As part of my research for my next nonfiction book, Power Games, a number of professionals answered a survey on their experiences of office politics. The results have been enlightening!
Though the stories are also sobering, there are some key insights that leaders can embrace immediately to reduce power games in the workplace.
Highlights of the survey include:
100% of respondents felt that someone used their position of power to influence or manipulate a situation in the workplace.
61.91% of respondents believed that power dynamics play a significant role in office politics within their organisation.
In good news, 38.10% felt these power games episodes occurred only rarely.
BLAME SHIFTING tops out as the most cited power game experienced with 90.48% observing this behaviour.
Other behaviours include:
Gaslighting
Racial discrimination
Overloading
Segregation
Narcism
insinuation and half truths
Opinion shopping
Level jumping to by-pass managers.
Impact:
Many reported a huge impact on self-confidence leading to self-doubt, and poor mental health. Many respondents chose to leave the organisation.
Insights:
From the follow-up interviews, I discovered that a significant amount of undermining behaviour was deployed by workers who were INCOMPETENT or UNDERSKILLED in their role.
Gaslighting, blame-shifting, manipulating, and undermining were used to deflect attention from their own inability, or unwillingness, to do their own role.
Solutions:
80.95% of respondents believed that TRANSPARENT DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES would be a clear way to reduce office politics.
This was followed by CLEAR COMMUNICATION CHANNELS.
Overall, the research shows that office politics are rarely personality-based (difficult behaviours committed by narcissists or sociopaths) and more related to poor work systems and the corrosive effect of power on the leader.
To this latter point, the leader sometimes became complacent in their role and lost the ability to look objectively at their own contribution to the situation, or failed to filter their staff’s behaviour for manipulation.
Things you can do right now as a leader to minimise power games and office politics:
1.Maintain your own curious humility.
As the leader, you will not always get genuine, authentic feedback about a situation due to the filters people put up to those in positions of power. You must seek out fierce and frank honest observations. This will be harder than you think.
Value newcomers and ask for their ‘fresh eyes’ assessment of what they see.
Hire a coach to put up the mirror and offer frank feedback.
Seek a mentor who can highlight any patterns of derailment from their own experience.
2. Scrub your systems for true accountability.
Every team and team member needs to have individual and collective results for which they are accountable and report on frequently.
Create a culture where reporting is about improvement, not punishment. You want to win the results together, not despite each other.
3. Level up your transparency.
In the absence of information, people make up stories skewed towards negativity. We are wired for threats, and uncertainty creates conditions for threats. So do everything you can to minimise uncertainty.
Prime candidates for increasing transparency: policies and processes for promotions, recruitment, rewards, restructures. In fact, ANY decision could be accompanied with a detailed explanation of why this decision was made. People are far more willing to accept uncomfortable decisions when they know the rationale behind it. It’s better than letting them create their own made-up reasons.
.
Be alert to any of the power games. Call them out.
Alongside that, set the expectation of a culture of support and encouragement.
Ultimately, people want to progres at work, feel accomplished, and reap the rewards of a great career. Make it your mission as the leader to create open, transparent, and healthy conditions to help all team members to flourish and contribute to that environment.
Live with grace, lead in service.
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Zoë Routh is a leadership futurist, podcaster, and multiple award-winning author. She works with leaders and teams to explore what's coming and what it means for leadership of the future.
Zoë is an outdoor adventurist and enjoys telemark skiing, has run 6 marathons, is a one-time belly-dancer, has survived cancer, and loves hiking in the high country. She is married to a gorgeous Aussie and is a self-confessed dark chocolate addict.