I found this article recently. It was written back in my corporate days during the blog’s first year (June 27, 2008). Honestly, I’d forgotten about it. A search on the Brainzooming blog to track down content for an updated strategic thinking presentation uncovered it. Reading "9 Ways to Understand the Political Fray and Stay the Hell Out of It" after all these years, it may be the most beneficial article we’ve ever run. That’s even with thousands of articles since its original publication. It serves as the foundation for nearly all our content, making it worth a republish and sharing it with all of you that never saw it originally.
9 Ways to Understand the Political Fray and Stay the Hell Out of It
The title is from a leadership presentation that I do. It’s how I’ve tried to live my life in business, organizations, and relationships. I’d never specifically articulated what “understanding the political fray” means though until a good friend said recently that she’s just not politically savvy. Here are eight general principles I shared for being attuned to an organization’s political environment.
- Understand the organization’s long-term needs.Use your strengths to best address those needs and create results.
- Know “what” drives the business– which revenue streams and cost centers really matter.
- Translate that into “who” drives the business. Then figure out where you stand now relative to the “what” and the “who,” and where you want to stand relative to both in the future.
- Figure out the organization’s tolerance for variation from the norm in the areas (important and unfortunately, trivial) on which people judge people. Know what the expectation is for fitting a certain type and make very conscious decisions about where you’ll play along (i.e., “fit”), and where you’ll make your stand for being different.
- Consistently and unequivocally deliver value. Do it for lots of people at all levels of the company – above you, with peers, and at lower levels of the organization.
- Make sure you’re seen as someone people can talk to and confide in Ask open-ended questions, listen, provide a little bit of sound counsel, and keep confidences. You’ll help others and learn a lot.
- Always know who you can trust. Challenging issues and situations are great tests of this. The people who support you and / or have your back during the intense times are the people that you should go out of your way to invest in generously.
- Don’t stop thinking, and don’t say everything you think.
- Cultivate as many personal options as possible, and know how realistically they can come to fruition.
All these ways to understand the political fray and stay the hell out of it still all stand up for me, and I hope they benefit you! – Mike Brown
