A little while ago one of my private coaching clients was expressing his frustration about the political activity surrounding his work. This stimulated me to ask my connections about their views on this common feature of organisational life…
What’s your take on this, necessary evil or total waste of your time?
I’d love to hear your thoughts, here are just a few of the hundreds of responses I received:
Politics in Greek means of, for citizens. It is a phenomenon constructed by people, so managing politics has a lot to do with managing people. And time, frustration but also sense of achievement and engagement can result from it. As senior manager level, people need to learn to navigate and use politics at their advantage.
Unfortunately dealing with frustration is a must, trying to turn frustration into motivation to deal with the topic is the challenge. Politics are indeed a necessary evil and sometimes fascinating challange.
One has to learn to manage corporate politics as this is indeed a necessarily evil. More importantly though, one should not let the politics get in the way of company objectives.
An unfortunate fact of life that you have to deal with – I see it as waste since it consumes energy and delivers little if any value.
A very interesting question about politics at work. Having worked in two highly political environments (in particular) that differ enormously – I would say that an excessive bias towards politics within an organisation is both a waste of time and detracts ultimately from pragmatic delivery. Clearly, you need to be able to be politically able within an organisation in order to field and manage political situations and human nature and people’s corporate egos does lead to political situations but an overly politicised environment that does not place delivery at the helm is a waste of valuable time and underwhelming as a culture. I’m with Gary Vaynerchuck when he talks about execution. I don’t think it’s appropriate to prioritise politics over delivery.
Power and politics is a reality of everyday organizational life. The secret to getting things done in my experience is to understand the objectives of peers and align them with your own in a collaborative environment. Developing high trust relationships is also important to developing a collaborative environment, where both parties invest in the relationship to develop win-win outcomes.
Competence and being of value to any organization is the first priority. Politics, isn’t a necessary evil, but it is a natural occurrence. To be unaware is unacceptable. But if you rely on politics in your organization to be successful, or your organization is more concerned on inner workings than its’ customers; that is very telling of the organization you are a part and should give you pause.
I would say it is neither, it’s endemic to human interaction in organizations. It’s the sum of relationships, interactions, and preferences. It is also highly malleable so rather than bemoan the existence of politics, I think the best action is to treat it as a solvable challenge and get to work.
From my perspective I think it can be both. If politics or political manoeuvring are used as tool to explore stakeholder views, persuade, filter and win strong and often necessary support for initiatives that are seen by some as beneficial to the organisation, or counter ones that are felt not to be I’d see this as a necessary evil or even a positive. If ‘the politics’ become purely self-serving with the majority of people in the organisation adopting this type of approach to meeting their own needs then definitely a negative (and a waste of everyone else’s time). Sadly, it is the latter that many of us experience in a majority of cases.
But, what do you think?
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Here are some more reactions:
I think politics is a part of the game. Often times I hear individuals talk about the divides it create with out considering the real benefits. For one even through disagreement their is still some key information, procedures or policies developed. I do not look at politics as a bad thing sometimes it can be frustrating but overall it can present some interesting alternatives. Whether in government or the office it is good to have different opinions. If it is viewed the right way and handled to say the least, could be beneficial for a company or a country. Another side if politics is it helps you get an idea of what individuals may feel. If individuals are complaining about someone getting certain opportunity maybe it is simply because they decided to play the game. Like they say you have to play to win the game.
Thanks for the message. I do believe that politics is a basic component in the life that needs to be managed wisely. Most of people does not choose it but play it as a fact that situations generate.
They’re unavoidable. They do however make you think strategically to get things done internally. The ongoing strategic thinking probably makes people better business people.
Politics always exist. It depends on how much they affect your day to day work, delivery, etc. and get in the way. For me, I just accept it but does drive me crazy when it gets in the way of my delivery.
Politics can be frustrating but advantageous. For example keeping opposing companies close, networking with the opposition etc is all beneficial and necessary. Political savvy and professionalism is a mandatory requirement in business today. However internal politics muddies the waters of integrity, trust and open dialogue. Too often we become frustrated with piers trying to attain favour with executives or senior leaders. This behaviour can undermine key elements of good business and organisational progress. In summary politics is fine if it’s not used as an excuse to display opposing behaviours expected of honest business practice. After all most of today’s public associate the word politics with lies!
There are politics in every organisation and navigating through them is important at all levels. Having said that, it is also the role of leaders to remove as many as possible so they don’t impact their team too much.
I see politics as an essential part of professional life, at present. Look at it this way, as soon as we have more than 2 people on a team, there will be some amount of back end influencing and friendships or enmities outside of work. Companies, at present, give a lot of emphasis to fit for the team and corporate culture, when hiring new employees. Gone are the days and the generation, when one could stay away from office politics, keep a nice guy profile and progress in their careers. It takes a bit of effort and time to be politically savvy and active in the work today, but the returns could be well worth, unless you believe in hopping work every 2-3 years.
I think it is more of a necessary evil. It has its disadvantages as some getting more than fair share but it also has advantages. At times it helps to get things done by establishing the power. Regardless of what one thinks; it has been, it is and it will always be part of any organisations activity (Government, profit or non-profit).
Participation is an unfortunate necessity for survival but the toxicity level is set by the tone from the top. One good aspect of politics is that it can facilitate personal branding and career growth… The evil flip side is that it can be the short path to the door. It all comes down to morals, ethics and culture. If you start to feel like there are bad politics, you need to step back and reflect to understand if it’s you and your perspective or the culture just isn’t a good fit for you.
In my view it is a bit of both really. Good for building coalitions of support in emerging ideas and strategies as well as navigating successfully through uncertainty, change, failing business and complexity. Yet an incredible waste of time in fixed environments with clear purpose and proven performance.
My first reaction would be, it is frustrating, but it is in some organizations necessary re to the way of working. No doubt that politics is necessary. Only if politics takes over and rules the game, in that case it becomes frustrating and a risk : productivity as all sorts of decision can be postponed, delayed or silently taken off the agenda. In men dominating cultures, men start to become very productive in making their proper arrangements. Women are silently excluded. So, in the end nothing good can come out of that. An overload of politics is affecting every progress in companies. and on that believe me yes, I become frustrated. to use it as a lobby, to create consensus and decision.
In life I strive my best to be genuine and utilize my personal talents to the best of my abilities. With that said I do not participate in office politics. I think it is best to applaud others for their success as well! If people self reflect and are honest with themselves they will realize a negative impact on their life if they try to manipulate the office to their benefit at the expense of other coworkers. Hence, office politics are a waste of my time.
Necessary evil in a high performing organisation. Ambition is rarely fulfilled without some degree of ‘game playing’!!
In my opinion they are a both a waste of time and a necessary evil it all comes down to personal preference if you enjoy the politics then it’s all about how you play the game if not its a waste of time but playing the politics game or at least listening in to it from the sidelines is a great way of manouvering yourself into a position which you want to be in through networking etc.
In my opinion, politics needs to be managed – if left unchecked it can derail even the best of intentions and affect ones ability to get stuff done. The key is balance – and staying ahead of the politics … with time one gets the hang of politics around ones role and gets progressively better at anticipating some of the potential pit falls… its almost like one had to keep banking positive political goodwill so that when that time comes when we have to make that large and many times inadvertent “withdrawal” – we have built up a sizeable “saving” that we don’t complete loose trust from our clients…
My views have developed overtime mostly through MBA related reflection and as I’ve got older and more experienced. The political frame is always present and accepting this and managing accordingly takes significant management skill and artistry. Bolman and Deal summarise this far better than i ever could and really bring it to life in their seminal text book – the senior manager in question could do worse than spend some time reading this to understand themselves and those around them. I found it to be one of the most valuable areas of my recent studies. The hard part is then modifying behavior on a regular basis – but being aware is the first step.
The Gautrey Influence Blog
Ever felt overlooked, unheard, or stuck in office politics? You’re not alone. The Gautrey Influence Blog breaks down the real-world strategies behind leadership, influence, and power—giving you the tools to be heard, respected, and successful. Join 35,000+ professionals getting ahead the smart way—subscribe now..
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