Office Politics: A Quick Guide To Using It To Your Advantage

According to Robert Half, 80% of employees believe office politics exist in their workplace. This is a staggering number. These numbers are not without reason, these people are actually right. Politics exists in every organization. Some companies tolerate it more than others and it’s not uncommon for ego-driven leaders to encourage poor behavior from their most ambitious people. But politics is so ingrained in human nature that it can be tough to identify and to neutralize. In fact, “politics” naturally happens whenever people with different goals, interests, and personalities try to work together, as is obviously the case in any office environment.

Although the ability to navigate between conflicting parties is one of a manager’s core skills, many managers are really bad at playing office politics. They think about power being sort of corrupting you, that it’s a bad thing, and that you don’t want to be using your power, playing with those politics instead of appreciating that organizations are inherently political entities, and they are political because of the sources of conflict that are just built into organizational life.  We have to make tough choices about the scarce resources in an organization, and those are the factors that actually create the political dynamics that you need to pay attention to.

So, unless you pay attention to those factors that generate office politics and understand how to use them constructively, you will actually find yourself being powerless and not being able to get done what you think is the right thing to do. So if you want to behave ethically and productively within your group, you actually need to pay attention to the signs of office politics and use those dynamics to get things done, rather than being afraid of them or ignoring them because it’s impossible.

Though office politics can be used both ethically and unethically, at their core, if you`d like me to give you an office politics definition, it is just a number of informal, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-scenes efforts that happen in all organizations as people position themselves, their interests, their teams, and their priorities to get things done.

You must also understand that, despite all the negative connotations, office politics are not inherently evil. This is about two things: influence and relationships, and the power these two things give you – or don’t.

One reason managers often ignore or don’t pay attention to politics is that they view their job as just managing their team. They think about the people that they have formal authority over, and they believe they are supposed to focus their attentions there and not appreciate that you need other people for a range of things, which is why there are people and networks within your organization that you have to pay attention to.  

But if you don’t know how to play it, you may easily become a victim of office politics. It’s going to cost you promotions, pay increases, your reputation, and any influence you have. And don’t think that you can escape company politics by not playing, not playing means you lose by default.

The good news is that winning at corporate politics isn’t complicated. In fact, everything that you need to know about how to win office politics comes down to applying a few not-so-complicated rules.

Dealing With Office Politics: How To Prepare Yourself

If you’re going to enter the ring of office politics, in many cases, you may first have to reconcile with the fact that you’re going to engage in behavior that feels duplicitous or “not like you.” So I would encourage you to first, reframe some of these beliefs, and second, establish some personal boundaries:

• Know why you’re doing it. Office politics don’t have to (and shouldn’t) be entirely self-serving. Find a cause worth fighting for. Maybe it’s a new idea, the organization’s mission, the benefit to your customers, or the welfare of your teams.
• Know your values and non-negotiables. Office politics require relationship building and compromise, but some values shouldn’t be compromised. Determine in advance what lines you’re not willing to cross, what your ethical boundaries are, and what you’ll do if you see warning signs that those boundaries are in jeopardy.
• Determine what you want to get and the timeline. Similarly, evaluate what you’re trying to achieve. Are you looking for a quick win to accelerate your career? Are you trying to build long-term relationships? Or somewhere in between? 
• Have outlets outside of work. The workplace is just one place to invest your energy. Maintain your identity outside of it, otherwise, you may feel like you’re losing touch with yourself or compromising your integrity.

How To Spot A Skilled Political Player

Once you familiarize yourself with the theory of office politics and delve into practice, it will be relatively easy for you to spot the signs of office politics and those people who are specifically skilled at it. There is a set of traits inherent in such people. Among them are the following: 

• They have high ambition but quite often lack the fundamental capabilities needed to rise through the ranks. When they can’t get ahead on results, they resort to manipulation and deceit.
• They spend the majority of their time on impression management, which means they try to create a favorable impression of themselves relative to their peers.
• They embellish even the most insignificant achievements to make them seem remarkable.
• They spend almost no energy on leading for performance and a tremendous amount on whispering the right words in the right person’s ear.
• They stroke the boss’s ego. They’ll tell their boss exactly what he wants to hear, and many bosses let it happen because it plays into their need for ego gratification.
• They never challenge publicly. Group conflict? Too risky. They prefer influencing behind closed doors.
• It’s never their fault. They can’t handle criticism, so they find someone else to take the fall.

The Types Of Office Politics Players

Kathleen Kelley Reardon, an expert on organizational politics, classifies political players into one of four types:

1. The Purist: A person who dislikes all sorts of politics and simply wants to get on with the job at hand.
2. The Street Fighter: The one who believes the best way to get ahead is through the use of rough tactics, even at the expense of others.
3. The Team Player: A person who believes in getting ahead by working well with others and participating in the politics that advance group goals
4. The Maneuverer: The one who believes in getting ahead by playing the games of politics in a way that is skillful and unobtrusive to those who only take things at face value.

The Types Of Office Politics Players

How To Win in Office Politics: Success Secrets

Let`s now figure out what the recipes for success in office politics are.

To be successful in office politics, it is essential first to understand the company’s goals and where it’s headed, because your plans need to align with the company’s. You need to know how the company is going to work in the future, you need to know how your group’s plans fit with

The next thing you need to understand is what groups are present in the company, what their goals and leaders are, and which specific groups you should target in your approach to Office Politics. 

An important point you have to consider is that, when at work, you need to build a relationship not only with the people you like. What happens most of the time at the office is that we create networks with people we have to deal with, we have no choice but to do the work, and we create

networks with people we like and the people we don’t like, but we don’t want to bother with. If you want to be successful at carrer and play Office Politics you don’t have the liberty to make that kind of distinction you need to identify the people that you need to do your work, and those who need you because they’re going to make demands on you and you need to create consciously relationships with them and the personal chemistry doesn’t have a lot to do with it.

I mean, you may want to have a beer or a coffee or whatever with some of them, not with all of them, but you need to have a relationship, and it doesn’t have to do with personal chemistry, and I

think that’s quite important to pay attention to, particularly now that we have global companies.

To succeed in office politics, you should also build a few supporting circles, because you can’t win this game alone.

Here are a few major groups of people you need to seek support from:

1. Your direct boss, since he can open all the doors at the company for you, but he can also close them, so make sure you get along with him.
2. Senior people in different management lines, with whom you can use when you need a specific issue to be resolved. They may be from different departments, such as HR, accounting, sales, or from centers of excellence, such as design or programming.
3. Your peers, since they`re the ones who you need to help you deliver your work program

How To Play Office Politics Fairly: Office Politics Tactics

When you think that you are well prepared and ready to enter the battlefield, it’s time to start putting those relationships to work and start dealing with office politics in reality. Always consider that these tactics can be used to help or harm. So when deciding which tactics to pursue, return to your desired goals and values, and to the compromises you will or won’t make toward them.

• Be visible. You can’t win office politics by hiding. You must be involved, and others need to perceive you as a valuable contributor at work. Get engaged in solving significant and noticeable problems at work.
• Give first, rather than asking for anything. Ideally, you should start by not asking for anything at all, but by giving, helping others, and connecting with others, building a reputation as an effective, connected individual within the organization. People will be more likely to build a relationship with you if they see that you leverage relationships to help others.
• Seek win-wins. When you do need help from others, pursue win-win situations whenever possible: how can others benefit from the problem as well? This might involve shrewd bargaining, reciprocal concessions, and favors (and don’t forget, incentives look different for every individual). Ironically, asking for favors can work in your favor: people having a “call” on you in the future is a way to build relationships.
• Help your boss succeed. This is part of being a team player. It is also a smart strategy because your boss is a major player in your promotability and in how upper management perceives you and your work.

5 Key Rules Of Playing Office Politics

1. You will not defeat your boss

If it`s you versus them, they’re going to win 99.9% of the time, because they have more power and authority. Your boss is the one doing your performance review, deciding what pay increase you get, and even has a say in whether or not you get a promotion. So even if you create a situation in which you win and they lose, you’re still going to end up losing when you make

your boss feels inferior or unimportant, or triggers their insecurity, which is going to trigger their fear.

And what happens when people get scared? They become irrational. And what happens when your boss is irrational and channels it towards you, not gonna work out for you. When you make your boss your adversary, there is no path to your long-term success. You might win the battle, but you will not win the war.

This is why we need to shift to create win-win situations and find ways to make your boss look good. It’ll make them like you, it’s going to give you favor with them. And maybe they’ll even get promoted out of your way, or you’ll get promoted away from them, because they start bragging about you know.

I know it is challenging to want and do something to make your boss look good when you feel like your boss is horrible. But if you want to build a successful career, you have to change your

mindset around here. The only way to sustainably win is to help other people win in the same way. It doesn’t matter if you like the person you are helping win, because it ultimately benefits you. And when it helps other people along the way, you create a lot of positive career karma and improve relationships. Even if you don’t like the person or they’re a bad boss, this will ultimately pay off for you in the long run. And ultimately, if you have to choose between losing and winning while someone else also wins, I would choose winning every single time because when you’re winning, you’re building a better professional reputation and getting more opportunities, and you’ll get paid more upfront. 

2. Your reputation matters way more than anything else.

The drama, the coworker trying to sabotage and undermine you, doesn’t matter when your reputation precedes you. What people think about you and your work is significantly more important than the actual work that you do. Building a professional brand is an absolute non-negotiable for anyone who wants to avoid the BS at work, maximize their opportunities and income, and be successful at work. 

3. Make it look effortless. 

Working hard does not get you ahead. And in fact, when you have to work harder, and by harder I mean more than anyone else to achieve the same or even slightly better results, what that’s really demonstrating is that you’re not very productive or effective at your job. This is why lazy people often succeed, so we had something else to learn from them after all. Now, the way to do this is by making an unignorable impact. And your unignorable impact should do one of two things, ideally both: increase revenue or decrease costs. If you find a way to make an impact on both of those things to maximize productivity, you are golden.

The best part about unignorable impact is that it is so unique to you, and especially when you couple it with the previous two rules, no one’s going to be able to come along and take credit for your work or undermine your impact because the receipts are going to speak for themselves. 

4. Success is not solitary

If you’ve been someone or you’ve watched someone who’s really been on your own, just like you against the world, trying to make it, you know how much struggle is involved, it’s so tricky, it’s this really steep upward climb, and chances are, you’re not going to get to the peak alone. It’s possible, but you’ll significantly increase your chances and ease of getting there when you have powerful alliances.

If you prioritize building strategic relationships at work, this should be at the top of your career strategy list, as it is crucial for navigating office politics. Decision makers need to not only know you, but they also need to like you. And even more importantly, they need to know how associating with you benefits them. Now, this really extends to your entire network of advocates, including the people who influence your decision-makers, and anyone who can support you along the way, which brings us to the fifth rule of office politics.

4. Remember, that it`s not about you

When it comes to working with others, approaching situations, and especially developing relationships with people who would advocate for you, you need to be able to answer the question, “What’s in it for them?” However, you don’t need to broadcast this. This is ainternal monologue that you can run through.

Here’s the thing we need to remember about humans. When we’re working with other humans, they’re really self-motivated. Now, especially when we think about situations where the office politics are showing up maliciously and viciously, that person isn’t really saying anything about you. They’re projecting it towards you. But it’s not about you. It’s actually about them. Now, no matter what, office politics or dealing with the crazy high-end, or maybe you’re just trying to get things done or build better relationships, the most important thing you need to put the other individual at the center, and you need to understand them. No matter the situation, whether it’s complex and negative office politics or general run-of-the-mill office politics where people are positioning to get more power and get ahead, you need to know the players and especially your adversaries, you need to know who they are, what motivates them, and what they’re trying to do. You should be able to identify your work-related villains so you know exactly how to approach them.

Bonus Hacks To Winning Office Politics

1. Dress nicer than the rest of the office

If they all wear suits, then at least match them in attire. But if they all dress casually, you dress up in suits. That whole adage about dressing for the job you want is true. Respect yourself, and people who respect themselves dress nicely, are groomed, and get manicures (even if you’re a dude). Keep those nails and cuticles clean, and your hair washed, clean, and done. It may seem weird to do that, but trust me, people notice those extra touches, and they make you appear polished, which makes you look more successful. Upper Management, C-Level people, all do this. So let people think of you that way.

2. Ask people about themselves, get to know them, and show a genuine interest in them. 

But you don’t have to be all chatty all the time.  I used to wear earphones to keep folks away from me when I was focusing. Keep your productivity high, don’t be afraid to own your mistakes to everyone (your colleagues will find you less intimidating and your bosses will respect you), don’t be defensive when people point out any mistakes you make, thank them, learn, and move on. 

3. Treat influence as a relationship currency.

Invest deliberately in a small network of key allies across levels and functions, then use that capital to align your goals with others’ priorities. This works because office politics is primarily about informal power and information flow, not formal titles. Relationships are the highway for both.  A small, diverse network gives you early access to information, buffers against surprises, and multiplies your impact without needing overt self-promotion.

Summary

Office politics exist in every workplace, and ignoring them can cost managers influence, opportunities, and career growth. Rather than seeing politics as negative, effective managers should use relationships and influence ethically to get things done. Success requires building different networks, aligning with company goals, protecting your reputation, and creating win-win situations with colleagues and bosses. Ultimately, dealing with office politics is about understanding others’ motivations, making an impact, and leveraging relationships to advance both your team and your career.

I hope this guide was helpful. Enjoy the challenge!