Are you getting frustrated from your unfair office politics? Are you looking for ways on how to deal with office politics? It is not always the best solution to indulge, be mouthful with rudeness, playing dirty, or sometimes even leave the organization. Though unpleasant, yet this is something virtually present everywhere, though in varying ranges. But the main point is, we should not leave the office but stop being a participant to toxic work cultures.
Backstabbing, turning on false rumors, and licking the boots to keep in with the higher-up professionals are all part of the present office culture. Patience, hard work, and persistence seem to hold less value today. We all work day and night to ultimately put food on our table. We have the same goals, yet some of us wish to take the elevator to success instead of climbing up the stairs.
Today let's examine, why this happens and also look at some of the positive ways on how to turn a bad office politics into a good and benignant one.
Free of politics office place is a rare sight to witness in the current date because all the human resources there enter with certain ambitions, emotions, and insecurities. A single place with multiple working minds, abilities, behavior, sense, and culture is perceived in one single organization but a single goal of growth, development, and earning binds us all.
It is always evident enough to witness that some people hold more power than others, then wanting to use it to their advantage is a mere requirement and wish of everyone, but sometimes it may do injustice to the other. Their talents, aspirations, and rights are sabotaged or undermined in the interim while favoring another. Disagreement on opinions is just the start while it may take a long way resulting in anarchy.
If you witness this in your office, follow these steps before losing control in its entirety. It can only be controlled by developing strategies and noticing the standard reactions of the audience because not all problems get combated with the same weapon.
Different situations need different ways to clear the air.Sometimes the rigid principles and the permanent authoritative staff create the most obstacles. When everything around is changing, there needs a firm need to change the official rules and people. Some people depend on them extensively to lay their game plan and check and mate with other office employees.
Some people trigger their brains for these more than for their work, to stop them at the right point is the most essential task to prevent the toxic work environment.
Networking is essential to office culture but it must not be misused. Understand who is connected to whom, the clan formations, the individual ghosts who remain alienated and aloof, people and their work power and influences.
Try to connect with the lower-ups, as they will provide you with concrete information that will clear your optical illusion. Influential people are experts in creating a mirage, that everything is well in the office, and it is them (people with problems or complaints) who are wrong or unfit for the position.
Watch the game plan from a distance, keep a low profile, and see how people give forth their emotions, what is their driving force to bask in the petty fights, how they exercise their power on their subordinates. It will help you plan your action strategy and its locus point. This is called emotional intelligence, which helps to connect with people and to correct their behavior.
1 Acting naive is not always good: Being sassy to situations around can work well in some situations. Recognizing the game and choosing to play along with your actions can in fact keep you out of office traps.
2 Ascertain to read the room: Office people get infuriated over a minute issue. While giving presentations, some people impulsively feel out of place, by noticing the opinions and attitudes of a group of people to whom you are appealing to as not being interested, but if you learn to read it early, you can still persuade all of them.
3 Observe the outstanding others: Sometimes you may perform your best but not in the right direction, this is when you get stung by a negative remark. But do not overstress yourself, and take it as an opportunity to improve yourself, while watching other successful people.
4 Work on your communication skills: Communication is the best way to connect with others, the more you communicate the more you'll be able to build a positive environment for yourself. Instead of fuelling misunderstandings, try to understand your issues that concern others, and reason out yourself in a case of misjudgment, if needed. This may prove to be beneficial in the long-term.
Office politics usually weed where people feel insecure, and the environment is not so welcoming to healthy communication, openness, and mainly for personal growth. This is what gives way to office politics, which needs to be alarmed at an early stage.
1 Set your position Crying a victim is easy than resisting the storm before it actually attacks. If you give way to problems, they will dance on your head; dealing with them seems more justifiable. If you are running a company, head the race with truth and fairness. But if you work for a company, where these values are disregarded, they try searching for your suitability elsewhere.
2 Confronting the Flat politics We are in a habit of concealing or avoiding facts, but that should not be the case for office politics. Backstabbing, playing false rumors, and the like political games, whenever they seem to affect the integrity of the organization, you need to act the coach and eliminate it in a highlight. Talking about it exposes them to wither away.
3 “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.”…. The office fact is the same as this Swedish proverb. Politics is a natural part; if everyone can manage it well on their part then worrying is of no sense. But when it offends or blocks someone's path to success, then your immediate interference is needed. Destructive office politics is like a slow poison eating the office environment. The best solution is – Encounter it when surfaced.
4 Be strongly peculiar and thoughtful. Curiosity leads to discover facts that were hidden apparently. When you find them, you tend to connect the big picture and the actors playing their significant role in it. Greed, desire, power, and fear drive you to many unwanted things or acts. A leader must unravel the driving force rather than punishing them directly, because sometimes it may not be a personal problem but a communicable virus. If needed, you may even confront the parties to an action. This will make it easier to root out the problem.
5 Transparency must be a choice, not an option. In some organizations, subordinate level employees tend to play politics to misinterpret the actions of the higher-ups, sometimes they can be the partners of the organization or authority of equal influence. Being transparent is the best solution there, which can prevent their dirty tricks to succumb. Acting as an arbitrator is a more justifiable solution. When things are discussed in a transparent environment, misunderstandings are inclined to abolish.
Last, but not least, problems are a part of life. When they enter your aura, see if you can control them, if you can, then act and try. If you can't, then it doesn't mean that you have to sit and cry.
Choose what you can do with it. Either communicate it over or leave from the gate forever, the choice is yours.
But before choosing one, you should always remember, that the choice to run is not always good. You can leave one or two with it, but what if you might find it everywhere in one face or the other.
In the end, you have to find a way to deal with it forever. And that's the best thing, which can't supersede everything ever. Because, when you learn to deal with them, the problem automatically vanishes forever.
