Politics are Good?

"This place is so political!"

How often do you hear that said about a workplace? Do you feel it's true about your organization?

As discussed in this CIO Magazine article "It's Politics, As Usual", "Any time you get three people together, you've got politics. It's a reality of human relations."

In this FastCompany article from exactly 6 years ago this month, Allan Cohen, dean of faculty at Babson College and coauthor of Influence Without Authority (John Wiley & Sons, 1991) says, "When people talk about office politics, they usually mean something dirty or underhanded. But nobody exists in an atmosphere where everybody agrees. Politics is the art of trying to accomplish things within organizations." (italics added for emphasis)

So, are politics in the workplace a given… something to be accepted instead of complained about?

I agree with the premise of both articles. I recommend you take the short time necessary to read them.

Why? Increasingly I see the most successful coaching clients are those who are extraordinary at building and maintaining relationships. They have a Jedi-like ability to sense when they need to reach out or give way, die on a hill or lose a battle to win the war. They are able to see the people side of issues, not just the business side--fully realizing business issues typically end up to be people issues.

Is this a call to be more political? Not in the sense we typically associate with the term: leading by opinion poll, only looking out for oneself, back-stabbing, deception, etc. Part of our job as a leader is to eliminate (not the least of which is to never model) such behavior in your organization.

However, a major focus of the Institute's practice is helping people get things done, and agreeing with Cohen's definition that politics is the art of trying to accomplish things within organizations, we indeed coach our clients to learn to be more effective at the art of influence.

Politics aren't just for an election year. They are a day-to-day part of your job as a leader. Learn to thrive by learning the skills of influence.

posted by Andy at 6:45 AM