Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success [NOOK Book]

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Navigating Smooth and Rough Political Waters

This book is a guide for "navigating the aggravating." Just as ancient mariners used the North Star as a directional marker as they sailed, you hopefully have personal North Star goals that motivate you and keep you on course as you journey through political waters:

• Influence on the Job. You want to sell your ideas and receive credit and recognition -- for yourself and your team.
• Business Impact. Of course, you know you're not paid for ideas, don't you? You're paid for ideas that are implemented and succeed -- achieving organizational impact. We all seek the fulfillment of seeing our ideas and results make a positive difference for our company.
• Career Growth. It's also honorable to want career advancement, promotions, financial reward, and prestige, as long as you don't sell your soul getting them.

The guilt-free good news is that your personal North Star goals also support your company's North Star goals. Your organization needs your good ideas to see the light of day, hopes you can enhance company performance, and wants you to remain a fully engaged part of its future leadership bench strength. It would be counterproductive to your company to allow destructive politics to lead to attrition.

Yet every day, politics can buffet you about. Unless a Star Trek captain has beamed you up to a utopian planet, you probably experience these political dangers:

• Stormy, Changing Weather. This symbolizes the constantly shifting winds of change -- company turbulence, reorganizations, downsizing, new bosses, being a new boss, new initiatives and about-face top management agendas -- all demanding careful navigation through precarious political waters. You need to predict the weather and rechart your course.
• Lightning Bolts. Political jolts include competing agendas, priorities, policies, and programs that strike down your ideas. Besides protecting your ideas, you also pray you won't also be hit by the lightning. You need to protect yourself from political surprises.
• Icebergs. You can hit unforeseen obstacles, such as frozen perceptions about you or your function. You have a corporate reputation -- good or bad "corporate buzz." People sometimes imprison you in a perception based upon a past incident and refuse to update their image even though you've changed. We'll scan the political horizon for these obsolete or accurate icebergs so you can melt them, reshape them, or steer around them.
• Sharks. Yes, Jaws isn't just a scary Steven Spielberg movie. There are predatory people with self-serving agendas. Some take credit for ideas, block good ideas, or sabotage you for personal gain. This seamy side of company life happens, especially in times of fear, economic threat, rampant competition, or the corporate musical chairs of changing jobs.

Political Tip-Offs from Derailed Executives

Executive coaching is sweeping corporate America, but let's be crystal clear about two different emphases within this movement. In progressive companies that prize professional development, coaching is a perk -- an exciting adventure to help talented, high-potential people grow and advance. In physical health, you don't have to be sick to get even healthier. Likewise, you don't have to be in trouble to receive developmental executive coaching.

Other executive coaching is required for "fix-it" or even "fix it or else" scenarios. We've worked with many executives who'd hit a ceiling or were on the way out, and our coaching services were the last resort. For years, career-stalled clients were overly political -- abrasive managers turning people off through alienating, abusive treatment as they clawed their way to the top. Their lack of people skills and disrespectful behavior were now too visible to be ignored.

Now, we're increasingly asked to help under political people who treat others with care and respect, but whose careers are endangered due to little organizational impact. These intelligent, technically capable, company-loyal, high-integrity individuals risk being derailed from their career paths. Some are clueless about politics or refuse to enter the political arena, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Naïve about politics, they lack the organizational savvy and influence to survive in today's fast-paced, high-pressure, downsizing organizations.

The things people say in executive coaching are clues that they have underestimated the role of politics or misread the political climate. How many of the following signals have you experienced, heard about, or seen? The goal of identifying these political tip-offs is to remove any political blinders so that you embrace politics as a fact of organizational life, and to run a reality check.

"I'm Being Underestimated." People bump up against a narrow view of their expertise, talents, potential, or value. They feel pigeonholed or in dead-end positions instead of valued for their broader, strategic strengths. "I just feel like they don't get it. They view me in a very marginalized box instead of treating me like a valued business partner," said one manager. Often, technical or staff people feel like company gofers instead of respected consultants.

"I Got Passed Over." These people are overlooked for promotions -- again and again. Their careers plateau or they hit the glass ceiling that many women executives find in male-dominated cultures. There's a corporate jockeying for position and someone else less qualified gets the job nod. The individuals in coaching can't figure out for themselves the hidden success factors. Maybe it's competence. "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," as Freud observed, but other times it's not. Sometimes political factors are at work, factors you've ignored until now.

"I Was a Victim of Downsizing." Some people sigh, "I wish I had a job to complain about!" They are shocked victims of a merger, reorganization, downsizing, or cost cutting. Why is it that when the corporate dust settles, some people always seem to land on their feet while others get a severance package? We know a president of a large beverage conglomerate who lost his job a week after receiving the second-highest performance review in company history! Every time someone is let go, it's not necessarily because of political dynamics, but often that plays a critical role in the "Why me?" career speed bump.

"I'm Not Sure of the Scorecard." Sure, there are written criteria for evaluation and clear job objectives. But often people report a gnawing sense of not being tapped into what really matters, a vague uneasiness that they're walking on thin ice. People work hard, so this trial-and-error guessing game about the true success equation is unsettling. The company talks about fairness and meritocracy -- it doesn't matter what you look like or whom you know. But some clients helplessly complain, "Bull! The reasons people win and lose are more subjective and I can't figure them out." When managers move higher in their organizations, the scorecard measurement criteria change, just as when a minor league baseball player is called up to the majors. When rising stars are promoted, they're often sobered to learn they've entered a new ball game where the unwritten, unspoken rules may be unclear.

"I'm Not Getting Credit." These people initiated or contributed to a project, but aren't recognized for their efforts or results. Their ideas were successful, but at the end of the day, someone else gets more credit. At an awards ceremony or meeting, others get the kudos and the limelight. Despite being central to achieving targets or forging innovation, they miss out on the rewards.

"I'm Not Able to Sell My Ideas." Often, the person wistfully moans he couldn't get his idea off the ground in the first place. He has ideas that will benefit the company, but is thwarted. He isn't sought out for advice or input, and people don't answer his calls. Sometimes it's a clear "No," but other times the rejection is dragged out through a year of withheld resources. Then at performance review time, he's asked, "So, Jerry, what have you accomplished this year?"

"I've Hurt My Career by Speaking Out." There may not be a manager who doesn't say something like "I want you to know that I encourage healthy conflict. If I'm full of beans on something, don't pull your punch." Phrases like Challenge Conventional Wisdom may be printed on laminated posters, but there's a danger in blindly accepting these proclamations as gospel.

The punitive reaction may leak out subtly -- awkward silences at a meeting as others watch in hushed amazement, a conveniently forgotten invitation to a key strategic meeting, or an appraisal rating that's lower than anticipated. Other times, the retribution explodes in glaring ways -- the person is ostracized or fired on trumped-up claims of cost constraints. Are we advising you to dummy up and become a corporate Stepford wife -- a conforming, compliant, silent zombie? No, but we are suggesting you learn political judgment to avoid these pitfalls.

"I'm Not a Part of Key Networks." These people feel like outsiders without advocates. Do you realize that most of the time when people talk about your career, you are not in the room? We call these unofficial interactions that impact your advancement "impromptu career discussions." Someone makes an offhand comment about you like "Will lacks fire in the belly." "Danielle is really not a team player." "Jamal doesn't have a sense of urgency." "Hank's kind of an empire builder, don't you think?" "Donna's OK, but she lacks intensity. Anyway, what were we talking about?"

That's how quickly career decisions are made about you when you're not around! The off-the-cuff trash talker is often astute enough to use subjective, inferential descriptors that are clear as fog. These labels can't be proven or argued, but they have a way of following you around. We need someone to say, "That really isn't how he is," or, "You have the wrong version of the story," or, "That was three years ago and he's changed a lot." We need a network of allies to let us in on the dirt and to look out for us in informal ways, so we're not at a disadvantage during these impromptu career discussions.

"I Was Sabotaged and I Didn't See It Coming." When this happens, you never forget it. It's like a kick in the stomach. Someone goes after you -- often behind your back. This politics tip-off is so distasteful yet critical that it deserves a second look under a magnifying glass.

The Many Faces of Sabotage

In Oliver Stone's chilling Wall Street, Gordon Gekko (fashioned after real-life financier Ivan Boesky) shamelessly announces, "Greed...is good. Greed is right. Greed works." Many families get along fine until somebody dies. The Journal of Social Psychology reports that 45 percent of middle-class families argue about the estate. If brothers and sisters bring in the lawyers over $50,000, imagine what relative strangers may do when millions are at stake in stock options, golden parachutes, and fat salaries. Now mix greed with the drug of power and sprinkle in a dash of financial fears, and you have a recipe for political sabotage. There are many faces of sabotage -- many types of political lightning that can strike in organizations. The more that corporate leaders allow such behavior, the more toxic the political climate becomes and the greater the erosion of the bottom line.

Behind-the-Scenes Sabotage

Someone indirectly hurts you behind closed doors, often so deftly that you're not even aware it's happening.

Gossip, Rumors, and Bad-Mouthing. Predators secretly spread gossip or trash-talk about you, your results, or your actions. If you're in the way of their ambition, they label you "clueless" or "not fitting the company mold." Too clever to go after you on competence, they use an ambiguous label. If confronted, they claim their words were misinterpreted or taken out of context. Any empty apology is too late because the damage has been done.

Planting Seeds of Doubt. Behind closed doors they subtly block you from receiving a key high-visibility assignment -- through a raised eyebrow, a discouraging word whispered in someone's ear, or innocently asking, "Wouldn't Helen be better qualified?" This is always done under the guise of doing what's best for the organization.

Marginalizing. This is a comment that limits you, such as "Barry is such a good salesperson we need his numbers." Barry's now blocked from the headquarters executive vice president job in sales management. Ever had a letter of recommendation that was so bland, so vanilla, that it was actually a nonendorsement? You felt like saying, "Thanks for nothing!"

Out-of-the-Loop Sabotage

Indirect sabotage impedes your power or access to resources, slowing down your contributions or eroding your organizational impact.

Withholding Information. Information is power, so if you're out of the loop, your impact shrinks. A fellow money market sales rep knows something about your client's past financial investment strategies but keeps this under wraps. He may be busy or lazy. Or he may be a quiet saboteur trying to stay on top of monthly sales rankings. Maybe you're shut out of a meeting, watching the conference room door close as you're given a polite smile. You know that the meeting will hold the information that makes attendees the "in crowd."

Cutting Physical Resources, Head Count, or Budget. Obstructing routes to essential resources is one way a superior can set you up to fail. It's easy to hide behind a companywide scarcity mind-set, but what if more favored teams don't have to get by with as few resources as you do?

Assignment to Corporate Siberia. A rising star or veteran manager beloved by many is banished from headquarters to a low-visibility job -- political quarantine. This scarlet-letter-tainted exile may be geographical or functional. Organizations all have less glamorous places to be trapped. To muffle the voice of an engineer who disagrees with a pet project, an ambitious but threatened midmanager calls in his chits and pulls strings to get the thorn-in-the-side technician reassigned and branded as an untouchable.

Butt-of-the-Joke Humor. Mean-spirited humor cuts deep, eroding your confidence. A saboteur makes a slur that becomes company lore and brands you as a target. Behind your back, the joke is blown out of proportion and trickles throughout the organization, devastating your career. We knew a chief operating officer on track to be the CEO. He had one bad habit -- saying "you know" during his presentations. One of his peers influenced several in the audience to make tally marks every time he said "you know." They shared their tick-mark numbers over drinks as he lost credibility and became an outsider.

Out-in-the-Open Sabotage

These next tactics are overt. You know they're happening since they usually happen in meetings. At least these ploys are easier to predict, spot, counter, and defuse through this book's countertactics.

Sarcasm and Insults. This most blatant form of sabotage, open name-calling and disrespect, can come from a bullying boss with trademark abusiveness, a cunning direct report who fancies your job, or an unprofessional colleague. Sarcasm is often sideways anger, so the cutting comment may signal resentment about a valid beef with you. But it's sabotage if there's a pattern, and you need to dance carefully to avoid a blow to your credibility and power base.

Fixing Blame. Your image can shrivel if you're the team whipping post or brunt of garden-variety blame by peers. Sometimes a blamer is negative and vilifies everyone. Other times, a saboteur calculates a personal attack because he is covering his tracks and you stand in his way. He may even target you as the preplanned scapegoat at the start of a risky project in case it blows up.

Interrupting, Steamrolling, or Freezing Out. These manipulative tactics are less abrasive, but still discount you and block your influence. The saboteur dominates the discussion so you can't get in a word edgewise. Sometimes she's just a blundering clod at group process skills or her passion for her ideas gets out of control, but other times the lack of a platform for expressing yourself is the product of a slicker, more engineered effort.

Condescending or Patronizing. The sabotage is so sweet you can't feel the knife go in, but the wound inflicts credibility shred-ability! Someone says, "Teresa, you're new, so you'd have no way of knowing, but our norm for customer visitations to headquarters is (blah, blah)..." His voice tone takes on a softer, mock-protective air, like a patient parent helping a faltering child. The saboteur winks at others with a syrupy smile that sends the true message -- you're not acclimated or part of the inner circle. You confront him later to find feigned surprise or hurt since he was "only trying to help you."

Testing, Tripping Up, or Exposing. A "friend" ambushes you by publicly asking for help on a thankless, draining task so that you look uncooperative if you decline. He asks you a question to trip you up. You're emotionally loaded on an issue, so he raises the raw-nerve topic to trigger you. A teammate "helps" you with faulty data, equipment, or manpower. He gives you enough rope to hang yourself with a new project he knows you aren't ready to tackle. A peer is conveniently too swamped to help you meet a deadline or keeps mum instead of pointing out a mistake you made.

Are You Cheered Up Yet?

If these accounts of sabotage don't exactly make for nice, light, mellow airplane reading, here are some reassurances about some common reactions to learning these political tip-offs.

• "Isn't This a Cynical View of Human Nature?" The previous accounts admittedly portray a crass view of company life. But we're not actually cynical people. We don't light up a room just by leaving it! Our goal isn't for you to distrust everyone or read negative motives into every situation. It's just that we don't want you to be naÏve. Savvy is the operative word here. We want to protect you for the future through awareness, so that you're not at a disadvantage.
• "I'm Not into Politics, but Sometimes I Sabotage, Too." Overly political power hoarders are the usual practitioners, but under political people may also commit sabotage out of revenge or desperation. Victim-generated sabotage is still counterproductive. Please don't beat yourself up if you've sabotaged others. Even if your mom was a travel agent for guilt trips, we invite you to drop the guilt and just let awareness of your own sabotage lead you to avoid perpetuating the problem.
• "Do I Have to Become Manipulative?" Nothing we recommend for entering the arena of organizational politics requires sacrificing your ethical standards. You can choose noble ends to pursue and moral means to reach them. You can hold on to your self-respect as you gain influence and power. That's what we mean by high-integrity political tactics.

A few years ago we realized, "Why wait until people are derailed and need remedial executive coaching to better navigate politics? Let's teach people to be savvy before they run into problems." So we harvested our street-smart concepts for demystifying politics and funneled them into an Organizational Savvy workshop. Participants appreciate the straight talk about a typically taboo topic, welcome their company-endorsed open forum to validate their feelings, and can immediately implement our objective approach to a normally nebulous issue. Now, through this book, which also includes a companywide leadership focus, we'll empower you with nonmanipulative tactics for elevating politics from a dirty word to a character virtue and company asset. The first step is to understand the political styles and mind-sets of different people.

Copyright © 2004 by Rick Brandon, Ph.D., and Martin Seldman, Ph.D.