Welcome to the Stop Sabotaging Your Success podcast, episode thirty. I’m your host, Cindy Esliger. This is the podcast focusing on what we can do today to take control of our careers and overcome the inevitable barriers to success that we encounter along the way. Research shows that women with high levels of political skill are more likely to achieve career progression in male-dominated organizations.

It’s time to recognize that those who are more receptive and politically astute move up because technical competence will only get you so far. The workplace is not based on merit. It might not seem fair, but that’s life. That’s the way things are, so you might as well learn to play the game. 

In this episode, we’ll look at how you can participate in the game of influence in an integrity-driven manner by finding the savvy tactics that work for you to at least protect yourself and maybe even move your own agenda forward.

Political savvy is the ability to effectively understand others at work and use this knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance the achievement of organizational objectives. We all need to combine technical competence with political savvy in order to be considered for those opportunities that will advance our careers. 

But it can be daunting to figure out how to fit politicking in with your job. We all have enough on our plates, just doing our jobs. And maybe up until now, you’ve stayed away from politics and did your best to avoid the game. This may work for a while, but it will serve you well to learn a few tactics to at least protect yourself, and then you can worry about increasing your skill to gain influence and power by becoming more politically sophisticated. It can be done in a healthy, integrity-driven manner. 

I’m sure you’re well aware of how advantageous it is to be able to read people well, in any situation, because we need to be able to understand, influence, and work well with colleagues, direct reports, and managers. So embrace office politics as necessary. There’s power in being savvy because that’s how things get done in any organization.

People use influence to sell ideas and get the credit they deserve. Those who understand the power of being politically savvy, receive optimal consideration for career advancement. We operate in a support system that’s partially dependent upon political favors, both the give and the take. It’s much like keeping a positive balance in our political favors bank account. 

Organizational influence involves collaboration, building alliances, and doing favors for people. It’s just human nature. Everyone has an agenda and they do things for their own reasons, not yours. Understanding favors doesn’t make you opportunistic, so it’s important to reframe it as doing the right thing and helping others. Because giving support when people need it is appreciated. 

It’s all about corporate karma. So work on building your network with consideration for increasing your social capital. Look for ways to help people save face and get out of jams, while also lending support to their ideas and projects. Part of that requires visibly endorsing their work and ideas in meetings and conversations, and helping out colleagues in trouble at the eleventh hour, when they need your help in meeting deadlines. 

You are actually helping your company by doing these favors for people, but it’s also having awareness of your impact in these situations. Always be mindful of how you treat everyone, but also be careful about whom you support and whom you cross. Weigh the potential political consequences before voicing approval if someone’s good idea is challenged, because you might be building up your social capital with one, while creating a deficit with another. 

It’s about knowing yourself better. Self-awareness is a form of power. When you know and live your core values, you exude confidence. You need to be taking good care of yourself, but also identifying your own political style and your blind spots. 

Office politics have a reputation for being destructive because it does require a certain amount of gamesmanship and it does feel like ‘survival of the fittest’ at times. It can negatively affect good people. Given today’s pressures to get ahead in the workplace, being naive or lacking organizational savvy can pose a threat to anyone’s influence. 

But you can overcome any potential political disadvantage using strategies and tactics, without succumbing to undesirable behavior like manipulation. But it’s important to recognize that bad behavior in the workplace is more common than we’d like to think. It’s better to be aware of this undesirable behavior so you can detect it and protect yourself.

Consider that organizational politics are not inherently good or bad. Becoming politically savvy is acquiring skills to help ethical, competent people influence others. It’s time to stop having a negative view of organizational politics. 

There is considerable value in increasing your political awareness and skill. Negative attitudes lead to avoidance, and then we end up steering clear of the political arena, believing that it shouldn’t exist or matter in our careers. But underestimating the reality of political behavior can leave you more vulnerable to skilled people who understand the game with pure self-interest, and a willingness to do whatever they can get away with, to obtain what they want. 

The odds are stacked against someone who is a novice, dislikes, denies, or avoids this reality. You’re at a definite disadvantage never developing much political skill. So stop trusting others to do the right thing. That’s just showing how naive you are. 

By being fairly quiet, polite, modest, and trusting, you’re not seen as a leader. You may or may not be told that you need to work on your leadership style. But you will become an easy victim to those with more visibility, who are more charismatic. That can hurt your career, especially when you’re not aware of your political blind spots.

Overly political people do whatever works to get into positions of power. You will end up suffering from stolen credit, being on the wrong side of personal agendas, and ending up a victim of sabotage, powerplays, egos, and favoritism. This can do lasting damage to competent, loyal people. 

So maybe you’re hoping you can find an organization where politics don’t exist, so you can quit and move on, only to find the same dynamics in the next company. So if you can’t avoid it, you might as well get in the game. Learn to play to your strengths. 

Confident people know what they’re good at and they believe they’re capable, and they find ways to use their strengths in their lives and careers often. But organizations aren’t logical systems, they are human systems, and they are more emotional than rational. All politics aren’t manipulation, so we must be adaptable and willing to eliminate our blind spots, and let go of our stubbornness. 

It’s time to stop being the naive victim, the goody-goody, or the doormat. We don’t have to be a cutthroat power-tripper either, but we do have to learn how to play the game. It’s time to change your habits, learn to take feedback, and modify your beliefs.

I’m not saying that you can’t be yourself, but you need to decide what you are comfortable with. It’s time to find something that works for you, so that you can function naturally and effectively in this environment. It requires a conscious decision to get in the game. That’s your best chance for influence, integrity, balance, choice, flexibility, collaboration, and positive impact.

Learn how to engage your inner sage. That first requires disarming your inner critic. Our inner critics can be harsh at times, but a confident person knows how to listen to what’s of value and discard the rest. This is a powerful skill that can be learned, but it will need to be practiced regularly. 

Each of us has a wise self, an inner sage, that we can connect to and get support from. A confident person regularly engages this part of themselves. It’s your source of personal power. By working to build your power base, you will also enhance your personal impact, and this can be gained through engaging in high-integrity politics. 

We all want to be perceived as having a power network and being aligned with the key people. We want to build an enduring reputation for being competent, ethical, and loyal. So it pays to have a vast network of people who know you, your expertise, your track record, your integrity, your political astuteness, and have respect for your work. This will help you have opportunities to work on key high-visibility projects, as long as you have the skills to carry it through successfully. 

Be aware of your personal impact, which includes how you dress, accessorize, present yourself, talk, and behave. This conveys an aura of power and importance. Looking confident suggests power without being arrogant, but also requires an air of personal humility. It’s about acting the part with your language, posture, and moving purposefully, avoiding tentative language, being organized, and showing that you’re able to manage your time well, completing your task promptly and decisively, and delivering the hard messages, and holding people accountable. This goes a long way to helping prevent you from being marginalized. 

Learn how you’ll handle the inevitable interruption and attempts to talk over you. Protect your right to have a say and get your ideas discussed through tactical phrases to regain the floor. Be someone who exudes confidence that comes from within, conveys conviction, and constructive power. Be ready and willing to address hidden agendas while also listening to your gut. 

It’s not about becoming paranoid or suspecting a conspiracy at every turn, but if someone is pushing unreasonably for an illogic idea, or changes their body language, there might be something going on. Manipulators do exist and they have ulterior motives, and they do orchestrate events for their benefit. Don’t be naive. 

Check for factual clues to validate any of your suspicions. Facts are more reliable than feelings alone. Observe actual behavior and listen for other evidence. Ask yourself, what would they have to gain? And, what would they have to lose? Check for body language tip-offs and use these as your informal political polygraph. 

Listen to your gut, but don’t be too quick to suspect power-oriented or greed-driven motives, because you might be misjudging intentions based on your own resistance to any level of self-interest or politics of any kind. You may be correct in detecting hidden agendas, but you may falter in how well you address this. 

Choose your battles carefully. You have to know who you’re dealing with. Develop your ability to detect them and strategize by filing them away in the back of your mind. Keep tabs on patterns you observe, but that doesn’t require you to say anything to anyone. Even if you’re able to validate it, it still might be something to keep under wraps. You don’t want to win the battle, only to lose the war. 

Take into account their positional power, political style, and power networks. Sometimes you may just have to let some issues go. But if you do decide to surface the issue, remember there are pros and cons to doing it in public. Protect yourself. Be aware of the risks involved, especially when deciding how much of your own agenda to share. 

There are practical tools and political savvy tactics that you can employ. You need to be aware of who you’re talking with, and what matters to them, to determine the quality and the quantity, which is the reliability of the information you’re providing and how much of it should be said. Also, the relevance, which is the appropriateness of the information, and the manner in which you deliver the information. 

Every team is only as strong and savvy as its weakest link. Identify the constructive political behaviors that you want to hone and implement. It is beneficial for those less politically savvy to learn these tactics and skills, but sometimes overly political people may need to reign in their excessive maneuvering traits that can create more distrust or alienation.

Study formal and informal power within your company. Be on the lookout for manipulation, maneuvering, and sabotage. Foster a sense of curiosity and a learner’s attitude. Actively form relationships and networks, and engage in self-promotion, because waiting for ideas and results to speak for themselves leads to becoming invisible and disrespected. 

It’s necessary to establish your profile to prevent yourself from being constantly underestimated, although that can be fun at times. Demonstrate your team spirit as it can be a big contributor for performance improvement. Align yourself with people who have good ideas and demonstrate competence, who also embrace integrity and the company’s interests, while also wanting to be successful. Ensure your own behavior is congruent with your vision of office politics. You just might become a model for others.

It’s important to learn to be savvy to survive in today’s workplace, so don’t get left behind. 

And that’s it for this episode of Stop Sabotaging Your Success. Remember to download your Guide for Presenting Your Ideas Most Effectively at cindyesliger.com/podcast, episode thirty.

Thank you to our producer, Alex Hochhausen and everyone at Astronomic Audio. Get in touch, I’m on Instagram @cindyesliger and my email address is info@cindyesliger.com. And if you liked this show, please tell a friend. Subscribe, rate, and review. 

Until next week, I’m Cindy Esliger. Thanks for joining me.