Office Politicians (and how to handle them)

Many have asked about office politics and dealing with toxic people in the workplace, so I have compiled these for a while, and hopefully this helps.

So, first, how would we define office politics?

• It’s the backstabbing of your boss or colleague.
• The sabotage of your work.
• Taking credit for your work.
• Undermining of your authority.
• Or simply it’s the conversations taking place behind your back.

I’ve no doubt we’ve all personally experienced it or witnessed it at some point in our career. And we’re not the only ones.

In minimally political companies what you see is largely what you get. Standards for promotions and expectations for managing and leading are made clear. There is a sense of camaraderie. Rules are occasionally bent and favors granted, but underhanded forms of politics are avoided. This is the type of organization in which those with little understanding of or interest in politics — the purists among us — can thrive.

Reasons for Office Politics

Here are some of the popular reasons for workplace politics:

• Employees aspiring to come in the limelight easily without much hard word depend on politics.
• Politics arises when employees aspire to achieve something beyond their authority and control in a short span of time.
• Lack of supervision and control at the workplace.
• Too much of gossip at work lead to politics.
• Arrogant superiors.
• Jealous colleagues.

In its simplest form, workplace politics is simply about the differences between people at work; differences in opinions, conflicts of interests are often manifested as office politics. It all goes down to human communications and relationships.

There are some types of these "politicians" (let me know if I'm missing any other types)

1. Gossip hound: This person is a know-it-all when it comes to what is happening around the office and isn't afraid to share every last detail with anyone. They love spilling secrets to co-workers or sharing confidential information on social media. When dealing with a gossip hound, it is critical that employees keep their conversations related to business. If the conversation starts to drift to the personal lives of co-workers, try to exit the discussion as quickly as possible.
2. Credit thief: This person will do whatever it takes to get ahead, even if that means taking credit for someone else's ideas. To avoid being the target of a credit thief in your workplace, speak up about your views and what you are working on in front of your co-workers. In addition, provide your boss with frequent updates so they never get confused about who should be getting credit for your work.
3. Bully: This person basically enjoys overpowering others. giving orders and being a total boss, most when they are not actually the boss, especially to those junior than them. They might be a combination between a flatterer to the bosses but makes lives totally miserable for others.
4. Dominator: The You-Know-Who person. people who knows everybody's secrets and dirt, a combination between a gossip hound and a bully, with a touch of saboteur. All they want is a good name & power for themselves, and they don't care who they need to step, to get where they want to be. This type might also do whatever it takes to win a project or get rewarded by the boss. No, they don't care if you hate them or not.
5. Flatterer: This person likes to pass out compliments left and right, but it can be difficult to tell whether the flatterer is being genuine or if they are trying to win people over. Luckily, most company leaders can tell when someone is being fake, so you don't need to call out the flatterer's behavior.
6. Saboteur: This person works only to benefit him or herself. They are openly critical of others and don't hesitate to throw co-workers under the bus. In addition, they rarely take responsibility for their own mistakes. It is important to keep your guard up when dealing with a saboteur. You might have luck in stopping this behavior by confronting the saboteur. However, if that doesn't work, keep track of your exchanges and relay them to your boss or someone in human resources.
7. Happy-go-lucky: This person seems like everybody's favorites. But don't let the smile fool you, as they might have a hidden agenda on their own. Always seems nice and friendly, these types of people have a big influencing power to the coworker and everyone seems to like them. When it's all nice and shining, it's all good, but be careful when things seems to take a bad turn, they might turn into a zombie.
8. Lobbyist: This person fights hard and has a reputation for swaying opinions in his or her favor. To make sure your views are heard, speak up when you disagree with the lobbyist's opinions. While these employees often don't appreciate hearing opinions that differ from theirs, explaining your viewpoint might be what's needed to open them up to new ideas.
9. Advisor: The advisor is often the person company leaders confide in and turn to for assistance. You are best served by befriending the advisor since they know a lot about what is happening within the company and wield a lot of influence behind the scenes.

There is no need to be afraid of office politics. Top performers are those who have mastered the art of winning in office politics.

Below are 7 good habits to help you win at the workplace:

1. Be Aware You Have a Choice

The most common reactions to politics at work are either fight or flight. It’s normal human reaction for survival in the wild, back in the prehistoric days when we were still hunter-gatherers.

Sure, the office is a modern jungle, but it takes more than just instinctive reactions to win in office politics.

Instinctive fight reactions will only cause more resistance to whatever you are trying to achieve; while instinctive flight reactions only label you as a pushover that people can easily take for granted. Neither options are appealing for healthy career growth.

Winning requires you to consciously choose your reactions to the situation. Recognize that no matter how bad the circumstances, you have a choice in choosing how you feel and react. So how do you choose? This bring us to the next point…

2. Know What You Are Trying to Achieve

When conflicts happen, it’s very easy to be sucked into tunnel-vision and focus on immediate differences. That’s a self-defeating approach. Chances are, you’ll only invite more resistance by focusing on differences in people’s positions or opinions.

The way to mitigate this without looking like you’re fighting to emerge as a winner in this conflict is to focus on the business objectives. In the light of what’s best for the business, discuss the pros and cons of each option. Eventually, everyone wants the business to be successful; if the business don’t win, then nobody in the organization wins.

It’s much easier for one to eat the humble pie and back off when they realize the chosen approach is best for the business.

By learning to steer the discussion in this direction, you will learn to disengage from petty differences and position yourself as someone who is interested in getting things done.

Your boss will also come to appreciate you as someone who is mature, strategic and can be entrusted with bigger responsibilities.

3. Focus on Your Circle of Influence

At work, there are often issues which we have very little control over. It’s not uncommon to find corporate policies, client demands or boss mandates which affects your personal interests.

Gossiping and complaining are common responses to these events that we cannot control. But think about it, other than that short term emotional outlet, what tangible results do gossiping really accomplish? In most instances, none.

Instead of feeling victimized and angry about the situation, focus on the things that you can do to influence the situation — your circle of influence.

This is a very empowering technique to overcome the feeling of helplessness. It removes the victimized feeling and also allows others to see you as someone who knows how to operate within given constraints.

You may not be able to change or decide on the eventual outcome but, you can walk away knowing that you have done the best within the given circumstances.

Constraints are all around in the workplace; with this approach, your boss will also come to appreciate you as someone who is understanding and positive.

4. Don’t Take Sides

In office politics, it is possible to find yourself stuck in between two power figures who are at odds with each other. You find yourself being thrown around while they try to outwit each other and defend their own position; all at the expense of you getting the job done. You can’t get them to agree on a common decision for a project, and neither of them want to take ownership of issues; they’re too afraid they’ll get stabbed in the back for any mishaps.

In cases like this, focus on the business objectives and don’t take side with either of them – even if you like one better than the other. Place them on a common communication platform and ensure open communications among all parties, so that no one can claim “I didn’t say that”.

By not taking sides, you’ll help to direct conflict resolution in an objective manner. You’ll also build trust with both parties. That’ll help to keep the engagements constructive and focus on business objectives.

5. Don’t Get Personal

In office politics, you’ll get angry with people. It happens. There will be times when you feel the urge to give that person a piece of your mind and teach him a lesson.

Don’t.

People tend to remember moments when they were humiliated or insulted. Even if you win this argument and get to feel really good about it for now, you’ll pay the price later when you need help from this person.

What goes around comes around, especially at the workplace.

To win in the office, you’ll want to build a network of allies which you can tap into. The last thing you want during a crisis or an opportunity is to have someone screw you up because they harbor ill-intentions towards you – all because you’d enjoyed a brief moment of emotional outburst at their expense.

Another reason to hold back your temper is your career advancement. Increasingly, organizations are using 360 degree reviews to promote someone. Even if you are a star performer, your boss will have to fight a political uphill battle if other managers or peers see you as someone who is difficult to work with.

The last thing you’ll want is to make it difficult for your boss to champion you for a promotion.

6. Seek to Understand, Before Being Understood

The reason people feel unjustified is because they felt misunderstood. Instinctively, we are more interested in getting the others to understand us than to understand them first. Top people managers and business leaders have learned to suppress this urge.

Surprisingly, seeking to understand is a very disarming technique. Once the other party feels that you understand where he/she is coming from, they will feel less defensive and be open to understand you in return. This sets the stage for open communications to arrive at a solution that both parties can accept.

Trying to arrive at a solution without first having this understanding is very difficult – there’s little trust and too much second-guessing.

7. Think Win-Win

As mentioned upfront, political conflicts happen because of conflicting interests.

Perhaps due to our schooling, we are taught that to win, someone else needs to lose. Conversely, we are afraid to let someone else win, because it implies losing for us. In business and work, that doesn’t have to be the case.

Learn to think in terms of “how can we both win out of this situation?” This requires that you first understand the other party’s perspective and what’s in it for him.

Next, understand what’s in it for you. Strive to seek out a resolution that is acceptable and beneficial to both parties. Doing this will ensure that everyone truly commit to the agreed resolution and will not pay only lip-service to it.

People simply don’t like to lose. You may get away with win-lose tactics once or twice but very soon, you’ll find yourself without allies in the workplace.

Thinking win-win is an enduring strategy that builds allies and help you win in the long term.

So which one have you met in the workplace?

Hope this helps! Please share your comments below.