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OFFICE-POLITICS REPLY BY DR. RICK BRANDON AND DR. MARTY SELDMAN<\/strong><\/p>\n Dear Hard working,<\/p>\n In our Organizational Savvy workshops and book, Survival of the Savvy<\/a>, we describe two primary Political Styles:<\/p>\n 1. Power of Ideas style (less political, defines power as substance and work results or ideas, meritocracy of performance being the sole criteria for promotions and decisions, focus on feedback and learning, highlights integrity, has open agendas, believes work should speak for itself)<\/p>\n 2. Power of Person style (more political like Doug: defines power as position power, into relationships or connections being a primary criterion for awarding bonus or selection, focus on image and perception he has versus learning and feedback, highlights success and advancement as well as achievement, has more private or even hidden agendas, and believes in selling oneself boldly).<\/p>\n Beyond the initial Political Style assessment we conduct (you are obviously Power of Ideas and Doug is Power of Person<\/em>), we then explore whether the extreme of the less political has turned it into being Under-political (UP). We\u2019re not convinced you are UP, rather just less political in a healthy zone since you ARE aware of political dynamics or would not be even writing us your letter. The other weakness to consider is whether the more political pollutes into being distastefully OP \u2014 an Overly-political animal (ding-ding-ding, hello Doug!!).<\/p>\n You surely are messing with what we label an OP with all the traits of over-promoting, knowing where to be at the start of a project to take credit or blame others depending upon outcome, treating people only according to how much power they have such as Doug\u2019s kissing up to your boss while dumping on worker bees, possessing questionable ethics and self-interest driven agendas, and being on a power\/ego trip. The problem is that OP’s are very good at what they do, taking the admirable political astuteness we can all use and abusing it for wrong reasons. This is evident in Doug\u2019s verbal mastery, knowing all the hot buttons for the boss, being good at reading others\u2019 image and agendas and manipulating these, adroitly maneuvering to fix blame without getting dirty himself, and cultivating his image at the expense of others\u2019 well-being.<\/p>\n The challenge is that many leaders and top managers who are not Overly Political themselves may have \u201cblind spots\u201d to such OP\u2019s, as your boss seems to show. This can also be due to their being Under-political and therefore a bit naive that they are being \u201cplayed.\u201d Your boss may be afflicted with what we call \u201cCEO Disease\u201d\u2013\u2013 he is not as smart, funny, or good looking as he thinks because he\u2019s believing the ration of brown-nosing BS he\u2019s being dished. He seems blind to seeing the reality of what Doug is doing in terms of avoiding work and taking credit, such as with your presentation. Therefore:<\/p>\n 1)\tBe very careful about making the issue with your boss about Doug personally, since he already seems to have your boss in his hip pocket. If you DO take him on, you might want to learn how to assemble work-out machines. While you\u2019re at it, slip him a Christmas present of Survival of the Savvy (but sign it from Doug\u2026 just kidding).<\/p>\n 2)\tRealize that to some extent you need to live with this situation, so work on getting your emotions vented somewhere else so that they do not leak out in ways you cannot control. After all, \u201csarcasm\u201d is another term for \u201cside-ways anger\u201d in our view, and you could end up looking less than mature in how you express it.<\/p>\n 3)\tDon\u2019t take it personally, as you are one in a cast of thousands who are dumped on.<\/p>\n 4)\tThat doesn\u2019t mean to surrender all control and just be a weakling. Take care of your needs without retaliating. We describe Conversational Aikido in which you utilize \u201cPut Aside\u201d tactics versus \u201cPut Down\u201d or \u201cPutting Up With\u201d reactions to handling verbal attacks such as occurred during the presentation discussion. You can non-defensively and neutrally active listen Doug\u2019s attacks (\u201cWow, you sound upset about this part of the presentation\u2026\u201d, and respond firmly versus harshly or weakly and apologetically so that your image is not further tarnished by how you react. He might even come across as childish. Of course, there is the choice to tactfully reveal that perhaps if you could have received his input and feedback during the preparation phase, he would not be so surprised. Somehow, can you find ways to expose his lack of participation without appearing defensive?<\/p>\n 5)\tWe DO think it wise to have clear boundaries and roles, not so much on your macro-position overall (you\u2019ve already said that is clear that you and Doug are equals but he has an intangible experience edge on you), rather more with each new task or assignment. Request clarity on how the boss wants jobs divvied up or the degree of job-sharing desired, but don\u2019t get blameful. It\u2019s more to ensure that the boss gets what he really wants, so your tone of voice is critical. Mention perhaps that it\u2019s sometimes tough to have access to Doug\u2019s mindshare and time given his admirable workload (and because he\u2019s usually busy with exercise machines!), but that access might have prevented his dissatisfaction at the last meeting with one element of your work product (opening the door for the boss to realize Doug was a slacker). Don\u2019t belabor the point, staying more subtle.<\/p>\n 6)\tWe do suggest standing your ground and stating your working needs to Doug but not getting into a big archeological rehash of all his patterns so you can \u201cimprove the relationship\u201d since Doug won\u2019t care. Instead, without being inflammatory, show that you cannot be bullied. Phrases like, \u201cthat won\u2019t work for me, any other ideas?\u201d and \u201cThe boss is clear he wanted collaboration on this project, so we need to establish set meetings times, which I\u2019ve promised the boss we\u2019ll do. When works for you, so you can keep proper written records of our joint work. I am eager to have your input and expertise, and with your handprint being on this project. That means what I need from you is…\u201d (You can send the message you\u2019re not going to have his non-participation be invisible).<\/p>\n There are never easy answers with OP\u2019s but hopefully having a validation that you are not nuts, as well as possessing a cognitive framework for understanding the behaviors of each Political Style will help you protect yourself and not be thrown off balance.<\/p>\n Thanks for writing to Office-Politics. Let us know how you fare!<\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/p>\n Rick Brandon, Ph.d. and Marty Seldman, Ph.D. Co-authors,![\"dr.](\"\/images\/brandon.jpg\")
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\nSurvival of the Savvy<\/a>: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Rick Brandon, Ph.D. and Marty Seldman, Ph.D. are Co-authors, Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success. Dr. Rick Brandon is CEO of Brandon Partners. He has consulted and trained tens of thousands at corporations worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies across a variety of industries. Dr. Marty Seldman is one of America\u2019s most experienced executive coaches. His 35-year career includes expertise in executive coaching, group dynamics, cross-cultural studies, clinical psychology, and training.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"