Office politics can make or break your career.

And political mistakes can cost you a promotion, or even a career.

This post will show you common political pitfalls, and how to turn them into political skills that give you career opportunities.

1. Getting Chummy With Falling Stars

Falling stars are former superstars on their way down or out.

Often they know fully well they are on their way down, and guess what happens?

Their former, inaccessible and haughty selves suddenly become friendly and gregarious.
And lower-level employees, star-struck by their big names, are all too happy to get closer to them.

🟢Solution: associate with the risers, not the fallers

Don’t get star-struck. If falling superstars seem friendlier, it’s only because they’re needier.
They’re falling for a reason and may drag you down with them.

If they’ve already been fired, they’re bitter and negative.
You don’t need that.

And keep your friendship with anyone who left on bad terms secret.

2. Taking Sides Too Early

What do the politically clueless do during a power struggle?

They quickly take up arms for one side or the other.
Which, of course, is as smart as betting on red or black -that is, not smart at all-.

Now, to be fair, early supporters can be well-rewarded.
But the demands and the risks usually outweigh the rewards.

🟢 Solution: stay cordial with both sides -or pick later-

Maintain cordial relations with both factions while you publicly focus on doing great work —and whoever wins will see you as an asset.

You can always pick a side later when it’s clearer who will win.

🐍 Mach Move: take sides privately (or take both sides privately) 

🔎 Mad Men example:

Guy 1: Regimes change are always tricky. You wanna stay neutral. Loyalists are always hung
Guy 2: (goes to a partner and shares the news)

In some cases, you may privately take both sides, or ambiguously lead them both to believe you’re on their side.
Then come out in the open when the winner is clear.

3. “Licking Up & Kicking Down”

How many times have you heard that as the “Machiavellian” way of winning at office politics?

Except it’s only true in the worst organizations.

Why it’s not ideal:

• Earning respect from both above and below is better
• As*holes struggle in the long run
• Bad karma: those you kick down may become future leaders

🟢 Solution: shine up, respect down

Really, it’s as simple as this: be honorable in everything you do.

🐍 Mach solution: ‘Shine Up, Praise Down’

Lavish empty praises, make subordinates believe they’re gaining credits for career advancement.
But take all credit from above.

🛡️ Self-defense: distrust bosses who praise within the team, but not outside. Do your own bidding

4. Gossiping (The Politically Dumb Way)

There is power in being “in the know” in the company.

And sharing juicy information shows you’re part of a restricted circle of informational flow.
Says Geoffrey Miller:

If the gossiper usually knows some news that the listener does not know, the gossiper may have privileged access to secrets, or a wider social network, or or friends who themselves have privileged access to social information. That is, the gossiper must have high social status

But avoid:

• Over-gossip
• Gossiper reputation
• Giving without receiving intel
• Gossip with those below you
• Complaints masqueraded as gossip

Example in Power University.

🟢 Solution: share positive intel

• Share strategically
  • To display you’re in the know
  • Share with your level or higher
  • Exchange for their intel
• Share high power, unemotional, with a focus on the bottom line, not the social aspects 🔜
• Gossip in the positive 🦅. Only share good news about people and business
  • Ie.: ‘it makes sense the MD is in good shape: he jogs 5km before office‘
• Say and nod ‘yes’ when others share intel to sub-communicate you’re also in the know

⛏️ How to ask for gossip

High-Power Intel Sharing

Gossiping at the higher levels tends to be different.

As a matter of fact, how you share information is sub-communicates whether you’re executive material or not.
It’s one of the “secret handshakes“, and one of the “executive skills” you better develop.

Executives share their information quick and dry, almost to purposefully show disdain towards gossiping.
Leaders are afraid of being seen as gossipers. They prefer an image of doers who focus on getting stuff done and have no time to waste. Winners know that the power players don’t gossip because they’re the ones being gossiped about.

This is how you show you’re a baller, get the facts, straight to the point, then get to work:

Don: You wanted to see me?
Roger: About 3 weeks ago (pause) I hope you were looking for a job in Califorinia. Because you’re going to need one <— Doesn’t ask where he’s been or what’s happened to display he’s above the small details

Roger Sterling makes it a point to show off that he doesn’t care. All he cares is Don reporting to work and get stuff done.

Notice how the rest of the talk is all straight to the point, all the side stories about gossiping are purposefully left unexplored -or leveraged to display how they are both above gossiping-.

More in Power University.

5. Becoming The Battering Ram

The battering ram leads the charge within a group of complainers or rebels.

He may:

• Talk back to the boss
• File the first complaint
• Demand 5-start hotels execs travels

Taking the first step can be powerful and rewarding but requires careful calculation and execution.
If your first move faces resistance, don’t expect turkey complainers to rescue you.

🟢 Solution: speak up strategically

• Speak up for yourself
• Ensure others will back you up if things go south
• Formally gather their complaints
• If you lead a charge to oust someone, ensure you can step up into their role

6. Objecting Organizational Changes

Large change projects only happen because someone at the top wants them.

If you oppose chance you oppose the company leadership.

🟢 Solution: embrace and champion leadership-led change

As Jack Welch says in his book “Winning“, the executives who promoted the change love to see people embracing it and championing it.

For them, it’s like receiving a compliment with your actions -much more powerful than your words-. Embrace the change, and they will see an ally in you.

7. Keeping Allegiance to Old Bosses

New bosses view old allegiances as threats to their authority.

Mistakes:

• Talking about ‘how it was before’
• Talking up the previous boss
• Name-dropping the previous boss, especially if you’re still in touch
• Demand to honor the previous boss commitments
• …

🔎 Example:

🟢 Solution: The King is Dead, Long Live The NEW King

When a new boss enters the scene, it’s a clean slate and opportunity:

• Welcome the new boss
• Display your allegiance while others are still confused with the change

8. Failing to Decode Corporate-Speak

Some, especially the younger and more naive, truly believe the company PR and values.

And while there is some truth in them, they are far from the whole truth.

The truth is this:

most people will always put themselves and their needs above the needs of the company.
And the other way is even truer.

The company, which represents the interests of the owners, the shareholders, and the C-suite, will always put its interests above those of the employees.

As Dan Rust says in “Workplace Poker“: it’s your output that matters, not you as a human being.

🟢Solution: Power University

And also see:

• Big business manipulation

9. Flirting With Assistants & Secretaries

Pink-slip bait

Many bosses are protective or jealous of their assistants, and the same applies to other female reports.

Many PAs instead see themselves at the service of their boss, rather than the company.
And they report everything they see and hear to their boss to gain brownie points.

🟢 Solution: Keep it professional

If you must do anything, do it ‘silent killer style’.
Details in Power University.

10. Forming Out-Groups With Management 

Think, feel, and sub-communicate you don’t belong up, and you’ll never get there.

From a real-life example I witnessed:

Random guy: (talking about an airplane model the manager bumped) They’re expensive, I think around 3.000 each
High-Level Manager: Wow, that’s more than my weekly salary
First-Level Manager: I need to be careful then, I’m not one of you big paycheck guys <— Rapport break, and ‘I’m different’ self-frame

Learn more on frames here:

• Frame control techniques

🟢 Solution: think, talk, and move like an exec

If it looks like a winner, moves like a winner, and speaks like a winner… He’ll soon be one 

TPM Proverb ✒️

Downplay differences, highlight similarities, and speak like one of them.

11. Over-Promoting Your Ideas Before Having Power

Paraphrasing career strategist Brendan Reid got this right:

Think strange as the CEO, and you’re a visionary.
Think strange as the new hire, and you’re a poor fit

Remember:

Your revolutionary ideas are covert power moves because they sub-communicate the current system is inefficient and the current leaders lacking.

12. Putting All Eggs in The Boss’ Basket 

Yes, you do need to work your boss.

However, you don’t want that to be your only source of power.
As Robert Greene says the “favorite” position stirs envy among your colleagues and isolate you.

Plus, we add, it’s simply just weak and poor self-signaling to be a brown-noser.

🟢 Solution: great relationship, while maintaining honor & power

Build great relationships while you also deliver good work, promote yourself outside the team, and expand your other sources of power.

❗ This is a preview from Power University, where we teach the skills for both work and life success ❗