Tag: Understanding

Office politics. But here's the thing: When we're talking about office politics, all we're really talking about are the unspoken rules of influence that exist in every organization. If you work in your average professional environment, you can't get things done without influence. Those who do the latter are what give office politics a bad name. Once you have a better understanding of how that influence is attained, you have every ability to use that power in a way that is ethical, above board, and to create much better relationships with the people you're working with. People use office politics for these things all the time - we just don't notice them as much as the negative because we're more likely to give our attention to the things we don't like, rather than the things we do. At the end of the day, it's nothing more than adapting your behavior to get the best outcome out a specific situation at work, and hopefully that's an outcome that helps you make progress towards your most important goals. Each day this week, I'm going to publish a new article outlining my five principles of office politics to help you understand and navigate the psychology of the human workplace. Understand their work style will help you adapt to them. At the end of the week, you'll have a playbook that you can use to up your office politics games and use the power for good, not for evil.