187: How to Win at Office Politics and Keep your Integrity

[00:00:21] Because of office politics. I’ve talked to so many leaders who tell me, Oh, Zach, the politics here are out of control. I feel stuck. I feel confused. I just hate this environment. It’s toxic. Office politics has been coming up more and more lately. I actually had a session with a senior engineering manager named Matthew recently, and Matthew was telling me about how office politics were his number one problem. [00:00:50] When I asked, what’s the barrier between where you’re at today and getting to your goal, a director promotion, he told me that the number one barrier was dealing with office politics. He doesn’t enjoy it. He doesn’t want anything to do with it. He doesn’t want to play those games. He feels like it. Causes him or forces him to compromise on his integrity, to compromise his values. [00:01:14] He’s frustrated by nepotism and all these things that happen. And he wants nothing to do with office politics. And he said, Zach, you should see the place where I work. The politics here are out of control. There’s sleazy networking everywhere. I think I just need to get out of this company and go to a different company because the politics here are the problem you and I both know. [00:01:37] It doesn’t matter where you go, what company you work at, office politics exist everywhere. In fact, think about the definition of the word politics. we’re all conditioned to associate the word politics to government, Republicans and Democrats, thinking about politics in that frame. [00:01:59] And that’s what gets all the media, press and times thinking about government. But politics. exists anywhere that there’s two or more people gathering with a common cause, a group that wants to focus on a specific outcome, and there are decisions to be made involving the resources that that group is in control of. [00:02:22] What are we going to do with those resources? What are we going to do in the distribution of power? Amongst this group, the status in the hierarchy, that’s an essential set of decisions anywhere, two or more people are gathered. You’re actively making those same decisions on your projects today. You’re negotiating for resources. [00:02:44] You’re negotiating and influencing as a leader for the things that you need in order to deliver the results that the company is asking you to deliver. And when you’re not given those resources, you go to bat for them, or you Come up with alternative solutions. You engage with other people to solve that problem. [00:03:05] And inherently there are political decisions in there to be made. And while I understand Matthew’s point of view, and it’s true that some company cultures are worse than others when it comes to the toxicity or the type of dynamic that might exist around politics. But as an engineering leader. If you’re introverted, if you’re generally not a fan of dealing with those conversations and you use that as. [00:03:34] The excuse, you become a victim to that and say, I just want to do great work. I don’t want to deal with politics. I just want my work to speak for itself. Well, that doesn’t work. If you want to have influence, if you want to have the power to make the decisions that are ultimately the best for the company, for your teams, for your projects and for your own career and lifestyle, then we must be willing to play that game. [00:04:03] You’ve got to be willing to step in and Some people don’t like thinking of it as a game. That’s fine. Call it what you want, but the dynamic of political decisions, decisions about resources and power and what we’re going to do and what we’re not going to do are things that we must be willing to step into if you want to have the biggest possible impact and experience the biggest possible reward in your career. [00:04:28] So Matthew and I were speaking through this and it was so obvious how his mindset was. totally colored by his distaste for this idea of politics. He had put a completely negative label on anything that even resembled office politics, and it was creating a huge barrier for him. But the barrier was not the politics. [00:04:53] The barrier was Matthew’s mindset about the politics, his belief. That there was no way for him to step in and influence without doing things that would compromise his values, without becoming someone who he did not want to become that mindset is the true barrier, not the politics themselves, there are lots of introverted leaders. [00:05:18] Who have tremendous influence. There are lots of engineering leaders who don’t like the toxicity of nepotism or negative politics step into the political arena of their company in a way that is positively beneficial and impactful for themselves, for their teams and for the company. So Matthew was getting in his own way. [00:05:43] Because of what he believed about politics. And maybe you do the same thing. There’s such a negative impression, such a negative connotation about office politics, that our mindset is immediately colored by that negativity. And we don’t have the courage or the willingness to step into that environment and be an agent of positive change. [00:06:03] And that’s what you can do. And that’s what you must do. If you want to reach these higher levels of career, especially in bigger organizations. And still enjoy the journey. So what’s the mindset shift that Matthew and I talked about in his session and that I want to give you today to support a future where you can step in and make that impact rather than saying, I hate office politics because fill in the blank reasons, what if instead? [00:06:38] You said, I love office politics because I love my people. I love my projects. I love my customers and I influence. The resources and the power necessary to make the best decisions for those people, for those projects, for those customers. What if you believed that? What if you shifted your mindset to loving? [00:07:14] The opportunity to step in and make a positive impact on the decisions that are being made in your company right now around the resources and the power to do amazing work, to do projects that matter, to do things in a way that your people will benefit, to lead them well, to help make their lives more fulfilling. [00:07:37] And in the process, set yourself up for the success and the achievement and the lifestyle that you want along the way. These are not mutually exclusive. The mindset shift from I hate politics because fill in the blank your reason to I love politics. Office politics because, and let’s fill in these empowering reasons. [00:08:01] I love office politics because I love my people. I love my projects and I love influencing the decisions that are made on resources and power to enable the best possible decisions, the highest possible value and the best quality of life for myself and my teams. Now that is an empowering mindset. Begin nurturing that. [00:08:28] Write it down. Say it out loud. Start looking for those opportunities and evidence that that influence is impactful to you, that this is meaningful to you, and that it is worth Seeing a shift in your mindset. You’re not going to solve the office politics problem in your career by believing and nurturing a mindset that you hate office politics for all of the reasons that Matthew did. [00:08:54] The only way to open the door to a new and better future when it comes to these relationships is to start shifting that mindset. You can go to a dozen different companies to try to escape dealing with office politics. And I promise you in the end, you’re still going to face. These same moments and decisions and meetings and things that you ultimately have complained about in the past. [00:09:19] If you aspire to leadership in your career, this is a part of it. So number one, most important thing is to begin shifting that mindset. When Matthew did that, when he started to buy in that, it’s not true that he hates the politics. What he hates is the idea. Of compromising his integrity, the idea that there’s only one way to do it. [00:09:42] And that way is sleazy or with nepotism or with all these negative words. When he opened up the idea that he actually does love politics because he loves his teams, because he loves those outcomes that matter and that there is a way to show up in a political environment at work. Aligned with your values with full integrity that opened up curiosity for Matthew and I want you to get curious to what’s the strategy. [00:10:10] How can you participate in the politics in a way that feels really good and in a way that is impactful and allows you to keep your integrity? Well, number one, you’re not going to make that impact if you don’t have proximity, proximity is power. Politics are about decisions of resources and power. Well, proximity is power. [00:10:34] If you’re not in the room. If you’re not in relationship with these other decision makers, with these other political actors, then you don’t have the power. You have no ability to influence if you’re not in proximity. So we need to get in the room. Now that doesn’t necessarily have to be physical. I’m talking the, the figurative room of where decisions and relationships are being built. [00:10:57] That could be on Zoom, it can be phone. Of course, it’s great when it’s physical proximity. You can actually get to know somebody in the real world, shoulder to shoulder, shake their hand and make an impact That way. There’s no substitute for being physical. Uh, in physical proximity. You need to do what it’s required to get into the room. [00:11:16] Without proximity, you have no power. The second piece then. Once you’re in the room is thinking about your strategy for how to build the influence and you want to start one person at a time, one person at a time. Don’t expect that you’re going to completely change the culture or types of decisions that are being made in your organization. [00:11:44] In one foul swoop in one meeting by standing up at the front and starting a big speech or starting an argument or something like that, focus on one person at a time, find the person who’s most aligned with your vision and your values. They may not be perfectly aligned, but who is the most aligned start building proximity and relationship and influence with that one person. [00:12:10] Influence is built one person at a time. Your political influence in the organization is built one person at a time. Go find that ally. Find that person who’s an advocate for you, who may be a sponsor for you. This could be a mentor. It could be a peer. It could be your boss. It could be anybody who’s aligned in terms of the vision and values. [00:12:31] Start one person at a time, and here’s the technique or the tactic when you want to begin creating more influence, which is increasing your political power within the organization, we begin by doing it through questions, questions, asking the right questions. Questions asking powerful questions, asking questions that lead people toward your point of view, toward the vision, towards the things that matter the most questions is how you create the influence. [00:13:10] The reason Matthew was so frustrated with politics is when he looked around at these meetings. Everybody was just arguing and fighting and jockeying for their perspective. It was all about me, all about me. And he really felt out of integrity in doing that. He wanted to be seen and known amongst his teams in engineering as a servant. [00:13:32] He didn’t like raising his voice or creating these very argumentative situations. That wasn’t his style. And so he avoided those interactions because he didn’t want to show up that way. And he felt like he could not do that. But when we incorporated this technique, meeting one at a time and asking the right questions, he started to build relationships. [00:13:58] He started to build his influence. He started to have more voice in the room. People started asking him for his opinion and perspective more often people began to trust His expertise and his strategies, they started to lean on him more. And over time he was able to show up and create a different environment because of the work that he put in. [00:14:24] Asking questions is the tactic, not starting fights, not giving a great pitch or trying to be some. Master orator, a public speaker who can move the whole audience. If you have that skill, awesome. Use it, leverage it. That’s great. But the truth is most engineering leaders don’t. And even if you did, there’s not a lot of environments or forums where you can use it in your company, but getting somebody in a one on one and asking the right questions, you can begin doing that tomorrow. [00:14:56] What are the right questions? How do you formulate a powerful question? I’ve created a guide to answer that question. on how to influence and get what you want at work, a guide to powerful questions. And I’m going to put a link in the show notes right at the top that has a page where you can go to download that full guide. [00:15:16] Different environments, different places where you’ll need to ask questions. The principles behind how to ask powerful questions and build your influence. I’d love for you to go grab a copy of that guide and start leveraging it immediately. There’s over 60 questions in there. You can begin using tomorrow to start increasing your influence and getting what you want at work. [00:15:37] So go click the link in the show notes and. Grab a free copy of the powerful questions guide, how to create influence and get what you want at work. That’s the tactic that we want to leverage. I understand office politics can feel like a drag. And if you don’t begin by changing your mindset, that’s never going to change. [00:16:01] But when you’ll shift your mindset, if you’ll recognize that if your company has more than one person in it, you’re going to face politics so we can. Hate that and let it ruin our whole career, or we can fall in love with the idea that making decisions around resources around power is an opportunity for you to create the best possible outcome. [00:16:25] And we need people like you who do have integrity, who do have values that make the culture better to be active participants in those decisions. So that our companies become places that we all want to work. You can be an agent of change for that. Get in the room, start with one person and begin by asking powerful questions. [00:16:48] Go download a copy of that guide. It’s going to help you tremendously in what that looks like and how to begin starting tomorrow. Matthew made this shift and when he did, he realized that all of that baggage and all of that complaining was in fact, the very thing that held him back from a career of higher impact, ultimately higher income and the opportunities that he wanted to have at the higher level. [00:17:13] And he’s now a director of engineering and crushing it. You can have those same results. Let’s get started. Let’s change our mindset and make the shift to not just dealing with office politics, dealing with them in a way. That creates influence and actually makes work really fun. Work can be fun. [00:17:35] Let’s make it fun. Start now. If you have any questions about this, reach out, ask me, I would love to connect with you. You can always send me an email. My contact info is in the show notes. You can find me on social media. LinkedIn is the place I hang out the most, but I’d love to hear from you. If you have any questions, download the free guide. [00:17:54] And if something in there doesn’t make sense, send me a note. Let’s see if we can clarify that so you can get into action and get after it. Let’s do this.