We all know what politics at work means…  It’s the mental, communicational, psychological, emotional, and sometimes unfair predetermined biases that exist at work.  Most of us only recognize it as a power beyond our control that we have to obey or else we may not enjoy our job, or even worse, lose it all together.

Here are examples of politics at work.  Having to deal with prejudices, not the “I can sue you type of prejudices,” but the I’ve known this guy longer than you and am friends with him, so he’ll get the promotion before you, type of politics at work.  Can you relate to something like this?

Imagine you’ve been employed for six months and see a new opening at work; a type of opening that would be a promotion for you.  You’re fully qualified for the position and submit your resume to the HR department.  Without surprise you get an interview with the department’s manager. You feel like you nail the interview, and you know who the other applicants are and that you are well more qualified than them.  But you don’t get the job, instead you get a big taste of politics at work, as the manager ends up hiring someone who plays basketball with them during the day, and even goes fishing with them on the weekend.  It sucks, doesn’t it.

So knowing that politics at work exists, what are you to do?  From my experience, there are two options.  First you submit to the game and become “fake” friends or buddies with everyone knowing that it’s the only option you have of progressing within the company.  This idea in and of itself isn’t a bad thing and many enjoy it.  But for the majority of humanity, it’s very difficult emotionally to do something that you don’t enjoy, especially faking a relationship with someone.

The other option is to be so good at what you do, that the company couldn’t afford to exist without you.  This requires almost as much work as “faking” at business/co-worker relationship with the management team.  But politics at work can only be answered by participating in one of these two options.

I would recommend the second, being so good at what you do, that politics in work can never affect you.  You become so valuable at work that no matter what anyone says, you have influence regarding the outcome of the business.  And surprisingly, this aspect leads you to naturally accomplish the first option mentioned above.

So when noticing politics at work, take a second and determine if you want to play the game.  If you want to succeed in the corporate world, you’ll have to play the politics at work game.  It’s up to you to determine which strategy you want to follow.  Either one brings results, but the second is the one with the longest term value and influence, which will make you champion in overcoming politics at work.

To your success in overcoming the politics at work!