How to Tackle Workplace Politics - Sawan

Good leaders behave with- humility and drive - they move from being ordinary to extraordinary. 

Trust  has an impact at the speed in which organizations move. Absence of trust creates workplace politics. 

In life it is never our intention, but our behavior makes a difference. 

To build trust - we need to understand that there is a definition to Trust.

It has two distinct sides - character side and competence side. 

• Character is made up of integrity and intend (motive)
• Competence side is made up of your capability and results. 

We trust our parents, but we will not let them do heart surgery unless they are a cardiac surgeon, so the importance of capability and result. 

You can thing this as a tree. Integrity is the root, intend is the trunk of the tree, is it straight or crooked. Capability are branches and results are the leaves. 

When we have the four components in place, we have the fruit of trust. 

Relationship need sincerity, energy and effort. Ability to take risk together and overcome it together. This is what leaders provide. People matter. 

Is Conflict harmful? The word has the connotation of people having disagreement and difference of opinion. Word makes you feel that it is detrimental. There is a range to conflict. There are two distinct end to this. 

1. Artificial harmony : The yes man. Chamcha.
2. Personal attack : 

Centre of the spectrum is where conflict. 

Conflict is to shed light on a topic, and not shedding heat on a topic. Nobody has monopoly on great ideas. Mind for conflict that is true and can be beneficial and best ideas will come out. That is the environment that employees want. Everything should feel being part of the leader. 

Employees feel empowered when they feel that they are part of a mission. 

Ton of articles on leadership, and is gone beyond buzz word. There is a misconception that if someone has reached Managerial position must have leadership quality. 

There is a difference between manager and leader. 

1. Management is about POSDC. 
2. Leadership is about the ability to create a mission who lead from front, with iron will and tremendous humility and code of ethics. They know what they want, and do not get influenced by circumstances. 

Real leaders walk the talk. They know when to express opinion, advise and when not to do anything. There is a fine line of balance, on when to work on an individual. When you work on them, you always win. 

Unfortunately the HR system is broken - Indian management is finest management, and HR is talented, HRs true role is to become an integral partner with each department. Make the company a factor of phenomenal people. They need to resent in version 2.0. They need to make people understand what are the core values. 

They should also be able to define the business results.

There will be four type of people:

• Who don't have value and don't provide results, Not fit to be in the team. 
• Have value but no results - their skills need to be addressed 
• Does not have the value but produce the result - if they do not have value their promotability will not work, and they will become and issue gradually
• Superstars. 

Invest in executive and leadership coaching. The journey to top can be lonely. You are making difficult decisions. 

Healing in a virtual environment, building relationship is difficult.  There needs to be an HR revolution to take companies to the next level. 

Any company that you are part of , there is existing level of politics in play there. You get to choose your friends, fitting into a system, and being in agreement with it, is not same thing. It need some amount of street smartness. You have to win peoples heart, so fitting into system comes first. Or the system will not tolerate you and will throw you out.

Unwritten rules:

1. You are being judged at all times - your physical appearance, smile, handshake, acts, - by you supervisor, boss, colleagues, team. Are you composed, are you trying to win an arguments? Spoken word cannot be taken back. This commitment is more important than breathing, and it will lead to damaging trust. 
2. Do not appear too busy. The people who are the busiest are the most available. Honor your deadlines. It's okay to ask for help. If you are someone who is complaining, it can become addictive and will become expert at it and will not be a solution provider. Keep your home life at home. Polite conversation in work place is okay, don't become over involved in others personal matter. What is not necessary to say, it's very important not to say. Do Compliment when you see good.
3. You are responsible for getting your work noticed. E+R=O. Event + Response = Outcome. No complaining. Fix it. 
4. In the professional context you are not paid for your time, or knowledge. You get paid for the value of results you provide. You have to be superb at your job.  Don't stay still. Act.
5. Insane work ethics. Get ready for a guiling journey. You have to pay for the price. If you stay in a big mansion, you will have more to clean, bigger electricity bill. First invest time in learning the game work hard. 

If your organization has top level change frequently, it is a system of underlying disease. If you don't get reward for your results, it is pointing at a gap in the top level and cultural issues. Sometime even top management, has difficulty to change the culture and DNA of the organization. 

There is a version of you take a deep introspection of yourself, get someone's advise, find if it is a cultural issue, which you are unable to fix, look at other organizations for prospect. 

Statistically speaking, can't say if this is the biggest factor for people leaving, but it is one of the major factor. There is lot of stress for people who are left behind, with many people loosing job. Journey of entrepreneurship will be 10 times more difficult. Many go into with a passion. If you love cooking, prepare meals for family and entertain friends, you cannot manage restaurant business, unless you know a lot of other things. You need to understand statistics, business, marketing and many more things. 

It's the job of the leader to set the context and let know the team about the project/job, to avoid conflict. Even if it is without context or it is a role pay, it will be upto us to invent, our self  and prove that you can be relied upon to take on such role and pull them successfully. 

 Is ignoring office politics right? Confronting can be difficult. Start getting comfortable to become uncomfortable to make a great carrier. Focus on your work, keep your nose down and chip away at what your responsibility are. You have to keep your blinders on, and be street smart. You can't be ignorant. Don't entertain, but keep it in your vision. To groom someone, to make yourself grow, you cannot play the blame game, its not a team behavior. You need to bring solutions to the table. You will need serious people to bring serious solutions. 

Fundamental for amazing career, the road to career development is paved with personal development. You have to see the upside and downside, and look at from a neutral place. Don't be influence by the circumstance, but look at both sides. Interpersonal skill will play a huge role, in how you make decisions. Work on your strengths. Don't bother about what is wrong with you. When you work on your strength, you work with your heart and mind. Strength =Talent*Investment

Work on personal development, interpersonal skills and strength.