Harvard Business Review
The Best Way to Play Office Politics
Harvard Business Review
The Best Way to Play Office Politics
12:07 PM Tuesday January 11, 2011 Comments (1)
Video: 16:12
Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback, authors of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, describe the three types of networks you need to succeed.
Linda A. Hill, Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, chairs the HBS Leadership Initiative; headed the team that developed HBS's required MBA leadership course; and has chaired several HBS executive education courses, including the High Potentials Leadership Program. She is the author of Becoming a Manager and numerous Harvard Business Review articles and Harvard Business Publishing corporate learning modules.
The Best Way to Play Office Politics
12:07 PM Tuesday January 11, 2011 Comments (1)
Video: 16:12
Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback, authors of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader, describe the three types of networks you need to succeed.
Linda A. Hill, Wallace Brett Donham Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, chairs the HBS Leadership Initiative; headed the team that developed HBS's required MBA leadership course; and has chaired several HBS executive education courses, including the High Potentials Leadership Program. She is the author of Becoming a Manager and numerous Harvard Business Review articles and Harvard Business Publishing corporate learning modules.
Kent Lineback, now a writer and collaborator, spent nearly 30 years as a manager and executive in business and government. He is the coauthor (with Randy Komisar) of the best-seller The Monk and the Riddle.
Access Content Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2011/01/the-best-way-to-play-office-po.html
Excerpts:
- One of the biggest mistakes managers make is not recognizing, acknowledging, and embracing organizational politics.
- One becomes powerless by not embracing organizational politics.
- Appreciate that organizations are political entities and that there are within organizations, three sources of conflict that are inevitable. Use these sources of conflict to get things done. Pay attention to their dynamics. Use them and constructively or risk becoming powerless. The three sources of inevitable conflict include:
o Diversity of perspectives.
o The need to work through the diversity of perspectives owing to our interdependance on each other.
o Acknowledging that tough choices will have to be made about how scare organizational resources will be allocated.
- In creating mastery of organizational politics one needs to build three different types of social networks. The people in these networks may overlap. The networks are cultivated through time and built through long-term partnerships. Each requires the development of trust and credibility. Each partnership calls on you to be reciprocal in your relationship with others.:
o Operational Networks: Helps you and your team get your job done every day.
o Strategic Networks: Helps you and your team keep track of and prepare for business opportunities, challenges and threats.
o Developmental Network: Helps you grow and develop. Who you get to know helps you determine what you do. What you get to do helps determine what you come to know.
- How best to build these networks?
o Know and be able to explain how your unit’s activities contribute to the organization’s goals.
o Be clear on what you need to get done.
o Think strategically about the best people to select for your networks and for projects that you may join that will enable you to build relationships with such people.
o In seeking out social network partners, be certain to look beyond just those who you like (people who are similar to us). Instead, be mindful about building relationship with people who will help us get our work done. Don’t limit your network to personal chemistry!
o Be introspective.
§ Ask yourself and others: “How do people see me? ... Do they trust me? … Do they like me? …
§ See yourself as others see you. Understand how you make people feel when in your presence. Understand how people experience you and how they experience themselves when you are with them.
§ No matter how competent you may be, if others see you as a jerk, they isolate you and you in turn loose your credibility with them.
o Avoid network partners who abuse influence. Such individuals display behavior that demonstrates a need to win and beat others. Such behavior is the dark side of politics. These are individuals who loose sight of the organizational perspective and think only of their own personal interests.
o The best way to deal with individuals who abuse influence is by earning your own influence as cultivated through your three networks.
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http://dreamlearndobecome.blogspot.com This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.
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