Office Politics

I will try and build this blog on two quotes of Plato - the first one is “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”   The second one is - “good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”  

 

Winston Churchill said,  "If you put two economists in a room, you get two opinions, unless one of them is Lord Keynes, in which case you get three opinions."  The same holds good in any office. Where you have more than one person, there will be multiple opinions. Given so many opinions, there is bound to be a push and pull for influencing the organization on the opinions. This will result in what we call office politics - who has a better say on matters in the organization and how do you influence the organization to think along the lines that you do.  I would call it, for want of a better term, healthy politics. There is also politics that we play to gain advantage within an organization that is at the cost of others. This, I will call unhealthy politics.

 

Whoever you speak to will tell you that they are bad at office politics and that they cannot play it. This is because we all have a bad connotation to the term office politics. I am also someone who has said that I am bad at politics. However, looking back at my career, I can say that I have worked hard to influence people on my opinions and what I believe have believed to be appropriate for the organization at that point in time. I have had my way many times and have not been successful many times.  So, anyone who says that he/she is not good at politics could be someone who is not able to influence the organization along the lines of his/her thoughts.

 

To me, office politics is a way of life in an organization. We will indulge in some form of politics daily. Given that situation, it would be good to involve ourselves in the healthy form. There is a very thin line between what we term as healthy and unhealthy. So, what is really needed is a method where we can govern ourselves.  What I mean by self-governance is where we debate and have difference of opinions based on issues and not on personalities, where we are not part of the rumour mill, where we work with a very high level of integrity, where we are a role model for our teams and where we always put the organization above the self.  Such a form of self governance helps in reducing the impact of unhealthy politics and actually converts all unhealthy politics in to healthy politics.

 

So, why is there a poor connotation attached to office politics? We have always used the term office politics to convey something unethical is being done when we have not had our way. Over time, politics has come to mean something that is not healthy to practice within organizations. And can you avoid it? The answer is no...so, it seems that everyone working in an office plays politics (and we believe that more often than not it is the unhealthy kind) but no one is willing to accept it. Each one of us thinks "Everyone else, except me is in to politics."

 

I have also fallen in to the trap of thinking so. However, on reflection, I believe that we can segregate politics and by using self-governance, can actually play healthy politics and in a proper fashion and actually be proud of it.

 

So, how do you play healthy politics? I would say that you need to understand influencers within an organization, build informal networks, collaborate across boundaries, make use of opportunities to showcase the good work that you have done, plan for what can go wrong, remain positive and spread positive thoughts, take a stance based on issues and not on personalities, voice your opinion in a way that does not hurt people but be fearless in voicing your opinion and be a role model for your team.  It would also be useful to make your boss successful. After all, that is what demonstrates your trust in him/her and also that you are aligned.

 

So, the next time there is a conversation on office politics, please do not hesitate to say that you do play office politics. It is only the "how" that matters. As Plato said, do participate in politics and also be that person who does not need laws to tell you to act responsibly. Such an approach will create a tremendous positive attitude and atmosphere in the teams that you manage.