“Chaos is a Ladder,” Little Finger says in the series, Game of Thrones. However, when it comes to the corporate world, many never see politics as a ladder, thus, they choose to hate it, and stay away from it. In this context, chaos is the equivalent of politics in the workplace. More commonly in the Ugandan workplace, many dread and would rather have a workplace without politics. And because of this, many have sat and watched their careers stagnate or never take off. On the other hand, those who acknowledge the reality and necessity of politics, keep climbing that ladder, enjoying the game, and navigating the turbid waters.
This article is really an invite, a call to reframe how we all see politics. It’s the talk I wished I was given when I was entering the workplace. I wish someone put me aside and told me, if there’s one thing that’s going to be important, it’s the politics. And why does politics arise in the workplace?
Organizational resources are limited yet the things that require those resources are infinite. Promotion positions are limited. Financial resources to allocate to ideas and different departments are limited. How then do organizations decide how to allocate these scarce resources?
Well, you could say that they could use a logical overview, see where there’s inherent need and assign optimally. Again, I will ask, how will this call be made? If marketing justifies a budget increment and supports it with the numbers, operations do the same, where do those resources go? If two people are all ready for a promotion, who gets it? Politics comes in to solve this allocation problem. Throughout your career, holding all else constant (your hard work, your commitment), politics is going to play all the part. In fact, let’s say your hard work and your commitment do one thing- to help your politics. Thus, the determinant of career success is nothing but how well you play your politics.
You are a young person, you come into the workplace, how do you grow? First, you must really prove yourself. Think of it as finding some brand to your name. It’s finding something in which you can hold some expert power, something that’s important to the organization, something that makes you to get some speaking minutes. Usually, this may not happen in one go. That means, you may have to look for the small wins first. In fact, it’s important to start with this. Starting with big wins could position you as an immediate threat.
I remember early in my career; my small win was becoming the small technology expert in the office. Just the guy that can competently operate the printer. It will shock you how many people in the workplace just can’t print or solve an issue on their laptop. And I must say, this can be as simple as learning to google things and following instructions. But this requires courage, will and boldness, to say, let me try this. You can fail, but usually wins follow the courageous. So that’s you playing politics in your immediate domain. Again, I want you to see politics not as a bad word, the way many have described it to you. I want you to change the narrative on office politics. This is not to say that there are people that play the extreme dysfunctional side of politics. In fact, you must be aware of these, recognize them and put up your guards against them. I would advise not going direct head-on with these kinds of characters. They could become distractive.
I believe you can play the good politics and still win big. Because the good politics really means you don’t have to be watching your back all the time. And it wins you many allies. It wins you many supporters. Again, this is the other important thing. You need allies, you need people to count on, people to support your ideas. Think of these as strategic partnerships in the workplace. First allies should really be the people you work with on the same team. Attempt to build shared contexts. You learn a lot from those informal conversations.
As you play this partnership game, communication is important. The commonest mistake I saw was people who were too closed in to notice what was going on. There are people that were simply ignorant about the happenings of the day, where the organization was headed and the important things to focus on. Often, such information came out on informal meetings, people inviting you to an off-site lunch with them, or a drink after work. Internal networking is important, knowing a lead in Finance becomes handy when you have a budget to support. Because the best departments also tend to pull enough funding to themselves. If you can’t get funding to your department, how are you going to make impact on the challenges?
The way to approach politics in the workplace is to play the long game. Most people play the short game, they betray friends, they step on others, they bad-mouth others before their bosses. Some win doing this, but what I always saw is that these kinds of people always ended up destroyed by their own flames. And they always self-destructed in the worst of ways. You just can’t play bad for so long.
What will improve your politics? Your ability to work/walk the talk. To be able to deliver right on time, effectively, but above all to deliver on things that improve the company’s bottom line. Always think of whether you are making the company money or reducing costs for it. Always frame it in this angle. What I am prescribing here is the Ethical Politics. One based on simply being a good human in the workplace. Remember, there’s always life beyond the workplace. Early on in my career, I was told, “do not do something that wouldn’t allow you to have a good sleep.” You should always make decisions that give you a good night sleep. Are there psychopaths in the workplace? Definitely! But like I said, in the long run, they go bust.
How should you endear yourself to your line manager, your boss? It’s by winning on your line manager’s agenda. Never be in a scenario where your boss looks bad. Because when your boss looks bad, it also affects your department or team. It’s the whole reputation of that department. In the workplace, you will notice that you will grow faster by belonging to certain teams or working under a certain manager. It’s because there’s also things like departmental reputations. Although you are playing politics at individual level, the people you ally with, your departments are also playing some group politics.
Politics is a ladder. It’s the thing your mentor or sponsor or coach may not tell you boldly. But everything you do in the workplace, the trainings you take, the additional skills you pick are all to help you have more chances of successfully climbing that ladder. And you notice the people who always say; ‘I hate politics’, their careers just never took off. Because they carried a wrong belief system. Nothing is as stagnating as wrong belief systems in the workplace.
Politics is the constant in every society. Otherwise, without politics, humans retreat to violence and war. Politics is what stops society from descending to that level. Because with politics, you can make a case for your ideas, you can convince people to your side. You can convince procurement to consider your approach to a certain vendor. Politics is about improving your power and influence in the workplace. And there’s the technical element to this (the hard skills) and the relational/human element (how you speak, how you write, your ability to connect to people, likability etc).
From today onwards, that’s how you should approach politics in the workplace. Of course there are bad guys, the ones out to trap you. But as said earlier, if you play ethical politics, you need not fear this. If you abide by company policy, follow things to the dot, do what’s required of you, the bad guys will not have traps by which to get you. Play the strategic ethical politics, the long game. Think of your career as a 10 year or 20-year journey and make the kind of decisions that will give you good memories a decade from now. A decade from now, you will watch the system spit out these bad people, never worry about these kinds. They’re non-entities. Play the long-term game.