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The Workplace Politics Playbook Nobody Gives You · Unspoken Career Truths

• 0:00
  Welcome to unspoken career truths.
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  I'm Cara Wood. And I'm Lauren Levac Gilbert.
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  And we're here to be the Co workers you can trust.
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  It's always there, it's not talked about.
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  It's very important the. Thing is ominous.
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  It's everywhere, Lauren. We got to talk about it.
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  That's a good word for this, Yeah, It's workplace politics.
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  Most people hate them. A lot of people are confused by
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  them. People try to avoid it at all
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  costs, but they are the nature of working with human beings at
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  a company. There's something inevitable
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  about them, but I've definitely worked at places where it's sort
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  of insidious versus it's like the only way you do business,
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  versus the ones where every once in a while something gets a
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  little political, and I definitely prefer the latter.
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  Yeah, I think every organization has like a spectrum of where
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  they are from a work politics perspective.
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  Some organizations are like at an 11, some are at A2.
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  There's a lot of variations in terms of workplace politics.
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  When I was starting out in my career, it wasn't something that
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  was explicitly talked about. And I don't think I like really
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  started to think about it or understand it until like
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  something happened where I was like, whoa, I was like out of
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  nowhere. Where did that come from?
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  And then I had to like ask my mentor and my manager and be
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  like, what the heck happened? They're like, OK, well, let's
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  talk a little bit about like some of the underlying factors
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  here or, or things that you might not have thought about
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  that kind of went into this. As I've gotten further in my
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  career, I think I've learned how important it is and how you
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  really can't ignore it necessarily in some.
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  Situations. Yeah, that's interesting.
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  I was exposed to workplace politics at my kitchen table
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  talk. They say sometimes you learn
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  your work values based on how your parents talk about work.
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  And I definitely learned about workplace politics just based on
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  my parents and other family members experiences.
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  But I'm also from a large family and so maybe there's also just
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  this personality thing where people are focused on, hey, how
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  does everyone get along? But it's all familiar patterns
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  to me. My first job out of college, I
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  remember that two things happened.
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  One person got promoted above me and I was like very confused as
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  to why. And then one person actually got
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  let go and I was like, that didn't make a ton of sense.
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  And there was like a whole underlying story around how long
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  they'd been there and like who they had worked for and who is
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  their advocate and why they got promoted.
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  And I was like, what is this for me?
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  Like listening and learning and reading between the lines and
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  the once I realized that that was like so important, it really
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  did help me kind of understand the workplace better.
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  I'm not saying I like participated in the politics
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  necessarily, but it was easier for me to understand the
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  dynamics. I think you kind of have to
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  participate in politics. You just don't have to play
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  dirty. Like we all, we all think about
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  politics in a number of different ways.
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  And it's it's the way that we reach consensus.
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  It's the way that people get represented.
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  But what you're also talking about, Lauren, reminds me of
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  what you said at the top of this, which is it's unspoken.
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  A lot of times I think politics that don't show up are because
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  of either a history or a hierarchy that you can't see.
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  I really like what you said about it doesn't have to be
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  manipulative, like it doesn't have to be playing games or any
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  of that. And that's how people really
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  look at it. But it's really human nature.
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  So like for me, the things I look for.
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  So if you're in a big meeting, who does the leader go to first?
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  Are they asking someone for a specific opinion?
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  Is one person talking more than other people after the meeting?
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  Like who does the follow up? Who's staying back and who's
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  talking to each other? I really try to observe all
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  those types of things. Who has the influence right and
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  then? I look at what clicks there are
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  so. People.
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  'S social groups who eats lunch together, understanding who's
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  worked together either at past companies or with each other
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  before, oftentimes because they may have a shorthand or a level
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  of comfort. The other thing that plays into
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  politics sometimes is who's vulnerable or has like already
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  backed something because as soon as someone back something
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  publicly they either get support or they don't.
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  And what does someone have to either gain or lose when they
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  are making making a leap or sticking their neck out or
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  advocating for something I. Really like the one about where
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  they used to work. Because that's so true.
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  Like if a bunch of people come in from another company, they
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  have their own dynamic and they're bringing it into the
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  existing company. Yeah.
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  And I who hired who you're you're more likely to take that
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  persons perspective and listen to it more than others.
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  I agree. And there's a lot of data around
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  like how people feel about workplace politics.
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  So 60 to 70% of employees say workplace politics effects their
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  ability to actually get work done, which can happen a lot,
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  right? Because you have to navigate and
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  understand what's happening. 50% of employees report regularly
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  observing political behavior at work, and at nearly one in
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  three, employees say they feel they must engage in politics to
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  advance their career. That one, to me, I don't
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  disagree with. I feel like if you don't play
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  the game a little bit, and again, it doesn't have to be in
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  a manipulative way or negative way, it's going to be much
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  harder to progress if you're in an organization where workplace
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  politics is really prevalent. I actually am surprised at how
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  low that is. One in it's only a third of the
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  people feel like they have to do it in order to advance their
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  career. Because I think on some level,
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  workplace politics are literally just being likable and and
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  listening and liking and influencing people.
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  And I think that is key to advancing your career.
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  That's a great point, Cara, and a great kind of transition into
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  what I wanted to talk about, which is a large part of
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  workplace politics is just being visible, being connected,
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  talking to people, understanding how to navigate, understanding
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  the culture of the company. And it can be something as
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  simple as like aligning before meetings and being included in
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  conversations. Like that's to me, always a clue
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  if like you're doing it right. If conversations are happening
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  on a project that you own and you're not included, to me
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  that's a signal to say, hey, like maybe you should do a
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  little bit at work to network with people or work with your
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  cross functional partners, or be a little bit more visible so
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  that you're included in those conversations.
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  And I know there are people listening who, like you said at
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  the top, have been blindsided by some of that stuff.
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  And sometimes there's a decision that's already been made outside
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  of a meeting and you didn't even know who was involved or how it
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  got made. And you're kind of like screwed
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  over and what makes the politics toxic or like you're not let
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  into that room. You weren't considered as a
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  decision maker. You weren't ever going to have
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  any sway, which is a really frustrating.
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  But I leads into, I was going to share an example of I was tasked
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  with doing this project once and I was told like nobody else is
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  working on it. We need you to kind of get all
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  these cross functional partners involved.
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  I was like, it was, I was early in my career and they kind of
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  outlined like, here's the cross functional partners.
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  You need like get them all on board, come up with a plan.
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  So I like went and did this. I met with all these partners
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  and we had like a readout meeting and I thought I knew
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  everybody that was going to be at the readout meeting and I
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  thought I had aligned with all the cross functional partners.
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  And I come into the meeting and I like gave big kudos to
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  everybody who helped and collaborated.
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  And I give my presentation and there's someone in the room that
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  was invited that I wasn't aware of who was on another team that
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  I didn't even know existed came in And they're like, well, we're
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  kind of doing this already over here.
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  And this is duplicative of our work.
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  I think we should kind of go with the contract and the, and
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  the project that we already have working.
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  And I literally, I remember sitting in that meeting and
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  being like, what just happened? Like I'd never met this person.
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  I didn't even know the team existed.
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  And afterwards I kind of sat down with my manager and I was
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  like, where did that come from? Like I, I, I, I didn't even know
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  that this person worked at the company.
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  Like I didn't know that this function was involved.
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  And my manager was great and, and she was like, this is what
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  happens when you work at a large company sometime.
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  Like I wasn't read into this conversation.
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  It was our, our boss's boss who kind of didn't connect all the
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  dots. So I, I think what you said
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  makes a lot of sense. Like you can do everything right
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  and still not know. And this is like kind of a
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  learning process and sometimes you kind of get thrown a
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  curveball. I don't know Cara if you have an
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  example on your. Side well, and a lot of the
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  examples that I'm thinking about are they always they almost boil
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  down to perception and sometimes you don't know the perception
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  that people have of you or they've set the perception of
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  you based on such a personal thing.
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  I remember learning I went to somebody's goodbye party and the
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  next day so the person had left the company and the next day the
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  head of the company said that was really big of you to go to
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  her goodbye party. Now I didn't think anything of
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  going to her goodbye party. She was in the larger
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  organization, but because she hated you this entire time and I
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  learned all this stuff about things and I was like, I had I'm
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  so glad I didn't know. And I also was like, wow, like I
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  had no idea. The things that she didn't like
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  me for were just we just had a couple of different values.
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  There were things that I would never have thought.
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  Would it have upset anyone? And but then as soon as I knew
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  the background and where she was coming from, I was like, Oh
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  yeah, like, of course it's like, Oh yeah, we didn't totally see
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  eye to eye And for me that wasn't even a deal breaker in
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  respecting her point of view, but she thought we have
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  different educational. Levels.
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  Then we're not seeing eye. To eye.
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  And that's not anything I ever think is factors in but but she
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  did and it was a very real dislike from her perspective.
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  And I was like good thing for the timing.
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  You know, and that's like a political thing that you would
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  have no idea. You can imagine a scenario where
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  someone who really doesn't like you starts like a campaign to
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  get you fired. I've, you know, I've oh.
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  No. You know, but you see that like
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  play out again in like really awful politics.
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  And that wasn't the case in the situation.
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  It was just, hey, you guys have never seen eye to eye.
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  And I was like, I didn't know that a little leadership at our
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  entire company was aware of the animosity and I wasn't, which
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  was embarrassing. Well.
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  Anybody can be thrown curveball. So workplace politics can be
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  complex. I think if you're listening to
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  this and you're like, oh gosh, are there workplace politics I
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  don't know about? What I would say is like, take a
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  beat. Try to observe as much as you
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  can. Have conversations that can give
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  you clues to better understand if you were blindsided or you
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  don't know what's happening or you need to kind of align with
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  different people in different scenarios.
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  For me, I think a lot of it is often the one-on-one
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  conversations and sort of building this now work of people
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  that you do trust. Like for again, I'll go back to
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  that example because I had a good relationship with the
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  leader that told me that and I had a powerful set of people who
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  respected my decisions. And so even though there's
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  someone else who didn't like what I was doing, I sort of
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  already had a network of other people and I the decisions that
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  I made mattered. I wasn't cut out of any kind of
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  decisions. If anything, I think it was
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  actually harder for her because of the connections I had.
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  So I think with politics, having one-on-one conversations and
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  building the rapport that you can with as many people as you
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  can at your company and understanding your own political
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  clout, like who do you have in your corner?
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  Who do you have to talk to and who respects your opinion?
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  That's kind of what you're building when you're building
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  these like political networks. I completely agree and if you're
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  new to a company or just new in your career, I completely agree
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  with or I like build relationships, meet with as many
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  people as you can, cross functioning across the company
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  at different levels. Like be visible, be seen, kind
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  of build that rapport because trust is the first kind of
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  barrier to entry for anything. Like if you can build trust with
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  someone, it's much easier for them to then look to you, ask
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  you a question, bring you in. Yeah.
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  And you talk about trust and I want to put a caveat into that.
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  If there's someone at your company who's saying I only
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  trust people who are super loyal to me or say yes to every
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  decision I make or do these certain like tasks and like
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  favors for me. Like that is a both political
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  person and also an extremely like dangerous person.
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  I don't know, Lauren, if you run into those.
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  But as you were talking about like building and networking,
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  I'm like, there's also this like person that uses kind of
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  political power in a way that isn't about listening and
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  sharing ideas and building consensus because it's a good
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  idea, but is doing it because they are pure political.
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  I have experienced people like that in several of my roles in
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  the way that I usually treated is like, recognize that person.
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  Recognize that you can't change them, understand how you can
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  build a relationship that works with you and that person, and
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  just be very aware of who they are and how you handle any
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  project or any conversation with them and spend extra time.
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  Aligning with that kind of person gives the wrong
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  impression to anyone else around them.
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  So often times for me I like treat that person like even much
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  more like with a kid kid gloves. I probably don't spend as much
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  time with them. I spend like I really think
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  through any of my interactions and I make sure that me saying
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  no to them is like visible, like if it needs to be, you know, me
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  like pushing back on them, me making sure that people still
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  feel like they can be heard outside of that person's little
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  like, I'm gonna say web of influence.
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  But yeah, it's a it's a pretty insidious behavior.
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  And I think it's one of the ones that if we think about the way
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  that politics gets so toxic, it's it's a signal to avoid.
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  100% So at the end of the day, workplace politics exist.
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  They can be annoying, annoying, but they have a place and
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  they're usually at some level at every organization because we're
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  all humans. So figure out how you can
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  observe and listen and understand the politics.
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  Talk to people who've been there for a long time and understand
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  the culture to get a better sense of it.
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  Take account of of your role, your projects, how it's
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  connected to other people. Yeah, and I think about it, I
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  mean, honestly, I think you can relate it to government
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  politics. Like the last thing I'll say
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  about this is how what kind of company you want to work for is
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  sort of like which kind of politics you want to play.
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  So if you want an inclusive, everyone feels safe company,
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  then that means your politics needs to be that too, where
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  you're listening to more people and letting them feel heard.
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  So when you're interviewing, make sure you talk to people who
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  are at your level, below your level across the org to try and
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  get a sense of the environment. That's a wrap.
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  Thanks for joining us on Unspoken Career Truths.
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• 14:48
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