As everything does, navigating corporate politics begins with you. If you take the stance, that stance of creating civil behaviour toward each other, you can change your organisation.
If you use discourse without fear, you can manage politics. It does require you to do three things first:
- Step into part one of the ‘brave shoes’ tenets which is to realise that you have the potential to act on making corporations ego-less and apolitical.
- Acknowledge that, despite the world not always having good examples to demonstrate this, we are all equal in the eyes of the law – translate that to corporates and it means that every role has a part to play in ridding politics within a company – no matter what your status.
- Acknowledge that, what you allow will continue – whatever role you hold in an organisation, you should be able to civilly call out political agendas and ploys – ensuring to play the ball and not the man.
Before giving you my tried and tested way of navigating corporate politics, it must be said that you cannot, and should not, operate in fear. If you are working in a fearful organisation where you can’t be yourself; can’t have adult conversations; can’t challenge conventional wisdom passionately; and can’t take action within yourself or your team to set an example to the rest of the business, well, then you should find yourself another job because this is a toxic culture with toxic leadership.
Part 1 of navigating politics, that I have tried and tested, is setting the framework in all of my meetings. Why is this step 1? Because using this framework is in my control. I can’t control others – I can only attempt to add some level of control to my daily work.
This framework consists of setting ground rules in my meetings. I do this to ensure that the focus is on the outcome and, as a consultant to an organisation, I don’t get sucked into petty play. If a consultant can do this, a permanent employee can too (remember – we are all equal). My ground rules are:
Ground Rule 1: Don’t make me read between the lines – say it as it is (and if you are a subliminal bully – act like an overt bully and be transparent – I will probably respect you more).
Ground Rule 2: Don’t use sarcasm in your conversation with me – refer to Ground Rule 1.
Ground Rule 3: Don’t say ‘I hear that you..’; ‘I was told that’ – not only should you refer to Ground Rule 1, you should also know that I will damn well challenge that bullshit discourse head on – gone are the days of accepting blanket statements and feeling like others have control through subliminal messaging.
Ground Rule 4: If you are going to contradict yourself, expect me to respectively challenge you – gone are the days of accepting a toxic culture of inconsistency, and dishonesty and un-adult like behaviour.
Ground Rule 5: If your ego is going to want to do a public shame dance to show who is boss (you know – those people who love to be the limelight and in the centre of drama), I will not only question your leadership capability, I will challenge you, in private, to reflect on your behaviour.
We are at a critical point in most countries where we need to start calling each other out through civil conversation. In a civil manner, and to cut the political landmine that we navigate in politics, we need to:
- Hold people to account
- Stop hiding behind fear
- Call bullshit to all of those who are dishonest– this may be in your family, your organisation, your country. It is not okay with what is happening in certain corporates and certain societies. It – is – not – okay.
Each and every one of us can positively contribute to changing behaviour in corporates and the wider ecosystem. Why? Because it starts with you! Stay true to yourself – you are the only one who can!