Management-Level Office Politics

With mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, and corporate compression, there are even fewer spots available for advancement; office politics is about power, and the competition is fierce. Some career experts offer advice on how to become politically powerful by generating fear in others, complete with instructions on fear-inducing topics to discuss at meetings, what type of eyeglasses to wear, what type of clothing to buy, what desk accessories to display, and what fountain pen to use when signing letters. Remember the 1980s? This type of power was popular then and continues to be popular in some circles today, and it is that greed-power-win orientation that has resulted in a series of giant corporate implosions. The CEOs of these organizations had reputations for blasting through whatever-or whoever-was in the way: They had power. They have experienced financial success at the expense of others, but their personal fulfillment is difficult to ascertain in the chaos of criminal investigations.

There are at least three choices that you can make in a politically charged management culture:

1. You can choose to capitulate and become one of the Machiavellian power-hungry (at what expense needs to be determined by you-my experience with this style was not comfortable for me, or for anyone who knew me!).

2. You can choose to hide and do your best to stay under the radar. (Doing nothing is a choice-not a life-fulfilling choice, but a choice nonetheless.)

3. You can choose to operate from a platform of integrity, shifting the focus to ethical leadership or authentic power. (This choice changed my life.)

Authentic Power

If you shift your focus from trying to generate fear and manipulate the current political-power system to creating and maintaining a leadership culture based on an ethical foundation, then you will be responsible for finding effective, pragmatic solutions to problems, while demonstrating trust, commitment, and values that are shared with those who are led. Ethical leaders are responsible for creating a culture that moves the company and all of its employees forward-and in which politicking is no longer required.

From the two action options given earlier, choose the brand of power you will use-politicized power or ethical leadership-not on the basis of what is currently going on in your workplace, but more appropriately on the basis of who you are and what you want. By defining success for yourself, your life, and your career, by becoming aware of the culture and style of the organization in which you wish to evolve, by identifying the political structures that are being displayed and those who are displaying them, and by making some smart choices, you can be both professionally successful and personally fulfilled.