BCA

By Jan Leslie and William A. Gentry

In the office the word politics makes many of us think of favoritism, back-stabbing and self-promotion at its worst. But workplace politics is present in all organizations and probably always will be. Avoiding or ignoring it limits you and your organization. To be an effective leader you must acknowledge political reality in your organization and develop your political skill.

Politics, at its core, is neutral. There is good political skill, which most people appreciate, and there is bad political skill, which causes a lot of dissension. People who think badly of politics often associate it with negative personal experiences. Someone got a raise that didn’t seem justified or a promotion for which better candidates were bypassed. When politics works to a person’s advantage, however, they are more likely to see it as a justified result of skill and hard work.

Politics: the ability to understand and effectively influence others

What is political skill? We define it, based on the work of Professor Gerald Ferris, a management and psychology professor at Florida State University, and his colleagues, as the ability to understand and effectively influence others for personal or organizational benefit. Politics does not have to be a zero-sum game, so good political skill can bring positive results for all parties, allowing people to tailor their behavior to particular contexts and people and helping organizations unlock their potential. Leaders continually need to adjust to different people and situations, particularly in this economically rocky time. Politically skilled people know how to do that. They can diagnose a situation and adjust their behavior accordingly. They can also rally support for their views because their peers typically perceive them as more competent than leaders who lack political skills.

A lack of political skill, on the other hand, can have serious consequences both for leaders and their entire organizations. Our research at CCL shows that managers who are not politically astute run the risk of being demoted, fired or otherwise slipping off their intended career tracks, inevitably leading to real disruptions in personnel charts and organizational performance. We’ve found that the less politically skilled managers are, the more likely they are to have problems with interpersonal relationships and with building and leading a team. That means they’re more likely to damage their careers, since CCL research has also shown that poor interpersonal skills are the biggest reason promising leaders’ careers go off course.

Leaders who aren’t skilled look manipulative or self-serving

Here’s an important paradox: If you have political skill, you appear not to have it. That’s because skillful political behavior usually comes across as genuine, authentic, straightforward and effective. Leaders who aren’t politically skilled, on the other hand, end up looking manipulative or self-serving. We all know both kinds of people.

Professor Ferris says politically skilled leaders are masters in four crucial areas: social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability and apparent sincerity. At CCL our research has identified two additional dimensions of political skill: thinking before speaking and managing up. As a leader it’s wise to work steadily on each of them. Here’s a rundown of all six:

–Think before you speak. Politically skilled managers are careful about expressing feelings. They think about the timing and presentation of what they have to say.

–Manage up–and down. Leaders need to skillfully manage up by communicating with their bosses and keeping higher-ups informed. But this can become a double-edged sword; research shows that the people who are most skilled at managing up tend not to invest enough energy in building and leading their teams. True political skill involves relationships with teammates and direct reports as well as higher-ups.

–Influence effectively. Managers who are effective influencers have good rapport with others and build strong interpersonal relationships. They also tend to have a better understanding of broader situations and better judgment about when to assert themselves. That, in turn, creates better relationships. Skilled influencers are not usually overtly political. They are seen as competent leaders who play the game fairly. Their graceful political style is taken as a positive, not negative, force within the organization.

–Get your cues right. Socially astute managers are well-versed in social interaction. In social settings they accurately assess their own behavior as well as that of others. Their strong powers of discernment and high self-awareness contribute to their political effectiveness.

–Network well. Skilled networkers build friendships and working relationships by garnering support, negotiating and managing conflict. They know when to call on others and are seen as willing to reciprocate.

–Be sincere. Politically skilled individuals display high levels of integrity, authenticity, sincerity and genuineness. They really are–and also are viewed as–honest, open and forthright, inspiring trust and confidence.

Whether we like it or not, politics are a mainstay of organizational life. As leaders we can pretend they don’t exist, or we can get in the game right now in a positive way.

From Center for Creative Leadership

 By John Riley

 After months of a wrenching economy, the generally accepted philosophy is that employees have hunkered down and  put any notions of changing jobs on the back burner, at least until economic conditions improve. A study by Salary.Com, a payroll and compensation consulting firm, earlier this year reveals exactly the opposite is true.

 The study reports 80% of employers believe it will be a few months before employees start a job search, however 65% of the employees have already started searching passively or actively and say they will be intensifying their efforts.  Over 7,000 employees and 363 human relations professionals were covered by the survey.

 According to Nicholas Camelio, senior vice president, Salary.com, “Employers were out of touch with their employee’s satisfaction levels and were over estimating the tough economic environment as a deterrent to job seeking. Consequently, many employers have not placed enough emphasis on important retention strategies. This could lead to their best employees defecting during the next year, just when this talent will be most needed to help turn  businesses around.”

 When employees were asked about various industries, financial services, construction and retail were at the top of the list of extremely dissatisfied employees.  The Internet, education/government, non-profit and software and networking came out on top with extremely satisfied employees.

 In another study, this one by Career Systems International  in 2005, over 7,400 employees from diverse industries were asked about things available in organizations that engendered commitment and a willingness to stay.  The most influential factors:

1)      exciting work/challenge(48.4%)                                       

2)      career growth/learning (42.6%)

3)       relationships/working with great people (41.8%)

4)       fair pay (31.8).

With the economic and employment uncertainty, it is no longer easy to plan a career path. As a result, employees, especially the top performers, may rely on mobility as the solution to increased compensation and a better title. Recognizing the situation, many employers are starting to focus on professional growth and skill development as retention tools.

 However, that may not be enough and policies may be incorrectly implemented.  For example, an employer may interpret the employees’ desire for exciting work/challenge as an opportunity for management to reassign a laid off worker’s responsibilities to the employee. For management, it is a logical step in several to help the business survive.

 Then the employee learns that the work isn’t sufficiently different from what he is already doing and neither his compensation nor his title will be changed. So rather than motivate the employee, the transfer of responsibilities becomes a millstone.

 Employee retention is the most critical element in the future success of the business and a strategy to survive should not conflict with a strategy to retain the company’s most important asset. It’s not too soon to revisit your strategies for the future and make sure employee retention is not only on your list, but at the top.

Today’s businesses, communities and leaders are all about change. The business media, the popular press and even many recent issues of Leading Effectively have focused on the fast pace of change, the need to adapt and the challenges of leading in times of great uncertainty. All the talk about change might have you believe that leadership itself has completely transformed, too. David Campbell begs to differ.

Campbell, whose groundbreaking work on career development made him renowned in the field of industrial and organizational psychology, is a CCL Honorary Senior Fellow.

Reflecting on a long career working with leaders from around the world, Campbell shared 21 observations of leadership with readers of his publication. His comments include:

1. Leadership can be taught, or at least learned. I am also fairly certain that it can be stomped on fatally.
2. A definition of leadership that makes sense to me is, “Actions that focus resources to create desirable opportunities.” I have been using this definition for years, but no one else seems to be impressed by it.
3. The world will inevitably focus on the frailty of the leader. If a leader scores a 9 on a 10-point scale, the 10 percent gap between reality and perfection will be what draws public attention — but, as the English say, better a diamond with a single flaw than a perfect pebble.
4. Creative leadership is distasteful to most organizations; it almost always creates unwelcome turbulence. The status quo will usually reign or, perhaps, suffocate. Leaders who attempt to be creative either have to be brilliant or be completely in control. It helps if they are both.
5. People in charge will hang on too long.
6. Two basic dimensions of leadership — task orientation and relationship orientation — have constantly appeared and reappeared in the leadership research literature. Both people and productivity are important.
7. Sooner or later, and it is often sooner, almost all organizations will demonstrate dysfunctionality. Even the simplest organizational tasks escalate in complexity over time, creating either bad feelings or poor performance. Simply assigning parking places or getting the coffee pot cleaned daily will eventually lead to friction.
8. Poor leadership is far more visible from below than from above, which means that in most organizations, those responsible for evaluating leaders — usually their superiors — are poorly positioned to do so.

Printed with permission of Center for Creative Leadership. Adapted with permission from Leadership in Action, Volume 28, Issue 4, 2008; Copyright (c) 2008 Jossey-Bass Publishers/A Wiley Imprint