To be honest. I think that that harmed me and my team quite a bit,
which is why I'm sitting here today telling you that you have to learn to
advocate for yourself.
Well, hey there, welcome to Mak TV,
where we of course believe that the transformation from manager to leader is
such a crucial one and that's because, well, true leaders change lives.
So today's video topic is all about office politics,
how to handle office politics, how to navigate in office politics.
And most importantly,
how to create a team environment that is free from office politics.
Because like who wants to have a team like that? Right.
So before we get into it,
I want to encourage you to hit the subscribe button so that you don't miss out
on the content that I share here every single week. Okay,
so let's get into this by first, defining what I mean by office politics.
So obviously politics is basically using one's position, relationship,
connections to basically, you know,
for your own gain or to get ahead in some sort of way.
Now there's a lot of advice out there and you know,
a lot books and talking to some colleagues or whatnot.
I know that a lot of people believe that you have to kind of like play the game
in order to win.
And like my answer to that is always like to win what?
I thought we were all in this together. Now,
while I don't necessarily agree with the concept of playing the game,
I do realize that it's really important for you to at least know how to spot
it and how to handle it because realistically speaking,
it is out there. In fact, you know,
I've had many conversations with various different people.
So like various colleagues in the past that have given me personally the
feedback that I just was very naive when it came to office politics and
looking back, I definitely was.
And so I want to help you and help you
avoid some of the mistakes that I made by just like being real with you right
now in this video. Um, because the truth of the matter is that, you know,
even though I had this outlook, um, that, you know,
we're all on the same team and we're all just trying to make each other
successful. You know, not everybody has that outlook.
And I think it's actually far wiser for you to have a more realistic view so
that you don't feel so drained and so defeated at the end of the day. Okay.
So that's what I'm going to be talking about.
So first like kind of had a navigate it, and then secondly,
I'm gonna move on to kind of create a team environment that's free of it. Okay.
So here is what I've learned.
Number one is you want to try and truly understand those around you.
So you want to understand where they're coming from. What's important to them,
what their priorities are and how that kind of to you and your team.
Now,
what I do not mean is that you should make this stuff up in your head and try
and figure out what their agenda is.
I think that's actually more part of the problem than not.
What I actually mean is you want to try and build relationships and connections
with your fellow coworkers so that you can not understand them. That way,
when you do understand them,
you can help them to see that you're not in competition with them.
You're just trying to help them be successful. Right.
So I think that's really important trying to understand everybody around you.
Number two is you have to learn to advocate for yourself.
Now I have to admit like I'm going to admit right,
right now, but this was truly a struggle for me. I mean,
considering the fact that I love to talk,
I do not understand why it was so hard for me to advocate for myself,
or why it was so hard for me to speak up about the things that I was doing.
And to be honest, I think that that harmed me and my team quite a bit,
which is why I'm sitting here today telling you that you have to learn to
advocate for yourself. Now, if you're sitting there and you're like, yeah,
that's me.
People steal my work all the time and take credit for it because I never stand
up and say anything. Well, here are two things that you can do.
Number one, shine the spotlight on your team instead.
So if you have a difficult time talking about yourself,
I'm sure that you're the type of person that doesn't probably have a difficult
time talking about other people.
So what you want to do is talk about the accomplishments of your team.
Talk about the wins that your team has had.
Talk about the things that they're doing.
That's really amazing because when you shine the spotlight on them,
you're doing it genuinely, but it's also actually reflecting back on you.
The other thing that you could do is ask for a portion
of time in your one, on one meeting with your boss,
where you can talk about your wins. You know,
it's so easy to go through a one on one meeting with your boss and just like be
talking about everything under the sun,
except for the things that you really did well.
So maybe you can talk to your boss about the fact that you're trying to work on,
you know,
speaking out more and advocating for yourself more and that you would like to
start by doing that within the one-on-one meeting.
And so maybe you guys can like withhold five minutes where you can just talk
about, you know, high level,
some of the big accomplishments that you've had for the week and, and move on.
That way you're getting a little bit more practice at speaking up. And secondly,
your boss is in the know of what you're actually doing. And so, you know,
at a team meeting or whatever the case might be,
your boss can actually advocate on your behalf because they know what's going
on. Number three is to keep the lines of communication open, right?
Because everyone benefits from effective communication. In fact,
it is the antidote to stress.
So one of the ways that you can do this is by addressing issues as soon
as it comes up.
So don't like if you feel as though someone in the office has something against
you,
instead of letting it take root and becoming the gossip of the entire office,
I think it's better that you approach that person and try to work it out between
the two of you and like squash the miscommunication or misunderstanding between
the two of you so that it doesn't like lead to something bigger that it doesn't
need to be. Number four, when they go low, you go high.
It is just not worth it to put your integrity or your personal brand at risk by
playing these stupid games. I mean, and if you do cave and play these games,
and you're basically part of the problem and no longer part of the solution.
You know, it's interesting when Michelle Obama was later explaining that,
that really famous phrase of hers,
she was talking about the fact that going low is very much driven by ego.
Whereas going high is very much driven on purpose and the bigger
picture.
So just taking that for a second and applying it to what we're saying right now.
If you were to focus mainly on the bigger picture and like why
you're there, what you're there to do and the lives that you're going to impact,
then office politics is going to be like something that is just not important
to you at all.
And it'll completely change your perspective as well as the decisions and the
choices that you make in handling it.
So I think that's something really important that you want to keep in mind.
So switching gears here for a second, let's talk about how you,
as leader can create an environment within your team that is free of this,
these type of politics. Now, like so many other things, you know,
you have to take the lead in this when it comes to this, because as we know,
everything rises and falls with the leader.
And so one of the ways that you can do this effectively is actually by defining
your why as a team. You know, our team was far from perfect.
Let me tell you that. Although I do really think they were awesome sauce ,
but we were obviously far from perfect.
But one of the things looking back like when I do a retrospective,
one of the things that I think really helped for us to just stay away from that
garbage was the fact that we always had a clearly defined why.
Like our purpose was always in front of us.
And the reason why I say this is important is because in defining that why
you help each and every team member to see and understand why,
what they do matters.
And it doesn't matter like whether or not you're the janitor or whether or not
your like more of the,
forefront every bit matters in order for us to accomplish our
mission.
And the more that you can communicate that with each team member and the more
that you can, well, the more that you first define it,
and then communicate that with each team member helps each team member to
understand that their role is equally as important, even though it's different.
So I think, like I said,
the first thing you want to do is define your why as a team,
like define your purpose,
clearly define it and then communicate it and communicate it often.
Like you don't want to just communicate at once and like, let it be.
You want to be consistently beating that job, letting them know that, hey,
this is why, you know, what you do is important. This is why you're important.
This is why, what we do as a team is important.
This is something that you want to be solidifying constantly.
The other thing you want to do is have clearly defined values.
When everybody knows what's expected of them,
not just on the tangible work stuff,
but in the way that they do that work and in the way that they treat each other,
well, it forces them to operate at a completely different level. Now,
if you want to go into depth on this or go a little bit deeper on team values
and team culture, I will link, I did a full video on that not too long ago.
So I will like for you here or in the description box below. Then lastly,
the other thing that is extremely important when it comes to creating this
environment is being transparent. You know,
when you don't put together the pieces,
people tend to put the pieces in for themselves, right?
They will try and fill in the blanks with whatever is going on in their brain,
or they'll talk to their team members to try and figure things out.
And that might be completely false. Um,
so in order to not have like a false narrative going around,
it's really important that you're constantly being transparent on the issues and
being transparent about what you know,
so that you're not forcing them to fill in the blanks. So there you have it,
a couple of tips in terms of how to navigate and handle office politics,
as well as how you can create an environment that's free of that nasty office
politics. So I really hope that you found this video to be valuable.
And if you did, don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe.
So you don't miss out on more content that I share here.
So if you are a new manager, if you're preparing for a management role,
I highly suggest or highly encourage you, I should say,
to download my new manager starter kit, it is a downloadable interactive guide.
That's really going to help you figure out what the crucial first steps are in
your role. So I highly suggest that you download that.
I'll put that in the description box below for you.
And if you are currently a manager and you're kind of like all over the place
with all the information that you have,
and you're looking to make practical application,
then I highly suggest that you check out my team success guide,
because it's the perfect tool to help you make. Like I said,
practical information of the knowledge that you have.
So I will put that as well in the description box below.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
I hope that you found this video to be valuable.
I also hope that you have a fantastic rest of the week.
Don't forget to keep smiling and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.