Business Politics

More often than not, people rise to the top because they excel at business politics regardless of whether they are otherwise good at their jobs or not. These individuals possess a clear understanding of their environment and the power they can and cannot exert on that environment to achieve their desired ends… ends that always consider the individual’s best interest but may or may not be aligned with the organization’s best interests. In some instances, this use of personal power is ethical, professional, appropriate, and aligned with achieving the organizations goals; reflecting the practices espoused by StrategyDriven. We call this leadership.  In the majority of cases, the political use of power is self-serving, organizationally destructive, and less than ethical. We call this business politics.

Use It or Lose It

Many in the business world view politics as distasteful and deliberately choose not to actively participate in ‘playing’ politics. Such a choice, however, is a resignation to be marginalized, subject to the whims of those who actively engage in political acts to shape the organization and its direction. Worse still, a failure to use one’s power abdicates it to someone else willing to take action.

To succeed in business, one must be at least competent at playing politics and willing to use possessed and/or perceived power. As these skills are neither taught in school or in the workplace (no self-serving politician will freely give away his or her secret sauce), StrategyDriven dedicates this portion of our Insights Library to providing you with the tools to survive the game – the unavoidable business evil – so few are truly good at.