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Political Savvy and Office Politics
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| Guest post by: Dr. Maynard Brusman |
Article Overview: How skillful are you at navigating office politics? Are you politically savvy? How is power and influence used where you work? The ability to navigate the political waters and influence others is an essential workplace competency. Politically astute leaders know how to appropriately use power and collaborate with others to achieve business goals. They create a culture of trust and achievement.
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Political Savvy and Office Politics
How skillful are you at navigating office politics? Are you politically savvy? How is power and influence used where you work?
The ability to navigate the political waters and influence others is an essential workplace competency. Politically astute leaders know how to appropriately use power and collaborate with others to achieve business goals. They create a culture of trust and achievement.
Office Politics
It's naive to suggest that office politics are destructive and unethical. If you define politics in such a narrow way, you overlook the value of political awareness and skill. Political savvy, when combined with the right values, can be advantageous to you, your team and your organization.
To become politically savvy and build your power base:
1. Map the political terrain. First, identify all stakeholders - anyone who has an interest in, or who would be affected by, your idea - and how they will react. Some resistance is inevitable. You must anticipate others' reactions, identify allies and resisters, analyze their goals and understand their agendas.
When you face objections, don't go to individuals' bosses or peers to undercut their arguments. Instead, ask them questions to determine their goals. Stakeholders may:
• Share your goal, but not your implementation approach
• Disagree with your goal, but share your approach to change
• Share neither
• Share both
You can identify potential allies and resisters with direct questioning.
2. Get them on your side. Build your coalition - a politically mobilized group committed to implementing your idea because doing so will generate valued benefits.
Creating coalitions is the most critical step in exercising your political competence. How do you win support? You need to be credible. You communicate credibility by letting potential allies and resisters know about your expertise, demonstrating personal integrity, and showing that you have access to important people and information.
3. Make things happen through leverage. You must win others' buy-in by making it clear there's a payoff for supporting your efforts and drawbacks for refusing to join your coalition. Show how implementing your idea will ease stakeholders' workload, increase their visibility within the organization or help them cut departmental costs.
Once you've persuaded others to join your coalition, you've established a base that will legitimize your idea. Coalition members will then use their networks to evangelize for you.
Getting others to make changes and do things your way is risky and fraught with personal peril. Making your organization a better place is often at odds with personal advancement.
You can't do it without power. Just be sure to create power in and with others, as opposed to using power over others.
Are you working in a professional services firm or other organization where executive coaches provide leadership development for high potentials? Does your organization provide executive coaching to help leaders improve their ability to effectively use power to influence others to achieve business goals? Leaders at all levels need to improve their emotional intelligence and social intelligence skills.
One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is "Am politically savvy when it comes to office politics?" Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching for leaders who help their employees to improve their ability to influence others.
Working with a seasoned executive coach and leadership consultant trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-I, CPI 260 and Denison Culture Survey can help you become more politically savvy at work. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become fully engaged with the vision, mission and strategy of your company or law firm.
Article Tags: business goals, office politics, political waters, power and influence
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About the Author: Dr. Maynard Brusman RSS for Dr. Maynard's articles - Visit Dr. Maynard's website Maynard is a consulting psychologist and personal, career and executive coach. He is the president of Working Resources, a leadership consulting, training and transformational coaching firm that develops people and organizations. We specialize in helping companies assess, select, coach, and retain top talent; leadership development; 360-degree feedback; emotional intelligence; competency modeling; succession management; career development and executive coaching. Maynard is an instructor with The College of Executive Coaching. He specializes in Executive Coaching with Attorneys. He is a highly sought-after speaker and workshop leader. He facilitates mission, values, and vision retreats. Maynard has been chosen as an expert to appear on radio and TV, MSNBC, CBS Health Watch and in the Marin Independent Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal and Fast Company magazine The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) has announced two rare "Board Approved" designations for Dr. Maynard Brusman in the specialties of Executive/Leadership Coaching and Trusted Advisor to Attorneys and Law Firms. This signifies that Dr. Maynard Brusman has provided validated evidence from clients of exceptional performance in this area of consulting, has adhered to the ethics pledge of the organization, and has performed at this level for a prolonged period. Dr. Maynard BrusmanConsulting Psychologist and Executive Coach Box 471525 San Francisco, California 94147-1525 Tel: 415-546-1252 E-mail: mbrusman@workingresources.com Web Site: http://www.workingresources.com Subscribe to Working Resources Newsletter: http://www.workingresources.com Visit Maynard's Blog: http://www.workingresourcesblog.com Connect with me on these Social Media sites. http://twitter.com/drbrusman Click here to visit Dr. Maynard's website Happy Workers Are Productive Employees Truth or Fiction Future Focus What People Want from Leaders How to Be a Better Boss Stress in America How the Generations Manage Stress Managing Complexity A Leadership Checklist |
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