By Dr Renate Volpe

My absolute favourite workshop which I currently facilitate is “Political Intelligence in the Corporate World”. A critical point which I make sure I get across to the attendees of this workshop is that, whether one is comfortable with politics or not, one simply has to become politically astute in the world of work. Politics will occur at your place of work - they can simply not be avoided. Even if you choose not to play, you will be played. So it is wiser to be informed, and understand what is happening, so that the action or non action you choose to take is well informed rather than ignorant or reactive.

The general perception around politics in the work place is a negative one. We all immediately think of people working the system to their own benefit.

How about the following for a turn of thought?

Speaking for myself in my earlier years as an idealist and optimist, I preferred to believe that hard work and principled behaviour alone would ensure my career path.Looking back there was so very much I missed and simply did not understand.

Leaders are astute players of politics. Both leaders and managers use both overt and covert means to motivate their staff, to influence their managers and to collaborate with others to achieve objectives.

In brief it comes down to the fact that should we take on the responsibility to better the workplace - we could only achieve this by being politically astute. Think about it for a moment. We would approach selected people and sell our ideas or seek their support. Others we would exclude from our communications. What is that other than politicking?

Let’s unpack this a little.
What is the difference between politics and influence?
Generally speaking, we refer to politics as bad and influence as good.
But politics equals influence! So what is the difference?
The only difference is the intention or motive behind the action.
That is, influence is ethical and in the organization’s interest, and politics is underhanded and self-focused.

Politics is not bad if it works to serve company goals by making sure that the workplace is productive and that morale remains high.

The real difference rests in the eye of the beholder!
Look at it this way. If you like the person and believe in what they are doing, you would see their behavior in a positive light. If you dislike the person and don’t like what they are doing, you would reframe it negatively.

Test this by looking at the columns below:
Don’t like	Like
Sucking up	Building relationship
Hoodwinking	Persuading or influencing
Power hungry	Career minded
Opportunistic	Astute
Scheming	Strategizing
Pitting people against each other	Encouraging change and innovation
Manipulation of information	Communication strategy

So how does one become politically astute? Where does one start?

You start by recognizing that there are multiple interests in organizations. You have to know what interests there are, and to whom they belong. Individuals and groups hold various positions - so you need to know how they’re different from your own. To get things done you must have power. If people oppose you, then you must get more power than them because you need power to get people to do things - this gives you influence which increases your effectiveness.

So begin by assessing your power base.
Do you have information power and have first or immediate access to important information.
Are you centrally positioned in a network? That is, are you on a committee, or leading team?
Do you have autonomy? That is, how much freedom, discretion and independence are you given?
Are you persistent? Just think for a moment about children and the power of nagging. Do you give up too soon?
Do you maximize your personal power? Are you charming and good to be around?
Are you an expert in a field and sought after for your opinions and knowledge?

In essence there are four political types. They can be understood by understanding their needs as a person, assessing whether they initiate action, and whether or not they have respect for others.
1. The recognition winner - takes initiative but is inconsiderate of others.
2. The person driven by a need for personal mastery - takes initiative and is considerate of others.
3. Those driven by their safety and security needs - do not take initiative and are inconsiderate.
4. And those driven by a need for acceptance - do not take initiative and are considerate.

Obviously we would all like to believe that we qualify for the No 2 slot. A most surprising insight is that, most often those that finally are astute and wise leaders, have experimented with all the other styles. It all comes down to acknowledging our strengths and weaknesses, and choosing to work with our strengths.

See next Political Intelligence workshop elsewhere on this website.