GHC14: Winning at the Game of Office Politics - Part 2 Huma Hamid12:30 AM 0 comments

This is the second part of my first post here about winning at the game of office politics by Jo Miller. So, let's talk about it.

This third option which Jo presented to win at the game of office politics, is to Become positively politically savvy! 

Photo Credits: Winning at the Game of Office Politics @ GHC14 By Jo Miller

Jo asked all the participants to think about someone they know at work, and liked the way they played office politics. She asked the participants to list down their qualities and characteristics which made them likeable. At the end of the exercise, participants shared that the people they like the most at work are those:

• who are knowledgeable
• who are helpful to other colleagues
• who are convincing during an argument
• who are technical savvy
• who get things done
• who are visible through their team contributions
• who have built credibility among their peers

Jo then introduced a tool to be better at dealing with the office politics. It is called building organizational awareness, by keenly observing the communication and relationships that surround us in our organizations. At GHC, we learnt a new term!

Now let's talk about how to make this organizational awareness work. In order to build the organization awareness, we need to say goodbye to an official organizational chart and  build a shadow organizational map instead. 

Photo Credits: Winning at the Game of Office Politics @ GHC14 By Jo Miller

A shadow organizational map is build by identifying the people we consider as problem solvers. First, we need to draw a new organizational chart by putting these problem solvers at multiple levels, based on their influence and control over others and not the official title they posses. Second, we need to draw a solid line between people who enjoy good relationships with each other and a dotted line for the people with broken relationships with rest of the team. Third, we need to build arrows to represent flow of influence in each one of these relationships. Fourth, we need to put a circle around coalitions and also identity people who are either pushed aside or chose to stay aside on their isolated islands. Fifth, we need to list the factors which glu these people together. It could be going to the same school, previously working on a project together, similar interests or other common activities. It is not always a boy's club as we  mostly think it to be, sometimes it is just more than that. Multiple things can bind people together and we need to identify them. Sixth, we need to identify key influencers, who act as sponsors  or mentors for others with whom  they enjoy really good relationships. 

Photo Credits: Winning at the Game of Office Politics @ GHC14 By Jo Miller

Seventh, we need to add verticals to the shadow organizational maps to understand how its hierarchy works, based on relationships, influences and coalitions. Once, we know how a shadow organizational map is built and works in our teams, we can make them work for us. There are two ways this information can be gathered to map our shadow organizations. First is through face-to-face interactions, second is through virtual interactions. 

Photo Credits: Winning at the Game of Office Politics @ GHC14 By Jo Miller

Every organization has some unwritten, unspoken "rules of the game". In order to be successful, we need to identify some rules of the game in our organizations, so that we can ethically and effectively navigate through those.

Finally, Jo talked about the the three ways to generate quick wins at work. Those will be discussed in the next post. Till then, start building the shadow organizational maps to make yourself organizationally aware of your surroundings. Happy Reading!

Note: Contents of this post are derived from Jo Miller's presentation at GHC and owned by her. Please do not copy them. 

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GHC14: Winning at the Game of Office Politics - Part 1 Huma Hamid11:09 PM 0 comments

What is the biggest roadblock you have ever faced in your career advancement? 

Do you remember the time when you were going above and beyond, delivering more than expected but failed to get enough recognition, promotion, higher designation or a leadership position at your company? 

Photo Credits: Jo Miller @ http://www.womensleadershipcoaching.com/jomiller.htm

These were some really important questions Jo Miller asked her audience during a vibrant and thought provoking session on office politics, at the GHC. The response she received was convincing enough to reflect that the office politics was among the many factors which people think was impacting their career growth opportunities. Explaining the emerging leader's quandary, Jo explained that we cannot get a higher-level job without a leadership experience. But, we can also not get the leadership experience without the job. This sounds pretty challenging, so what do we do? Jo simplified the challenge by giving us the following three point agenda. 

Photo Credits: Winning at the Game of Office Politics @ GHC14 By Jo Miller

In order to take charge of our career advancements, we need to acknowledge the fact that office politics has a role to play in impacting our ability to climb up the leader, and we cannot afford to ignore it. But the real question is, do we actually like playing the game of office politics or do we even consider it to be a fair thing to do? I think it was a very reasonable question to ask, because I myself did not consider it to be ethical or even closer to being fair. But I was not alone to feel that way. Jo shared some relevant studies (Ruderman and Ohlott, 2002) which showed that many women managers find engaging in office politics to be difficult and painful and some even view it as evil. There is a level of negativity and discomfort associated with it, and most of us chose not to be part of it. However ignoring office politics can be deadly for our careers. Erin Burt has placed it on the fourth position while counting the seven deadliest career killers. Jo shared another study by Leslie and Gentry about the people who are politically savvy, having following attributes. 

Photo Credits: Winning at the Game of Office Politics @ GHC14 By Jo Miller

Jo rightly identified that people like us can think of only two ways to deal with office politics. We either tend to ignore it or see ourselves turning into someone we don't like. But there is a third option too.

Photo Credits: Winning at the Game of Office Politics @ GHC14 By Jo Miller

Let's cover that in the second part of this post. Happy reading!

About Jo Miller:

Presenter, Jo Miller is the creator and CEO of Women’s Leadership Coaching Inc. and founding editor of BeLeaderly.com. Through these initiatives, Jo helps emerging women leaders create a roadmap for their career advancement. Jo is not only an amazing presenter, but also a leading authority on women's leadership. She delivers more than 60 speaking presentations annually to audiences of up to 1200. She has extensively traveled in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East to deliver keynotes and teach workshops for conferences, professional associations, and corporate women's initiatives. You can follow her on Twitter @ Jo_Miller. I am greatly inspired by her ideas and her coaching initiatives for women leaders. I have been following Jo for a couple of years now, but this was my very first time meeting this amazing and really inspiring leadership coach, in person. Thanks to GHC!

Note: Contents of this post are derived from Jo Miller's presentation at GHC and owned by her. Please do not copy them. 

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