Playing Positive Office Politics

>> You did it again; you used Helvetica phonetic again.

>> I'm sorry.

>> Are you trying to hurt me?

>> Office politician are energy vampires when they walk into a room they suck energy from people around them.

>> I was wondering if you had that --

>> They suck emotional energy, mental energy and even physical energy.

>> Thank you.

>> You're welcome.

>> Well, I have an appointment with Harry right now.

>> Didn't see it on the books.

>> All that stress, it takes its toll on your own body.

>> Office politics can exist in any work environment.

>> Can you get that to me by the end of the day?

>> Sure I will.

>> Get that back to me by the end of the day?

>> Sure

>> If you choose to stay away from it all it may be good for your psyche but not necessarily good for your career. According to

Leadership Quarterly 42% of a manager's time is spent addressing conflict in the workplace.

>> Most people hear the term office politics and they automatically think negative, bad, it doesn't have to be that way, there's such

a thing as positive office politics. And if you understand the rules of engagement you can make it work for you. There's a few rules

of engagement when you're playing positive office politics and these are less to do with the politics themselves and more to do with

just your own behavior as a person. Look for ways to work cross functionally and this is important because I think most of us get caught

in our little teams and our little social cliques and rather than doing that look for ways to expand your influence. Not only does this

raise your visibility but it also raises your reputation within the organization. There is no one size behavior for all organizations

every corporation, every organization has their own corporate culture and you need to go in and figure out what's going to work in each

individual corporation or organization. Make sure that you're not, without knowing it, offending someone and one of the ways to do that

is to look around at people who are doing really well within the organization, who are really successful and model their behavior.

Let's say that you have a superior maybe it's your own boss or someone that you don't directly report to, you might want to occasionally

walk into their office and ask them for advice or counsel. When you do this you create this sort of protege relationship and then they're

more likely to see you as both proactive and someone that they'd like to protect in the future. Don't spread anything that's negative

don't be someone who gossips, don't be someone who complains and don't be someone who passes along questionable rumors. You don't

want to be pegged as a negative office politician you want to be someone who's forward moving and forward looking.

>> In the world of office politics good karma goes a long way.

>> Let's say that you do a favor for one of your coworkers you stay late and you stay 'til midnight helping them put together packets.

The next morning you walk past their desk and they don't do so much as a thank you, they don't say anything, they don't in any way

acknowledge what you did, how are you gonna feel about that? It's pretty unlikely that you're going to volunteer to help them again.

So, let's turn the tables, when someone goes out of their way to help you make sure that you find a way to pay them back never

underestimate how much people need to be valued, feel like they're making a contribution or making a difference. The more that you

can acknowledge people and what they've done for you, and do it publicly, the more they're gonna want to feed that cycle and give

back to you.

>> Finally, keep in mind that office politicians are only human just like you and I.

>> It's easy to forget that everyone in your work environment is just human we all have our strengths we all have our weaknesses. When

you start to look at these negative office politicians as people with just more insecurities then you're better able to handle them in

a positive way. You can understand what their objectives are, what their insecurities are, what's driving them and then you're better

able to create a win win situation for them as well as for you.

>> For more information go to BNET.com.