If you are like most people, you believe that being friendly, socially skilled, and good at relationships helps you succeed at working. While this might be true in some cases, it’s often not the case in a professional environment. It’s important to understand the difference between success at work and success in workplace politics.
Being successful at work means that you’ve effectively contributed to your team’s performance and enhanced your organization in a meaningful way through your work. You can make a difference by providing meaningful work to your colleagues, making business processes more efficient, optimizing operations, etc. As a result of these efforts, your colleagues will appreciate you and will want to contribute more to your objectives.
These activities are what having good political skills means — having good relationships with your colleagues in such a way that they feel connected to your objectives and work. This will help you become successful at work by getting immediate support when needed and by attracting new opportunities.
Good political skills can be summarized as “being liked”, “having social skills”, or “being socially intelligent”. These are all fine qualities and essential characteristics of being a good person. However, being good at office politics doesn’t mean automatically being successful at work.
Failure To Understand the “Rules” Of Workplace Politics
If you’re finding that your career isn’t advancing as quickly as you’d like, it might be because you lack the tools and strategies to manage workplace politics. And don’t feel too bad: most people have never been taught how to do this.
There are many reasons why people struggle with workplace politics. The first is a failure to understand the “rules” of workplace politics. It’s like being dropped off in a foreign country without any knowledge of the language or customs—you know instinctively that there are rules and expectations, but you don’t know what they are and you don’t want to make a mistake by not following them. Many people decide at this point that it’s easier just to avoid the situation altogether than to risk offending someone by violating an unknown rule.
most people have been raised to believe that we should let our work speak for itself. We’re often told not to talk ourselves up—especially if we have done something good. But this is exactly opposite of how the workplace works.
At work, if you don’t talk yourself up, no one else is going to do it for you (unless your boss has a specific HR-related requirement to document accomplishments). So it is important to understand that if you want to get ahead at work, you need to be willing to take credit for what you do.
This may feel uncomfortable at first because it goes against all the “rules” that were instilled in us from childhood. But if you want to advance at work, you need to.
Too Focused On Relationships
Relationships are important at work — but they aren’t everything. A good working relationship doesn’t guarantee success, but a bad one can definitely hinder it. Focus on getting results first, then worry about building relationships later.
You don’t know where you fit in the organization chart. If you don’t know where your position fits into the organizational hierarchy (or even if it does), how can you understand how people should relate to each other? It’s important to know who reports to whom and who has authority over whom — even if there are no formal titles or job descriptions for these positions in your company.
You don’t understand how power works in your organization. Power is often based on knowledge or expertise. It can also come from something as simple as being older than everyone else in the room or being closer friends with the boss than anyone else.
Good People Skills Don’t Translate To Good Workplace Politics Skill
You can be the person who’s excellent at resolving disagreements between your friends and family members, but that doesn’t translate to the office.
How come? Because it’s not about being nice to everybody. People who are really good at workplace politics are strategic about the way they interact with others in the office—they know how to manage up, how to get buy-in from their peers, and how to get things done through influence rather than authority.
People will often tell you that they are good at working with others. They may be good at networking, which is the art of building relationships with people. They may be good at having empathy and being sensitive to the needs of others, which is a great way to build rapport. They may also be very diplomatic and good at communicating in a way that avoids conflicts, which is useful when dealing with conflict-prone people. However, there’s a difference between being skilled in these things and being skilled at workplace politics.
The difference between the two skillsets is subtle but important: the former helps you build and maintain personal relationships, while the latter helps you develop professional relationships that help advance your career. The key distinction is the end goal—with personal relationships, you’re not really thinking about how to move forward in your life or how other people can help you get there; you’re just trying to connect with them as a human being. With professional relationships, though, it’s all about making connections that benefit both parties—and in many cases, one party (usually yourself) benefits more than another.
Success At Work Doesn’t Depend On Good Politics But Rather, Good Performance
It’s tempting to think that the higher you climb on the corporate ladder, the more your success depends on your ability to work the system. When you’re just starting out, it’s all about doing good work and proving yourself—but once you get further along, it seems like knowing how to play the game can be just as important.
Unfortunately, many people find themselves at a disadvantage in this area because they simply don’t know the rules. They have no idea how to read their colleagues’ intentions or decode their behavior, or what their own actions might be sending out to others. Because of this disconnect, they may find themselves being passed over for opportunities, excluded from important decisions, or overlooked as a valuable member of a team—and they’re usually baffled by why this is happening when they feel that they’ve been doing such great work.
The truth is that what really matters isn’t being good at playing politics at all; it’s being good at working with other people. Your success doesn’t depend on whether you’re skilled at manipulating or flattering your colleagues—it hinges on forming effective relationships with them so you can all accomplish more together than any of you could have done alone. Click here
