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?
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.
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.
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.
Let's cover that in the second part of this post. Happy reading!
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?
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| Photo Credits: Jo Miller @ http://www.womensleadershipcoaching.com/jomiller.htm |
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| 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.
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| Photo Credits: Winning at the Game of Office Politics @ GHC14 By Jo Miller |
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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