How Do We Clip The Office Politics?

Office Politics Lurk Quietly Inside

We have a tendency to judge the wrong things when we hire people.  We judge how they look, how they treat us and how they respond to the pressure of the moment with us.  Actually, we do not even do that stuff very well.  We have a strong tendency to hire people we like.  We surround ourselves with people who know we like them.  'Like' is the criteria.  We use how we like them as our main criteria for hiring the people we employ to do the work we need to get done.  Usually if we do not like them, we do not hire them.  Therefore, in the end 'like' is the reason we hire the people we hire.  We 'like' them.  We therefore begin the process to permit office politics to arrive.

One of the things owners do well is support the decisions about who they hired.  If the owner hired Andy, Andy gets stronger chances to stay employed than anyone else.  If the owner hired Billy, Billy gets stronger chances to stay employed than anyone else.  If the owner hired Karen, Karen gets stronger chances to stay employed than anyone else.  If Cindy did not get hired by the owner and the owner does not like Cindy, she will be judged by the owner tougher than Andy, Billy or Karen.  That is how most business organizations are built.  We call this process, politics.  Politicking plays a huge role in how the performance of a business behaves.  Whistle-blowers are not accepted very well when they see and hear how the politicking hurts the performance of a particular business model.  The owner will actually gloss over the accused if they are one of those he hired.  Andy, Billy and Karen can get away with more unproductive stuff than anyone else.  It is a very natural phenomenon.  The only thing that can hurt Andy, Billy or Karen is if they somehow do something that offends the boss very deeply.  Guess what?  Andy, Billy and Karen recognize this truth.  They know it well enough and actually 'play' the boss very well.  It is an interesting game.  Every boss has this affliction.  Office politics has opened fire and the war is on.

Let the games begin.  When the politics of the business model grow up they transform into a strongly unproductive series of games people play.  Pockets of employees gradually form into small groups of power manipulators that work the boss in ways that do not have anything to do with business performance.  Long periods of this kind of activity tend to grow into unproductive pieces of business management.  Company goals and objectives become skewed as they get mixed up into the process of the business politics within the human dynamics that are forming.  Andy, Billy and Karen are the best ones to benefit from this process.  They are protected the most from the actions the boss uses to distract his company from becoming a non-productive human political machine.  The politics of 'boss' and the preferences of the 'boss' are played quietly to lean in the favor of the ones the boss 'liked.'  Andy, Billy and Karen will win most of the dynamic battles within the office politics.  The 'boss' likes them.  How do we clip the office politics?

During all of these interesting developments within each organization is the process of operating a healthy business model.  The desire to compromise company performance gives way to the desire to remain 'liked.'  The boss liked them so the boss wants them to like the boss.  It begins to work in the opposite direction.  Andy, Billy and Karen recognize this truth.  They benefit well when they work this pattern of who likes who into their daily job duties.  If they 'pull it off' well they can help to insulate how badly they can perform and continue to get away with it.  If they play it well enough, the boss will never see how poorly they are performing.  We protect what we like.  We gloss over the work they are not doing.  We judge the ones we like a lot more forgiving than how we judge the ones we do not like.  It is natural to the working human being.  Every single business model lives in its productive life through these kinds of business politics.  It is part and parcel to every organization who has groups of people employed.

So if this is true, how does an owner defend against his own will to like the people he liked?  How does an owner manage the ones he likes as fairly and squarely as the ones he does not like?  How does an owner pull this kind of difficult thing off?  Every single boss I have ever met does not actually believe he plays favorites at his business model.  Yet when I am invited into the model to examine some things, I always see it.  The boss is blind to this fact, ever single time.  I am here to tell all of you, if you are a boss...you are guilty of playing favorites.  Quit denying it.  It is hurting your business performance.  I am guilty of the same stuff, too.  We all do it.  It is as natural as sleeping once each day.  We all do it without giving it much fanfare.  We play favorites.  Fess up and move on.

I once had a business mentor from Vancouver, Washington who was a retired doctor ask me if I remember the little chairs and the little tables in my young girls' kindergarten classes?  He asked if I remember those little chairs?  I said I did.  I remember sitting in those little chairs with one of my girls when we would go to the teacher conferences.  That mentor asked me if I knew why those little chairs were there?  I said, "Well of course, the girls were little back then."  He said, "No, your wrong.  Those little chairs were there to remind the adults that you need to move on."  Fess up and move on.  We play favorites.  End of discussion.

Now, how do we manage this weakness?  How do we learn how to treat our employees with more objectivity?  How do we become completely fair on our judgement trail?  How do we improve how we manage the people we do not like as well as we treat the ones we do like?  When you put it that way, it sounds different...doesn't it?  We play favorites and they know it.  They know it well enough to push the right buttons on our skin that will produce the best arrangements for them to manage.  The staff will play us well.  Owners may not recognize when they are being played.  Trust me...Andy, Billy and Karen know full well what they are doing to maintain the favor of their boss who likes them...and Cindy is pissed off about it.  Remember, Cindy will produce some damage to your organization somewhere.  She will get even.  She will disguise that damage very well.  What's more, even the political work Andy, Billy and Karen perform will grow up to damage the organizational ship somewhere.  I have watched many 'teachers pets' actually get away with stealing over and over again from the company assets.  In many cases, the 'teachers pets' do the most damage.

It Is The Leader That Determines The Performance Level Of Pain 

When your business politics grow up your business model will need to put up with the damage it makes and it must accept that damage without very much awareness except how the customers respond.  Customers flee from junkie group dynamics.  They also do not write little notes to the boss to describe why they took flight.  They just magically disappear.  The boss will blame the economy.  Nobody caught 'em.  This is squarely how office dynamics can hurt a business model.  The boss is the one who is to blame and escapes all judgement in the process.  Not once during the reading of this common problem did any one of you think about how wrong this boss was for playing favorites.  We all were picturing our own Andy, Billy, Karen and Cindy's.  We can relate to those characters in our own organizations.  The real root of this problem is behind the desk where the boss sits.  Andy, Billy, Karen and Cindy are not the reason why this model is shooting itself in the foot.  The boss is the fault.  This boss lacks proper skills to manage people well.  That is the problem.  It will also always be the problem until this boss learns how to improve his skills and learns how to use better techniques of leadership.  If Billy leaves this employment and is replaced by Kevin, the same dynamics will begin working on day one.  Kevin will just become the next player to participate.  The boss allows this kind of play.  Bad dynamics come from the top, people.  Get out of the little chairs.  Learn how to lead people in more effective ways.

How do we clip the office politics?

We don't.  Only the boss can make that happen.  Until the boss decides to improve their leadership the office politics will remain present.  No employee can win at the politicking game when the boss operates with favoritism and unfair slants of perspective.  It is that simple.  The politics will become part and parcel of the organizational actions.  When the boss permits and plays it, so do the employees.  The dynamics will remain and as a result, they will continue to hurt the performance of the business model.  If you are a boss and you are puzzled by the rotten dynamics within your organization...get yourself some better swimming lessons.  You are drowning.

It is so hard to evaluate self.  We cannot be objective to our own performance appraisals.  Who in their right mind believes we can be honest with ourselves?  That might be where the problem begins.  We call that kind of warped thinking a clue.  It is a major 'tip.'

If you are one of those owners who truly believes you can properly and objectively evaluate your own performance, you have some very ugly office dynamics playing pretty hard in your organization.  Denial will not remove the damage it is doing.  Justification will not prevent the numbers from suffering.  Your business model will not improve its failing positions.  Get used to it.  Out of control politics works just like cancer.  It is slow, quiet, undetected, persistent and deadly.  If you have a long line of wrong politics happening in your organization, your numbers have not been good for a very long time.  It cannot always be the economy.  It cannot always be the location.  It cannot always be some other reason for the poor performances.  Get out of the little chairs and grow up.  Move on.  Get your leadership into some mentorship programs and work on improving those skills.  The boss has the largest chair.  Fill it out.  Quit trying to place little shoes in that big chair.  Move on.  Kill the rotten dynamics that are eroding your goals, dreams and objectives.  Objectives mean objective.  Objectives do not translate well into favorites.  Objectives mean objectives.

How do we clip the office politics?

We clip the boss, that's how.  Leave Andy, Billy, Karen and Cindy alone so they can learn how to do their job better.  As we grow, we can add Kevin to the mix without fear that we employ too many.  What a concept!

Until next time...