Do you understand the politics around your role? Can you respond confidently when someone makes a move against your interests?
No?
Well, you’re not alone. I’m starting to think that the most significant factor contributing to failing to deliver in a large organisation, is the inability to understand and manage the politics. Lack of leadership skills doesn’t come close.
A couple of days ago I was talking to Kate. She is an ambitious and talented senior project manager. Hard working and with a reputation for making things happen and getting things done that reaches far across the senior management community in her bank.
Despite this track-record, she keeps getting surprises. Project get knocked off course because of the political manoeuvring by powerful people. No amount of technical capability can help her to prepare for these moves. Yet she hasn’t got a clue how things are working.
Not only is this causing her grief now, she is also beginning to realise it could be career limiting.
At a high level, my FOUR key suggestions to overcome this problem were::
Use every opportunity to learn more about the agendas.
That is the only way of being able to move towards developing appropriate responses. In case this applies to you, here are the main suggestion I gave Kate.
- When someone ask you to do something, don’t just say yes or no. Instead, pause and ask them to tell you a little more about why. What is driving this request? Why is it important? What other priorities is it competing with? Kate’s inclination was to make a swift decision and then get on with it. She was losing a valuable opportunity to learn more while she had someone who wanted to influence her to do something.
- Kate doesn’t particularly do small talk. Maybe you don’t either. In which case, I suggested to her to seize opportunities before/after meetings to get to know people more based on their work related interests. Instead of sitting quietly dealing with emails before the meeting starts, get curious and strike up conversations with others. Try to find out how things are going for them. What challenges are you facing right now with …? How did you get on with …? No, I know you are probably not that interested, but you should be.
- Make notes about key stakeholders. One of my exercises has over 8 topics that you need to know about an individual to discover their political agenda. But, right now, just take a piece of paper and write down everything you know about what is driving a particular individual. Remember to record their personal agenda too. Don’t leave these notes lying around of course, but the act of writing will do two things for you. Firstly, if will crystalize your thoughts. Secondly, it will alert you to the gaps in your knowledge that you need to fill.
- Start talking about the politics with your boss. A little while back a client related a conversation with their boss to me. They were talking about a problem affecting a project. The boss said, “Well, it’s all a bit political.” Unfortunately my client shrugged his shoulders and moved on. No, don’t do that. This is a golden opportunity to learn more, and engage your boss in a political conversation. So, why is it so political around this project? What exactly do you mean?
On the last point, one thing I’ve noticed over the years is that provided you have high levels of trust, people love to share their political insights. All you have to do is ask them. In the process, you’ll also be demonstrating your interest in being able to work the politics.
The Gautrey Influence Blog
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