Dealing with dirty politics – part 2
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In our first blog ‘Getting to grips with organisational politics,’ I encouraged readers to reframe political behaviour in terms of stakeholder management where the key is understanding other people’s perspectives and points of view. Most often differences in personal style and perspective lie behind
difficult workplace relationships and so ‘reframing’ politics in this way actually improves our effectiveness – but occasionally we will come up against ‘dirty’ politics and will need to know how to navigate our way through. Here are some tips to try.
What are dirty politics? Truly political behaviour isn’t always obvious as people can be very subtle, but it occurs when individuals pursue their personal agenda over that required by the organisation or their role.
Who pursues such tactics? Anyone – senior and junior alike. Some people do this in order to gain and keep control, to feed their ego or sense of entitlement, or out of fear of being overshadowed by other more able colleagues. Their behaviour may be overt and aggressive or much more subtle. If you are unsure how to interpret someone’s behaviour don’t make assumptions, watch and wait. Do their actions match their words and do their actions benefit the organisation? If so, you are probably looking at a style difference. If not, it could well be truly political behaviour.
Next map out your sources of power. French and Raven’s model is particularly useful here. Which of the following do you have?
What common political behaviours cause us problems and how might we respond?
Scapegoat – you find yourself blamed for poor work or a decision which wasn’t yours though you may have been involved in some way. Make it clear to those who need to know, what your role in the incident was. Be factual, unemotional and precise. Accept responsibility for that which was within your control – if applicable – but nothing else. This response is easier with colleagues but difficult with your manager. In this case, consider whether the situation is going to damage your career prospects. If you think it will, you will have little to lose by calling out such behaviour as it will lessen the likelihood of them repeating that tactic, with you at least. Otherwise, ride out the situation and take care in future to document your involvement in projects when working alongside colleagues you don’t trust.
Using silence to control a meeting– this is most often used by Chairs looking to ensure others in the meeting know of their disapproval and thereby getting the outcome they desire. In this instance, you’ll need to accept the power of authority invested in the Chair and accept their behaviour. However, if you have strong misgivings about the direction of travel, you can always email them or speak to them factually and unemotionally about your concerns which you have ‘reflected on since the meeting and wanted to share’.
Saying one thing but doing another– sometimes this is hard to see in action, as people will strive to keep private their duplicity. When it does come to light though, call them out on it. If nothing else, it will establish that you weren’t completely fooled and that you now have their measure. Again, be factual, unemotional, and polite.
Coping with a manager who’s using poor political behaviours – in this case, watch others in your team and your manager’s peers – how do they manage the person, situation and power-plays used? Don’t put yourself out on a limb, do what you need to do to get by, learn what you can from the situation and the role before moving on. Remember, sometimes we win sometimes we learn.
TAKE AWAY
Dirty politics at work are distressing, time-consuming, demotivating and will lead to unproductive workplaces with low morale and high turnover. That said, political behaviour occurs everywhere. Being astute about how you measure other people’s behaviour, aware of their sources of power and whether they are using them legitimately – for the good of the organisation – will help you see which characters to be wary of and which characters you simply need to build better relationships with.
What are dirty politics? Truly political behaviour isn’t always obvious as people can be very subtle, but it occurs when individuals pursue their personal agenda over that required by the organisation or their role.
Who pursues such tactics? Anyone – senior and junior alike. Some people do this in order to gain and keep control, to feed their ego or sense of entitlement, or out of fear of being overshadowed by other more able colleagues. Their behaviour may be overt and aggressive or much more subtle. If you are unsure how to interpret someone’s behaviour don’t make assumptions, watch and wait. Do their actions match their words and do their actions benefit the organisation? If so, you are probably looking at a style difference. If not, it could well be truly political behaviour.
Next map out your sources of power. French and Raven’s model is particularly useful here. Which of the following do you have?
- Relationship power – denoted by the range and depth of good relationships you’ve developed over time
- Personal power – where your character is such that others are influenced by you, you are seen as a role model
- Organisational power – where your role invests you with a power to use wisely for example, if you are a Compliance Officer
- Resource power – where you have access to and control over the distribution of resources which you use to support the work of others
- Reward power – your ability to either reward others who work with you in a positive way or to withhold such rewards if they don’t
- Information power – where your role in an organisation means you have access to information not widely available and where others may ‘court’ you to gain some of that information
- Expert power – your expertise, widely recognised, means that other senior people will listen to what you have to say on a given matter and may defer to you
What common political behaviours cause us problems and how might we respond?
Scapegoat – you find yourself blamed for poor work or a decision which wasn’t yours though you may have been involved in some way. Make it clear to those who need to know, what your role in the incident was. Be factual, unemotional and precise. Accept responsibility for that which was within your control – if applicable – but nothing else. This response is easier with colleagues but difficult with your manager. In this case, consider whether the situation is going to damage your career prospects. If you think it will, you will have little to lose by calling out such behaviour as it will lessen the likelihood of them repeating that tactic, with you at least. Otherwise, ride out the situation and take care in future to document your involvement in projects when working alongside colleagues you don’t trust.
Using silence to control a meeting– this is most often used by Chairs looking to ensure others in the meeting know of their disapproval and thereby getting the outcome they desire. In this instance, you’ll need to accept the power of authority invested in the Chair and accept their behaviour. However, if you have strong misgivings about the direction of travel, you can always email them or speak to them factually and unemotionally about your concerns which you have ‘reflected on since the meeting and wanted to share’.
Saying one thing but doing another– sometimes this is hard to see in action, as people will strive to keep private their duplicity. When it does come to light though, call them out on it. If nothing else, it will establish that you weren’t completely fooled and that you now have their measure. Again, be factual, unemotional, and polite.
Coping with a manager who’s using poor political behaviours – in this case, watch others in your team and your manager’s peers – how do they manage the person, situation and power-plays used? Don’t put yourself out on a limb, do what you need to do to get by, learn what you can from the situation and the role before moving on. Remember, sometimes we win sometimes we learn.
TAKE AWAY
Dirty politics at work are distressing, time-consuming, demotivating and will lead to unproductive workplaces with low morale and high turnover. That said, political behaviour occurs everywhere. Being astute about how you measure other people’s behaviour, aware of their sources of power and whether they are using them legitimately – for the good of the organisation – will help you see which characters to be wary of and which characters you simply need to build better relationships with.