Secrets to Winning at Office Politics is a career guide book instructing readers on the intricacies of office politics, career strategies, and effective self-promotion for career advancement.
Takeaways
- Politics are key to success: Stop using “playing politics” as a pejorative and get good at it
- Make your boss a priority: He has a major impact on your life and career. How to manage your boss ↗
- Make friends, not enemies
Notes
About the Author:
Marie G. McIntyre is a carer coach specializing in career advancement and success, and she runs a consulting service for people seeking advice.
Her approach is that politics are nothing “bad”, but a normal aspect of work and life. A normal aspect, as well as a crucial one for your career goals.
The Organizational Facts of Life
Marie says that the sooner you accept the following realities, the faster you will go down the road of positive realism in the workplace (and in life):
- Organizations are not democracies
- Some people have more power than others
- Virtually all decisions are subjective
- Your boss has control over much of your life
- Fairness is an impossible goal.
Forget Fairness: Look for Leverage
The author says fairness doesn’t exist and you should look for leverage instead.
She points at a few key levers for leverage, including:
- Power of results
Strong political power boosts your results and strong results boost your political power.
Get competent ↗.
- Power of knowledge
When you become the repository of sought-after information and expertise your power increases exponentially.
- The Power of Attitude
Friendly, helpful, and cooperative. The type people want to work with.
- The Power of Friends
Here it is for you, simply and life-changing: make friends, not enemies.
Friends and allies increase your leverage, fights, and enemies decrease it.
- The Power of Empathy
When you can make yourself a trusted person who can listen to people, keep secrets, and possibly dispense some good wisdom you will develop a strong network of trusted confidantes.
- The Power of Network
Your network is the total sum of the people you can call for support, help, or information. As someone said, your network is your net worth. Also read: Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi.
Political Games
The author outlines a few typical “political games” people tend to stick with, including:
- Suck-Up Players
Their strategy is to have the best possible relationship with the boss by kissing up to him, pampering him, and always agreeing with him.
It’s often not a good strategy as many managers are not looking for sycophants and these games often come across as spineless.
- Control Players
They resist what others are telling them to do, either because they are dominators and enjoy telling others what to do, or because they naturally resist and resent outside influence.
Too much control game often degenerates into useless power struggles
- Shunning Players
They isolate and ostracize people from their group for being different or for not conforming to the rules.
- Put-Down Players
They are rude to others so that they can feel better about themselves.
- Scapegoat Players
They always offload the blame to someone else. Their colleague, the customer, and the other department.
Also, read:
- Archetypes of political players, and how to deal with them
The 9 Archetypes of Office Politics Players (W/ Real Examples)
How People Commit Political Suicide
Marie McIntyre says there are a few patterns with which people kill their own chances in the workplace.
Some of them are:
- Becoming the problem
When you complain a lot, adopt an adversarial attitude, or constantly create problems, then you are only on your superior’s map in connection to a problem.
And when that happens too often, then you become “the problem”.
And corporate life tends to be short for people who become the problem.
- Negative self-talk
When you develop negative self-talk and the connected victim mentality, it’s easy to start seeing the environment as toxic and your colleagues and bosses as unfair enemies.
Then you begin to treat them accordingly and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that leads to your demise.
Instead, break the negative self-talk and
- Foolish reaction to change
The author says that you can either embrace change, look for another place to work, or be a pain in the butt and possibly become the problem. The choice is yours.
Also, read:
Office Politics Skills for Success: Avoid These 12 Career-Killing Mistakes
Don’t Stay Stuck In Child Role
The author says that power issues often grow out of the parent and child role that people take in relation to others -instead of the adult role that we should all take-.
Upward relationships become difficult for those who see the manager as a parent because they will either react rebelliously or be submissive and overly compliant.
The author writes:
Rebellious employees tend to be oppositional and anti-authoritarian, just like two-year-old and teenagers.
Taking the child role with colleagues results in one of the following:
- Competitive child who needs to win
- Self-sufficient child who plays alone
- Bully who pushes people around
My Note: Great observation
Great explanation of the child’s role in terms of over-compliance and rebellion.
This is also a great insight from the transactional analysis.
But the lateral relationship with colleagues seemed quite a stretch and it didn’t convince me fully.
Parent & Child Managers
Parental managers come in two flavors:
- Dominating: overuse direct authority with orders and harsh reprimands. Employees respect authority but usually don’t like tyrants.
- Smothering: see themselves as attentive and scrupulous, but employees usually see them as annoying micro-managers
Child managers instead are afraid of managing people because they are afraid of being too domineering and not being liked.
Real-Life Applications
- Don’t Let Politics Distract You From Results, But…
Don’t allow politics to suck all your energies away from your deliverables. People saying “it’s who you know, not what you do” are rarely powerful and accomplished. Your results are one of your best and strongest tools for political power.
- … Do Learn Politics
However, politics can make your life and your ascension much easier -or quite impossible-. Learn to play the political game.
- Read & Adapt to People
Learning to recognize and deal with different people and personalities is one of the most important skills you can learn to increase your political power.
- Dump Your Complaining Friends
If you spend too much time with people who complain about work, make no mistake: that’s no support group. That’s a bitching club that will keep you stuck, unhappy, and politically powerless.
CONS
- Could Have Been Briefer
Some concepts repeat a few times and I feel the book could have been condensed a bit.
- Sociopath Label
The sociopath label is applied a bit too freely.
- Freudian Labels
I loved some explanations of power issues in terms of Freudian terms. However, as it’s often the cause of Freudian theories, it can lead to the over-explanation of every issue in terms of childhood experiences.
Review
“Secrets to Winning at Office Politics” provides a valuable overview of common political mistakes and career strategies.
But this is not The 48 Laws of Power applied to work, and that’s also its strength!
The author skips many of the power players to focus on general power principles and the core fundamentals of what matters to get ahead: make friends instead of enemies, and deliver great work.
If you’re interested in applied strategies for career success, check our training program Power University.
