Ethical Office Politics - Introduction

Have you had experiences like this:

1. "My boss told me that people don't know what my team does."
2. "I wrote a very long email explaining my idea, but when I got to the meeting people asked questions I'd answered in my email."
3. "I found out about a promotion opportunity I want only when it was announced that someone else got it."

And have you ever said, "I'm just going to focus on my work. I'm not here to play office politics, that's for scumbags, creeps and managers!"

I firmly believe that the latter attitude leads to the former experiences.

I want to reclaim office politics. Politics isn't inherently toxic. Politics is the science of influence. It's impossible to lead without politics. I believe that through consciously engaging we can do it ethically.

Engaging with politics equips you with the tools to fix the experiences above:

1. Your boss is frustratingly in the dark? I want you to tell your boss what you do, every week, and tell their boss too.
2. People don't read your work or prepare? I want you to empathise with busy people who only skim read. I want you to learn to focus your pitches and lead through storytelling, feedback and repetition.
3. Surprised by news? I want you to network with intention. To learn how the grapevine works (and how much you can trust it.) To find your Allies and cultivate your Spies in every department.

How you listen, communicate or even gossip at work can be selfish or kind, mean or insightful. (Positive gossip is a beautiful example of ethical politics.)

Ethical office politics is about empathy, influence, networking, and celebrating good work.

It's about understanding yourself. What you want, what you need, what your goals are.

It's about understanding others: what drives, motivates, encourages and enrages them. It's about learning what you truly know and what you can't know.

I considered talking about this in less direct terms: "leadership" or "influence" instead of "politics". But I want to reclaim those terms from the bad experiences I've had—we've all had—so that we can contrast them with better ways of leading and influencing.

And hopefully stir the idea that ethical politics can be practised with integrity, vulnerability, curiosity, and openness.