. The mission here is to get any sub human element in the firm.
Office politics is in no way human. Therefore, we can take it out from our business environment. Reward dedication, quality will follow and there is no measure of quantity in terms of products and services it can produce.
The purist works already the aspects of the category of being. Most players of the firm work in the level of having.
We can cross-check that in their motives demonstrated through their actions. Players can give us millions but faithful workers can give us more - monetary value and meaning of the firm. I don't agree in playing the game of OP, although you have exhumed the positive value of it. First, it is not a reality by essence. It is something we conceive out of a trend happening in many firms.
It is like a shadow in reality. It is like a parasite in the guise of reality. We will tend to believe if this is always what is believed about. Is this the ultimate cause we can think of? How can i play a game which has no foundation in reality? Being is the real reality.
Take away being and we all end up in a vicious cycle of nihilism. Work is being and thus OP has no place in it. That is why i could not play this game. I only know fidelity and dedication which makes the firm I belong more human and dignified. I've worked in the IT sector for 22 years, found that in most IT companies the senior employees employees who have been with the company for years use office politics to bully newer employees much like animals mark their territory.
Why they do it puzzles me, my guess is they are afraid the new employee knows more than they do or will steal the limelight. It's sad, but in most cases the management and HR managers are too spineless to sort the culprits, which in turn causes many a skilled employee to resign. Well I would agree with the implications you point out for the purists and players, as you call them.
Everything you write after that seems to be justification of bad behaviour. I agree with office politics being alive in a corporate world. I learnt it a hard way, when I resigned from my job after 3 years of glowing performance, with no errors, always going above and beyond the basics of my job, often covering for other people who decided to take a free ride. Well, my error was - I was not promoting myself, I thought the results will speak for themselves.
I always tried to be nice to everybody, well, I am Pisces - I think it says it all. As time went, I realized that people stopped talked to me, I was getting some 'looks', but did not pay any attention to that.
I thought I have to try harder, so I did. I got many words of apprecation from customers, including Thank you cards and flowers, I was selected as an employee of the month, but nothing of this was ever acknowledged by my supervisor. From her I got just some silent look. So, again, I just thought I have to try harder. Till one day when she 'forgot' to give me an important information.
I asked her for that, and she just blew on me, yelling, screaming, throwing hands to the air, and telling me, if I do not like how things are I can quit. I was stunned. I would not expect anything like that in a million years. Just then I realized that lately she was not comunicating with me at all, although with my colegue they always had 'their heads together'.
I realized that my coworker, very friendly for 2 years, was suddenly avoiding me at all. Screaming and harsh treatment from my boss continued and were increasing after this initial period, the extent of enemosity was enormous.
Finaly, after 2 months of this treatment, I filed an official complaint. The rest is the history. Management did not respond to my complaint, several times postponing the meeting. Nobody in the office, includig my boss and coworker, spoke to me at all for almost a month.
Just absolutely necessary words, perhaps 2 sentences a day, all work related. From my boss I got only 'Good Morning' and that was all for days and weeks in the row. Then, working under these strange conditions, always looking over and behind my shoulder I made a very minor clerical error, that could have been easily corrected and it did not cause any damage and it did not effected anybody.
I was immediately called to a disciplinary meeting with 3 managers, regarding my 'performance'. What can I do to help improve this situation? For Blumenthal, those people were his parents. What, exactly, where those behaviours that he watched that helped propel his career? My parents were diligent about exposing me to as much of the world as possible. Real-world experience ranked high in their book of virtues.
If you can find common ground in those end goals, you may be able to find flexibility in the getting-there. Persistence matters, but so does the ability to be realistic about your odds.
Instead, you have a few options. One is to live to fight another day. Continue to develop relationships so that when you have your next stroke of genius, you can return and try again.
Another option is to move on to someplace where your idea will stand a better chance of gaining traction. You can learn a lot about the values of people and organizations by watching how they make decisions.
Wherever you go, whatever you do, there will be people you need to convince to come along for the ride. AWS Deloitte Genpact. Events Innovation Festival. Follow us:.
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