Harvard Business Publishing

I wish to be valued for my work. I also treat all subordinates, colleagues and superiors with courtesy. In recent months I have become disconcerted by seeing colleagues who only wish to climb the ladder do so successfuly by using the tricks of office politics. I thank Gill Corkindale for telling me how I might engage with office politics while remaining true to myself.

There is an adage that good guys (or gals) always finish last. This reflects the widely held belief that success can only be achieved by being ruthless. Whether you are a humble shop worker or a senior business executive life is about 'politics' - in plain English this means relating to colleagues, making a good impression, forging alliances, neutralising rivals and so on. Many good people tell themselves they will not 'play politics' at work, which allows the mediocre and unprincipled to rise. This is why I welcome the news that business schools are teaching people how to succeed without losing their humanity.

People such as John who stand back and refuse to engage, for fear of being labeled calculating, are cowardly and not principled. I am honest and diligent. But I am conscious of the internal dynamics of my organisation. As a result I understand our power structures. I strive to prosper within this framework.

Only the blessedly talented or those who are very lucky achieve success without planning. Not to plan is to drift and let others move forward at your expense. Planning is the same as playing the game. It is not necessary to behave badly when you do so.

Many years ago two of my friends joined a company. One was talented, energetic and 100 per cent committed to the job. Over the years he turned down executive positions because he did not want to be stuck behind a desk. He said he had no interest in office politics. My other friend was capable but not outstanding. He was ambitious and enjoyed office politics. He cultivated the right people. Eventually he took over a department and then the entire company. My other friend was soon made redundant. The other is still in power. He is respected but not popular. His staff admire the way he planned his path to to the top. If he had been given Gill Corkindale's check list he would have ticked most of the boxes. He did not do anything bad although when required he was ruthless. Recently I saw my other friend who is retired now. He said he wished he had 'played the game' better.

Surely there are differences in the qualities required for success depending on the profession you are working in. There are some fundamentals, listed by Ms Corkindale. No matter what they are doing, whether they are a young army officer who hopes to become a general or the aspiring CEO of a financial insitution, everyone should cultivate the right people and build his or her reputation. Notwithstanding this the qualities needed to advance in the military, academia, law, NGOs, medicine, business, the media, politics, manufacturing and elsewhere vary. In some it is an advantage to be seen as selfless. In others the ambitious are expected to be devious. Next we have the question of what is needed to rise to the summit in any profession. Is it possible to become a CEO, a five star general or the top lawyer in your field without developing a ruthless streak?

I agree with Ms. Corkindale's comments on Office Politics but in my personal experience, "playing the game" did not help me keep the job - I was eased out and very smoothly too. In any other organisation, I am sure that my abilities to navigate the officescape would have resulted in promotions and pay rises but where the "enemy" is "uncivilised" as was my case, even the most adept politician would have found themselves out on the street. In the two years I worked in the firm, I achieved the seemingly impossible mainly by showing whichever faction I was dealing with to accomplish a goal how they stood to benefit and being sure not to step on any egos or agendas as I made my way towards my objectives. The company culture, however, was pro the regular definition of office politics - negative, unprincipled people were, without exception, rewarded. Fortunately for me, and I suspect because of the very good reputation I built at the old office, I was able to get other employment in a short time and have not grown disillusioned with the Corkindale brand of Office Politics, which I continue to practice even at my new place of work and I find I still sleep very easy.

I am consultant in Italy,Milan and I see the devastation office politics leaves in its wake and the potential lost opportunities.Companies are very much aware of this situation but HR depts have their hands tied due to the fact that if the people mainly responsible for office politics deliver results then this is the bottom line.For talented people who love what they do, your suggestions can be an excellent interum solution.The problem arrives when it goes on too long the people disengage as they see that only office politics pay and not meritocracy,and of conquence credibility is lost.Power seems to be the only leverage here and basic personal dignity lost.
Damage limitation exercise for short term management of the situation is do not lose faith in yourself , be transparent and of course be impeccable with your words

Kelly Reardon is right. Talent and hard work are not enough. Anyone who wants to succeed in any organisation must understand how this organisation functions. If you follow Gill Corkindale's advice you can be politically astute without behaving badly. But you cannot be Mr or Mrs Nice Guy all the time. Those who want to rise to positions of leadership have to be selfish and believe in themselves, which requires arrogance. Good leaders are fair but never shirk from tough decisions, even if they are unpopular.

At the beginning of Imperium, his acclaimed novel about Rome, the British author Robert Harris wrote: "Power brings a man luxuries but a clean pair of hands is seldom among them." Mr Harris has often dealt with the effects of power and wealth on people, most recently in his latest nook, Ghost, which describes the inherent corruption of politics. Most people in business occupy humbler roles than the leading characters of Harris's books. The stakes are lower for most of us and we do not face the same temptations to behave badly. But I think Harris has a point: is it possible to be ambitious and successful while also behaving well?

Thanks to one of my friends who shared this interesting article with me. As an initial reaction to reading this article, I checked to see what would be politics after all? Politics is defined as the art or science of government or guiding or influencing governmental policy or winning and holding control over a government

Surprisingly, we have a tendency to connote negative to what politics means and absolve ourselves from it because we see a certain set of people who still use politics only to meet their ends. Politics is like group process where it helps everyone to achieve their own ends. It is mutual and works parallel to the office hierarchical structure as a channel of thoughts, relations, influence etc. and is unlike grapevine

People managers and leaders have to constantly manage conflicts, negotiate, influence and yet ensure that they still have a team. They cannot be branded as against idea 'a' or person 'b' but they still need to make sure that both exist even if it is extremely tough. This promotes and adds to their influence and respect and helps them grow and the team in turn benefits from being with such a leader.

Thanks

In todays world of office it is a cruel reality that for anyone to survive and climb the ladder of success, he/she has to play this so called art form "Politics", nicely. I said cruel reality because, generally the term 'politics' is used more frequently as a synonym for something which is unethical/selfish. If one checks out the synonyms in MS word, one of the listing is 'biased'.
I appreciate Gill Corkindale could differentiate between positive and negative politics. He has established the need for each one of us who feel that we should not 'play politics' instead of taking the negative meaning of it to realise that there is much more to it. There is a grave need for more positive political players in the fray of office politics for a better office environment.

In todays world of office it is a cruel reality that for anyone to survive and climb the ladder of success, he/she has to play this so called art form "Politics", nicely. I said cruel reality because, generally the term 'politics' is used more frequently as a synonym for something which is unethical/selfish. If one checks out the synonyms in MS word, one of the listing is 'biased'.
I appreciate Gill Corkindale could differentiate between positive and negative politics. He has established the need for each one of us who feel that we should not 'play politics' instead of taking the negative meaning of it to realise that there is much more to it. There is a grave need for more positive political players in the fray of office politics for a better office environment.

Hi:

I have never seen any reseach to prove this, but I feel certain that organizations which surpress politics (either through culture or policy) and rather direct the energy spent on politics to customer focus or strategy related goals will be more profitable than firms that do not.

Thanks

Dan McAran

Well, I think I'm too young to comment on such issue but as of my experience of having politics in organization; I couldn't stop myself to post here.

I think the person should be true, diligent and have the capability to do things before going for playing the game because I've seen many people who just step up the ladder based on their capability to play the game effectively. Of course, both kind of people co-exist in an organization; however, I guess the most respected are those who are of first kind and not second.

Expecting politics-free office is not only naive but also foolish.The suggestions put forward by the author are very useful and applicable.Some of the points have really worked well in my experience.To substantiate-
1)First,recognise the set-up,culture and particularly the political environment of the office.Identify the power centers playing in the office.
2)Never try to ignore nor to resist the political culture or agents present.
3)Make your intial presence differently aganist the expectations of the so called political managers.Mind you,they keenly observe you and asses you .Don't let them to know and play on your weaknesses.
4)Here,you have to show your value system,Integrity and resoursefulness.Showcase your self in a different way both to peers and highier-ups by achieveing short-term wins.
5)Gradually consolidate your position by consistently maintaining your principled way of working.
6)Maintain harmonious relationships with the so called power -centers.Better to take advices from them in critical areas.
7)Establish your position in a such a way that it is out of the reach of these political masters.Make them feel that you can not be thier agenda and divert them from your focus.
8)Finally,it is your resourcefulness,relations with your highier-ups,results you achieve,integrity and reputation you maintain and distinctiveness shield you from any type of politics.

Look at the Wikepedia definition and go back to first principles on this. Politics is the art of decision making and helps Organisations operate. Not indulging in Politics is an opt out.
Unhappiness at the method of Decision making and being uncomfortable with the Organisational environment means that your own core values are, or have become, incompatible with the core values of the Organisation. The subconscious 'soul' of the organisation is causing your instinctive reactions and feelings to be at variance with the explicit goals and objectives of the organisation.
This then comes down to choice, to be true to yourself either alter your values to synchronise with the Organisational values or leave

Politics should be realized as a natural occurence.
Every organisation needs to be governed and needs administration and control for its internal and external affairs.
As Gill Corkindale mentioned in this excellent article that positive politics is essential - it is not only required to make way to the top but also to control and influence the internal and external affairs of the organisation. Offcourse on the positive side. Perhaps our colleges should include more formal material on office politics to perpare the managers for positive office politics.

Very thought provoking article by Gill and one which, in its simplicity, can help us to try and make a positive contribution in what we do.

Gill is quite right to highlight that politics does not need to be negative, in fact when you ask managers for words that describe organisational politics they usually begin with words like 'backstabbing', 'shadowy', 'destructive', 'old boys' (or girls)network, before they get onto more positive words such as 'influencing', 'gets things done', 'targeted networking', 'leveraging allies'.

For several years we at the Academy for political intelligence have been supplying materials to academic organisations like Cranfield, Roffey Park and the Civil Service College (in addition to independent trainers, consultants and coaches)and they use our 'positive organisational politics' workshops we designed, accompanied by our unique political intelligence profile (pip) and our Executive political intelligence Coaching Profile (EpiC) instruments that help Managers, Employees and Executives to understand their own political preferences, learn how to identify the political preferences of others, and they discover practical tools that can help them overcome the negative aspects of politics by becoming more positively politically influential themselves (see our website www.tafpi.com for details or contact me wayne@tafpi.com for further information).

Over 25,000 managers and employees have been through our positive organisational politics workshops, and several hundred Executives are positively benefiting from our coaching profile, but it is a drop in the ocean. The main reason we quietly keep plugging away is because when someone like Gill raises it as an issue and 'real' people respond because of their experiences of the negative aspects of politics, we know we are on the right track and we know there is a long road ahead of us.

As an aside (as I have only just discovered this website) I think it's really thought provoking, keep up the good work Gill!

Hi

This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone

scott

office politics uk