Have you ever thought that navigating organizational politics is kind of like playing a high stakes game of chess?
You know, where you're trying to out-maneuver your opponents, trying
to understand what their next moves are, and you're trying to, and you
know that whatever move you make is gonna have consequences and it
kind of feels like I need to out move, maneuver them and predict what
they're doing.
Well, if that's you, a little while back I watched a video, I watched
a movie called The Queen's Gambit, and this was a fictional character,
Beth Harmon.
And he, she was rising the ranks and becoming a chess champion and was
very, very inspiring to see how she developed her own strategy.
She remained her authenticity as well, and she became a chess
champion.
Well, I wanna share with you that when it comes to navigating
organizational politics, you can still develop your own strategy while
remaining authentic.
So in this episode, one I wanna share with you are five key principles
on how you can create this winning strategy.
Principle number one, evaluate the bigger picture.
Now, have you ever thought to yourself, politics is so dirty or maybe
thought that said in the same sentence, dirty politics, messy
politics.
Oh, I wanna red get away from that red tape.
Now, politics is often associated with drama.
It's associated with finger pointing and blaming.
And that's really quite unfortunate because at the essence of it,
politics is not about that.
If you really look back into the history of politics, the word
politics has an etymology that takes back to the early 15 hundreds.
The core of politics is all about governance.
It is about how do we need to be responsible to distribute power and
authority so that we can maintain effective governance?
That's what politics really is.
The only reason why it feels dirty is because individuals do bring
drama to it.
There is an emotional charge sometimes, and the disagreements and how
we manage them also can bring on a lot of hard feelings, and that's
the only reason why it feels dirty.
But it's important to be able to understand the essence of what
politics is and what it isn't.
And that way you can begin to change your relationship with politics.
And when you're, once your relationship with politics changes, you can
start to build your effective strategy, right?
So for this first step, the first principle is on evaluating the
bigger picture, the bigger picture of your organization, the bigger
picture of how it fits in the industry.
Because when you work for a company, no matter what size of the
company, right, you can have startups, you can have mid-size, you can
have matrix organizations with footprints and departments around the
world.
So no matter how big or small the organization is, every company comes
with an org chart, right?
The org chart is the formal document that's passed around all
individuals coming into it.
They can see the org chart, and the org chart shows who reports to
whom.
When you read it from top down an org chart, it's like who reports to
whom?
Who is going to be their, who is boss, who is going be whose manager,
and so on.
And you can see also within departments who reports to whom and intra
departmentally, you can see who reports to whom.
Now, the org chart is the formal document.
However, we all understand having been in the corporate world, having
worked for a company or two, we all understand that sometimes the org
chart is not how work really gets done, right?
There is a hidden org chart, and that's how the work really gets done,
which means people form alliances with each other.
There are friends that aren't even direct reports with each other.
There is a little bit of personal involvement there, friends and
history that goes back and different alliances and cliques that get
formed.
And then you have the hidden org chart.
So then what is this?
Why is this important?
Because the bigger picture isn't just about the formal org chart.
It is actually more important than understanding how power is really
distributed in accordance to the hidden org chart.
So when you begin to map it out in your organization, you begin to see
the bigger picture and you begin to see the influence networks that
are at play.
And that is how the work really gets done.
So that is the first principle, is to really evaluate the bigger
picture.
Principle number two, engage in relationships.
We all know that relationships are important and we understand that it
is important to expand your network networking.
Your net worth is your net.
And we all all hear about these things, but what does it truly mean to
build a network?
What does it truly mean to engage in networking?
And what does it truly mean to invest in your relationships?
One of the most important things, and the key principles that I'm
gonna share with you here is that when it comes to engaging in your
relationships, is to understand the motivations behind their actions.
Because oftentimes you come in with it, and even if after you have
uncovered the influence network, the hidden org chart I talked about
earlier, it is still, you're gonna come across individuals who do hold
power and authority within your organization, but they're gonna be
motivated by very different things compared to you.
They're gonna make decisions that you may not agree with.
They're gonna have methodologies, they're gonna have perspectives and
opinions that might shock you.
So all of these things are a reality, but it's important to
understand, well, why do people do what they do?
Why do they react that way?
Why did they make such a decision and why didn't they do something
else?
Why didn't they agree with this?
So this is understanding why do people do what they do, the
motivations behind their perspectives, their actions, and their
behaviors.
And this is why.
And this is truly what it means to engage in relationships.
And going back to our friend Beth Harmon in the Queen's gambit, if you
remember, if you've ever watched that movie, she spent a lot of time
before she became a chess champion, she spent a lot of time
understanding her opponents understanding why they made certain moves,
understanding their thought patterns, their mindset behind their
actions.
And you too in the organizational workplace, is for you to understand
what drives people, what are their priorities?
In other words, what are their hierarchy values?
And when you understand these things, that's one of the most
influential things you can do for yourself and for other people.
But remember, in order for you to under identify what other another
person's top priorities are in order for you to identify what somebody
else's values hierarchy is, it will be important for you to understand
that for yourself once you've gone through the personal development
journey yourself.
Now you can be truly present among someone else, someone who is an
authority or in a power position that you want to develop meaningful
relationships with, and you can be able to do the same thing with them
and truly engage in that relationship.
And you will know that you are engaging relationships effectively when
you and your relationship partner truly have a meaningful and
equitable relationship, which means that no matter what their
positional authority is, no matter if they are to a degrees higher
than you in rank, that's what I meant by positional authority, that no
matter what their positional authority is, that you can sit across and
look across from the table to them, eye to eye, and that they are your
equals.
And that's how you know that you have built and maintain effective,
meaningful, and equitable relationships.
Now we're on to principle number three.
And principle number three is to exude diplomacy.
Diplomacy.
So let's talk about what do I mean by diplomacy?
Diplomacy is nothing more than to be able to exude prudence when you
are dealing with people and communicating with people who are
different from you.
So let's talk about what do I mean by people who are different?
I mean that people who have different opinions from you, different
perspectives on how they see situations and circumstances, different
upbringings and different cultural backgrounds depending on where they
grew up and where they spent the most time, and what part of the
geographic part of the world, differences in terms of educational
background differences in terms of their expertise that they bring to
the table, differences in terms of their methodology and how they
would approach problem solving and how they would approach
relationships and how they do approach building trust among people and
how they approach their methodology and how they approach answering to
authority and directions from above.
So all of these things are differences, and you would've guessed by
now that everybody's gonna be different from you.
No two people are going to be the same exact same on these differences
that I have just listed.
So it would be of utmost importance if you want to navigate politics
successfully in your organization.
The winning strategy does involve prudence on how to navigate these
differences.
So if you're listening to this and you realize that not only do you
work in a multicultural organization, but an organization where people
truly are diverse and they're not just diverse on their appearances,
but they're diverse in so many different dynamics within each
individual, and you're realizing that you do want to rise up the
ranks, you do want to lead effectively, and you do wanna make your
most meaningful contribution, but the politics are standing in the
way, the differences are standing in the way, and you are serious
about learning how to navigate that.
If that is you, then I invite you to work with me.
Below in the description, there is a link to book a call and to have a
conversation with myself or a member of my team to really talk about
how specifically are we gonna help you in your situation?
And regardless of what your challenges are so far, the drama, the
challenges, the conflicts, the negotiation, no matter what your
challenges are, I've seen it and I've helped others overcome it.
So if you're serious about learning how to communicate better,
learning how to develop that diplomacy, learning how to develop that
prudence as well and create win-win scenarios while navigating
politics effectively, then book a call with me and I look forward to
working with you on the inside.
Principle number four on navigating organizational politics is to
encourage win-win situations.
So win-win situation, we hear this all the time, we know what win-win
situation is, and for to be clarity here, to establish some clarity
here, win-win sales situation is how do we create a win for other
people and a win for myself so that there is a sustainable fair
exchange.
So instead of focusing predominantly on my own victories, what would
be success for me?
How do I wanna see this going?
What would make me happy is about, okay, I do want those things, but
how do I also create that in return for someone else?
What does success look like for them?
And what would make them happy?
What is a satisfactory outcome for them is seeking that understanding
and creating that win-win scenario.
Because when it comes to navigating organizational politics, I
mentioned earlier that no two people are going to have the same
differences.
They're not gonna have the same methodologies, upbringings,
educational backgrounds, expertise and so on.
They're not gonna have the same thing, but more importantly, they're
not gonna have the same priorities, they're not gonna have the same
perspectives when they look at situations and events and
circumstances, and they're definitely not gonna have the same degree
and same emphasis on what is considered important.
So because of these variations in values and hierarchies of values,
you're gonna have two people coming together and saying, well, that's
not the top priority, top priority right now.
I have my priorities straight, this is what we need to focus on, this
is what we should be doing, which would be very different from your
perspective and how you would prioritize the situation and so on.
So this is very important to understand that there's no requirement
for agreement.
A lot of times when you have, when you have people navigating
organization politics, they come in and they say something like, let's
just agree, or they say something like, let's find a compromise.
Or they say something like, let's create some alignment here.
Now, can you see how everything that I have shared with you today in
this episode is when you hear these things, when someone, a listener
hears these things, agreement, alignment, compromise, the first thing
that it does is it creates internal objections.
Like, I can't compromise on this, this is really important to me, or
that that's as unacceptable.
How can we align here when these things are non-negotiables and
everybody's thinking the same thing?
And then it might seem to you as you're listening to this, you might
be thinking, well then how could we ever navigate organizational
politics?
Well, it's not about changing somebody, it's not about coming to
agreement because wouldn't you agree that certain situations, like
every situation, actually there's no agreement that's going to be a
hundred percent unanimous.
And this is even more emphasized in the industries like healthcare and
healthcare for example, and finances, financial industries.
There's no consensus, there's no such a thing as, uh, complete around
the room all across the board that everyone unanimously agrees with
what we're gonna do moving forward.
We can't have consensus like this.
So understand that every individual is dedicated to the fulfillment of
what they feel is most important.
So creating a win-win situation would be a way to engage in
relationships, which is a principle I shared with you earlier, to
create that sustainable fair exchange and to more importantly, to help
your listeners and to help your team members to feel appreciated and
understood from for their perspectives as well, right?
So this is key.
How do you encourage these win-win relationships?
Principle number five to navigating organizational politics is to
evaluate the landscape.
The landscape is continuously changing.
And I mean the political landscape in your organization, no matter how
big or how small your organization is, the political landscape does
not stay the same, and it did not stay the same in the history of your
organization as well.
So when it comes to navigating and understanding how the political
landscape changes, there are key events that cause a shift in
political landscape.
Now, political landscapes are changing.
Whenever you see that there is a reorganization, a restructuring, a
change in the way leadership is carried out, those things will
necessarily create a shift in the political landscape.
But I wanna share with you some key things that happen along a
business journey that causes those things to be required, right?
That what does it, what happens in a company, in a business, in a
company, in order for the requirement to have restructuring and to
have reorganization and therefore a change in politics, right?
So the first thing that could happen is that there is an introduction
of a new business or a new sister business or a new product within the
business that needs to gain traction that can cause restructuring and
therefore a change in political landscape.
Another thing is if there is a imminent problem, a new issue or a
problem that's coming down the pipeline, and this problem can have a
serious effect on the fiscal growth of the of the business, that
creates a change in landscape.
Another thing is that if the business or a particular arm or a product
line in the business is in danger of imminent failure, that can
change, that will change the political landscape.
Another thing is also if there is rapid business growth, a lot of
business growth that demands a certain type of leadership, that will
change the political landscape as well.
So all of these scenarios that I just outlined with you necessarily
does change the political landscape and therefore, at each of those
situations and circumstances within business or product line within
the business will demand a different type of leadership.
So what can you do?
It will be important, it would be wise for you to understand and stay
updated and afloat and observing when these situations are arising,
having a pulse on the movement of the business towards growth or
problems or imminent failure to be have a pulse on those things and to
be able to know what's going on, and therefore to be able to identify
what stage of political landscape shifting are we in?
And in that case, and that's from that sense of awareness of your
circumstances, awareness of your surroundings, you can be prepared to
create that win-win scenario to engage in relationships, to understand
the big picture and everything that I shared with you before.
Now, just as though you were playing a very high stakes game of chess,
be able to navigate organizational politics does require a keen
observation.
It requires strategic thinking.
It requires being able to see the big picture, those skill sets and
adaptability just as with chess and organiz and navigating
organizational politics.
But by applying these five key principles that I shared with you today
and the steps involved in applying those principles right down to
practicality and implementation, you can create that winning strategy
and you can position yourself as a leader in your industry and within
your company and the business function that you represent.
So now, a while ago, a while back, I created a different episode, and
in that episode I talked about diplomatic communications, right?
Because one of the principles that I shared here was in being able to
engage in relationships, being able to have diplomatic conversations
with people who are different from you in multiple different ways,
that they're different from you.
So if you are serious about developing this skillset because you can
see and you've experienced the importance of being able to navigate
politics, then the video that I talk about, that episode about
communicating diplomatically, that episode is coming right up next.
I'll see you there.