059: Five Ways to Deal with Office Politics [Podcast]

Office politics creates more personal frustration than work and work schedules will ever create. Today I will share five ways to deal with office politics – five practical things you can do not matter how nasty the situation. While I doubt there are any big secrets here, I have found the only way to relieve the personal stress is to take action. Immediate and decision action. So, here are five actions I would suggest you take to deal with your office politics.

Courtesy Flickr/Creative Commons – Steve Davidson[/featured-image]

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Five Ways to Deal with Office Politics

1. Confront the facts and find the truth.
   Get past the gossip and opinions and go straight to the source.
2. Connect to the influencers.
   Do not waste your time convincing people who do not speak or are not heard. Instead, challenge the influencers on the issues.
3. Do not get personal.
   Attacks on the person rather than the issue will only make things worse. Stick to the facts. If they attack you personally, rise above it. Focus on what they are doing and possibly why. Do not make the person out to be evil. Usually it is not true.
4. Seek the higher ground and a win-win solution.
   We all know the saying “Where there is smoke, there is fire.”  So if upheaval begins, there is a reason. But sometimes the real reason is not obvious. Get to the core of the “why” and work with others to solve the real problem. Is it a power play? What does the person seeking power REALLY want? Often times they have not thought it though.
5. Find the problem behind the issue and a new career.
   If you dig to the bottom of the problem, you often find an unanswered need. If that need is a business need and you can solve it, you just might have a new career.  

“Most office politics result from insecurity. We all want to be needed and can feel threatened. “]

Resources

• Discovering the Entrepreneur in You
• Steve Jobs

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[reminder]What have you done to settle the politics? [/reminder]