Office Politics: Survival of the Savvy (Part II)

(Today’s post is part two of a two part series on Office Politics)

Three Phases of Political Competence

Political competence is a three-phase process. To bring people to your side, you must follow a systematic sequence. Otherwise, you may spend too much time talking with people who don’t need to be convinced of your idea’s merits. You may also fail to identify your chief opponents before they seize the opportunity to derail your efforts.

1. Map Your Political Terrain

First, identify all stakeholders—anyone who has an interest in, or who would be affected by, your idea—and how they will react. Some resistance is inevitable. You must anticipate others’ reactions, identify allies and resisters, analyze their goals and understand their agendas.

When you face objections, don’t go to individuals’ bosses or peers to undercut their arguments. Instead, ask them questions to determine their goals. A stakeholder may share your goal, but not your implementation approach; disagree with your goal, but share your approach to change; share neither; or share both. You can identify potential allies and resisters with direct questioning.

2. Get Others on Your Side

Build your coalition—a politically mobilized group committed to implementing your idea because doing so will generate valued benefits.

Creating coalitions is the most critical step in exercising your political competence. How do you win support? You need to be credible. You communicate credibility by letting potential allies and resisters know about your expertise, demonstrating personal integrity, and showing you have access to important people and information.

Through informal conversations, meetings and office drop-ins, you need to explain your position, keeping in mind four different motivational styles:

Rational: Use statistics and numbers to convince data-driven people how your proposal will save money, time or resources.

Mimicking: Cite successful companies that have benefited from similar ideas when dealing with people who are interested in best practices.

Regulation: For those concerned about rules and compliance, show how your idea will help in these areas.

Expectations: For those driven by a need to meet or exceed expectations, explain how your proposal will please customers, shareholders and the community.

3. Make Things Happen

You must win others’ buy-in by making it clear there’s a payoff for supporting your effort and drawbacks for not joining your coalition. Show how implementing your idea will ease their workload, increase their visibility within the organization or help them cut costs in their unit.

Once you’ve persuaded people to join your coalition, you’ve established a base that will legitimize your idea. Coalition members will then use their networks to evangelize for you.

As the coalition grows, don’t lose sight of the need for active leadership to keep members focused and sustain momentum. Watch for complacency and manage conflicts and disagreements over goals or processes. These are inevitable and must be resolved.

Mastering only certain parts of the three identified phases will not yield success. The following leadership archetypes sabotage themselves by failing to complete all three phases when attempting to generate and implement change.

The Political Analyst

Don’t be fooled into thinking that astute political analysts have high political competency. Analysts are skilled at anticipating others’ reactions and understanding their agendas, but they can’t get people to join their side. They’re incapable of sustaining the dialogue and interactions necessary to build coalitions. They may try to make things happen, but mapping the terrain is only the first step—and it’s never enough.

The Consensus Builder

Consensus builders do their political mapping, understand the terrain of allies and resisters, and spend time building coalitions—but they never seem to move beyond this point. They’re unable to mobilize supporters in a way that makes things happen.

Consensus builders have very strong process capabilities. The scale often tips in their favor because they can get people on board and they generally have a favorable reputation, which attracts resources and people.

They also have the ability to prolong meetings, insisting that conferences are the solution to every problem. An organization with too many consensus builders will spend an inordinate amount of time meeting, discussing, evaluating and never really accomplishing much.

Politically competent leaders map the terrain, get people on their side by building a coalition and lead the coalition to achieve results.

Reducing Risk through Politics

There are risks with any course of action you take. You sometimes have incomplete or inadequate information when making a decision. Building a coalition through dialogue with its members pushes valuable information to the surface.

You are open to criticism and politically vulnerable whenever you make a decision. Politically competent leaders reduce risk by getting as many people as possible on their side. Building a coalition is a search process for the best solution.

Building a coalition, bringing people together and solidifying/expanding your base will leave you less vulnerable to criticism. It’s more difficult to attack a leader who has built a large base of support throughout the organization.

Competent leaders accumulate political currency, making it easier for them to take on future projects. They capitalize on their successes to expand their coalition and prepare for further actions.

Office Politics: Survival of the Savvy

(This is part 1 of a 2 part post on Office Politics, please stay tuned for part 2 on the Three Phases of Political Competence)

Political savvy is a vital competence for any executive, but it’s not taught in leadership or grad school courses. In fact, the term “office politics” has received a bad rap. (Words like “Machiavellian,” “manipulative” and “conspiratorial” come to mind.)

Tales of political sabotage, power plays and turf wars are part of any organization’s history. Nonetheless, political competence is the one skill everyone wishes to have more of—but no one talks about it. When you ask people how they achieve results within their organizations, they cite market analysis, strategic planning and brainstorming. They never mention politics.

Until recently, few books explained how to use political competence to build one’s career, improve a team’s results or boost the company’s bottom line. Samuel B. Bacharach, director of Cornell University’s Institute for Workplace Studies, recently published Get Them on Your Side. Rick Brandon and Marty Seldman have written Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success. Art Kleiner weighs in with Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success. These books shed light on this crucial competency, which every leader needs to master.

Political competence is the “ability to understand what you can and cannot control, when to take action, who is going to resist your agenda, and whom you need on your side. It’s about knowing how to map the political terrain and get others on your side, as well as lead coalitions,” according to Prof. Bacharach.

Many individuals have good ideas that, if implemented, could yield positive results for their companies. Sometimes, these ideas fall flat because the leaders who propose them cannot gain support from key people. They are unsuccessful in building a coalition to bring an idea into practical use.

A corporate version of survival of the fittest exists, especially in tough, competitive economic times. No one wants to admit that destructive politics and gamesmanship go on, but intense pressure to succeed drives some executives to use their political savvy to win by any means.

Defining Political Savvy

It’s naive to suggest that all office politics are destructive and unethical. If you define politics in such a narrow and negative way, you overlook the value of political awareness and skill. If political astuteness is combined with the right values, it can be an advantage for you, your team and your organization.

“Organizational politics are informal, unofficial, and sometimes behind-the-scenes efforts to sell ideas, influence an organization, increase power, or achieve other targeted objectives,” according to Brandon and Seldman in Survival of the Savvy.

In this definition, there is nothing either positive or negative about politics. The term is value-free. Whether organizational politics are destructive or constructive is determined by two criteria:

1. Whether the targeted objectives reflect the company’s interests or merely one’s self-interest

2. Whether the influence efforts used to achieve these objectives have integrity

Political savvy and skill can help ethical, competent leaders sell their ideas and influence others to benefit the organization.

Ignore at Your Own Risk

There are several important reasons to acquire political savvy:

1. Ignoring its existence is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. When political astuteness is combined with ethics and integrity, it can produce positive results for you, your team and your organization.

2. By avoiding or denying its existence, you underestimate how political behavior can destroy careers, a company’s reputation and overall performance.

3. If you define politics in only negative terms, you are naively under-political, which leaves you vulnerable to overly political, self-serving individuals.

You must develop political skills to survive and thrive in any organization. Overly political people can—and do—earn positions of power, and they can damage competent, loyal individuals who don’t play their game. You need high-integrity political tactics to play a better game.

When people get burned by overly political agendas, they may quit their jobs, only to find even more political game-playing at the next company they join. Worse, if they choose to stay in a politically charged workplace, they may allow their intimidation or resentment to drain their energy and compromise their performance. When this happens, they become disengaged.

It’s far better to recognize that organizational politics exist in both constructive and destructive forms. There’s simply no escaping it. That’s why it’s essential to learn how to use one’s political savvy with integrity. Nonmanipulative tactics can help you harness the power of politics in a way that brings results. Political astuteness can be a character virtue and a company asset—if you learn to use it ethically.

How to Stack the Deck in Favor of Making the Right Tough Decisions

 

Leaders are remembered for their best and worst judgment calls, especially when the stakes are high, information is limited and the correct call is far from obvious. In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty and conflicting demands, the quality of a leader’s judgment and decision making determines the entire organization’s fate.

 

That’s why leadership experts Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis claim judgment is the essence of leadership. In their popular book, Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls (Portfolio, 2007), they write: “With good judgment, little else matters.  Without it, nothing else matters.”

 

But there’s no one-size-fits-all way to make a judgment call, the authors emphasize. Every organization has distinct problems, people and solutions.

 

A Framework for Judgment

 

A judgment call should not be viewed as a single-point-in-time event.

 

The process begins when leaders recognize the need for change and for a decision. They consequently frame and name the issue, set clear goals and objectives, align people and continue through successful execution.

 

Three Critical Judgment Domains

 

People: Leaders cannot set sound direction and strategy for their enterprises or deal with crises without smart judgment calls about the people on their teams. This is definitely the most complex domain. Sound judgments about people require leaders to:

1. Anticipate the need for key personnel changes
2. Specify leadership requirements with an eye toward the future – not the rearview mirror
3. Mobilize and align the social network to support the right call
4. Make the process transparent so it can be deemed fair
5. Make it happen
6. Provide continuous support to achieve success

 

Strategy: When the current strategic road fails to lead to success, the leader must find a new path. The quality and viability of a strategic judgment call is a function of:

 

1.      The leader’s ability to look over the horizon and frame the right question

2.      The people – both internal and external to the organization – with whom he/she chooses to interact

 

Crisis: During a crisis, leaders must have clear values and know their ultimate goals. A poorly handled crisis can lead to business failure.

 

The Process of Making Judgment Calls

 

In all three domains, good decision making always involves a process that starts with recognizing the need for the call, with steps that facilitate effective execution.

 

1. The Preparation Phase: This phase includes sensing and identifying the need for a judgment call, framing and naming the judgment call, and mobilizing and aligning the right people. While these steps may seem obvious, many factors can contribute to faulty framing and naming, which can result in a bad judgment call. For example, what is your process to separate symptoms from underlying causes? It’s important to allow “redo moments” and continually adjust to get it right.
2. The Call Phase (Making the Judgment Call): There’s a moment when leaders make the call, based on their views of the time horizon and the sufficiency of people’s input and involvement.
3. The Execution/Action Phase: Once a clear call is made, execution is a critical part of the process. Resources, people, capital, information and technology must be mobilized to make it happen. During this phase, feedback loops allow for adjustments.

 

Your Storyline and Why it Matters

 

Winning leaders are teachers, and they teach by telling stories. They develop a teachable point of view: valuable knowledge and experiences that convey ideas and values to energize others.

 

This teachable point of view is most valuable when it is woven into a storyline for the organization’s future success. As a living story, it helps the leader make the judgment call and makes the story become reality because it enlists and energizes others.

 

Winning story lines address three areas:

 

1. Where are we now?
2. Where are we going? (The inspirational storyline boosts the motivation for change and defines the goal)
3. How are we going to get there?

 

If judgment calls are difficult for you, or if you have difficulty creating the storyline for your organizational vision, it’s probably time to revisit these 3 key, strategic questions.

 

Who is Minding the Back Door for Your Business?

 

Most companies I know spend a large portion of their budgets on driving new business through the front door.  Far fewer spend even a fraction as much in a directed effort to avoid having those precious customers walk out the back door.  The prevailing assumption is that by providing pretty good service and having largely satisfied customers, the back door is covered as well as it can be, and everything else is controlled by external market forces.

 

In fact, retaining and developing profitable customers is the result of having a solid and aligned organizational culture focused on building relationships that generate loyalty.  According to Fred Reichheld, researcher, consultant, and author of The Ultimate Question, a loyal customer always returns, brags about your organization and provides (free!) word of mouth advertising.  They are willing to pay more to work with you and, when there is a mistake, they are more forgiving.  The ability to cultivate loyal customers is a profitable and powerful competitive advantage.

 

Satisfaction vs. Loyalty

 

There are 2 measurements that can help you understand and manage your customer relationships: customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Many organizations assume that high levels of satisfaction translate into customer loyalty when, in fact, customer satisfaction ratings are more closely linked to your customers’ perception of product and service attributes rather than to the value they gain by doing business with you.

 

Satisfaction is a measurement of, “I expected it and I got it; therefore, I’m satisfied.”  If this were translated into a grading system, satisfaction translates into a grade of “C” on a traditional report card. This is precisely why your “satisfied” customers routinely shop around when it comes time to buy again. The desired score is obviously an “A,” an “A” always equates to loyal customers. An “A” implies that customers got more than they expected and their expectations were exceeded in some way.

 

High perceived value, as defined by your customers, creates loyal customer relationships, and research has demonstrated that customer loyalty is the best predictor of your future strength and growth potential. Perceived value occurs at the intersection of what customers want and what they get from you versus what they could get from your competition.

 

In order to create and sustain loyal customers, it is necessary to consider every contact with each customer as an opportunity for you to provide value—every time. Every service point is critical and every service point has a level of expectation from the customer that must be understood and managed. We call these contact points, Points of Connection (POC).

 

Points of Connection

 

Employee impact starts from the way they treat and relate to each customer at a given POC and their treatment of customers stems from the employees’ attitude. Attitude drives behavior, and behavior determines outcomes.  If the employees’ attitudes are positive, their behavior will be positive and supportive of the customer, which will generate results consistent with the expectations of the customer.

 

To effectively manage POCs they must first be identified. Once identified, you must clearly understand what value your customers’ desire from each POC. If there is a disconnect between what your customers expect and what currently exists then it imperative to ensure that proper employee development and process improvements are put into place to correct it.

 

Case Study

 

My friend, Jennifer Cassels, owner of Park Avenue Title Agency in Green Brook, NJ, exemplifies the cultivation of customer loyalty.  In the mortgage industry, the ability to overcome obstacles and close loans within tight timeframes can literally mean the difference between success and failure.  Jennifer works very closely with her clients – many of whom are real estate attorneys and mortgage lenders – to help them however she can to facilitate timely closings.  I’ve heard stories from her clients regarding her willingness to go “above and beyond” the call of duty to get transactions done – all the while providing accurate title services with a smile.  Additionally, she manages the POCs very well.  For example, you’ll always get a live person on the phone during business hours and she has a widely acclaimed closing cost estimate calculator on her website.  By managing POCs effectively and by going out of her way to solve her clients’ most pressing challenges (i.e. “how am I ever going to get this loan closed by Friday?”), Jennifer has created a loyal and growing client base.

 

Conclusion

 

Making the strategic decision to create a loyal customer base is one of the most important commitments you can make to the success of your business.  As Janelle Barlow and Paul Stewart say in their book, Branded Customer Service: The New Competitive Edge, “The customer service experience must be aligned with organizational promises.”  When your customer’s experience is not reflective of what has been advertised, promised, or expected, their trust in your business is undermined, which results in more traffic out the back door and lost revenue opportunities.

 

To build loyalty, your team must learn how to create strong relationships through frequent points of connection and deliver unique service experiences as expected and promised by your marketing and sales activities.  The immediate impact of delivering an exceptional experience based on what you’ve promised is a winning combination and a powerful weapon against the competition.  It will also help to ensure that the customers you work so hard to bring in the front door never even consider looking for the rear exit.

 

How’s Your Focus Working for You?

Focus. 

It’s one of the things we need to be more successful in business – right?  Although I agree in general terms, it is also instructive to consider what you are focused on. Let me cut right to the chase: I believe that most business leaders and sales professionals tend to focus on the wrong thing more often than they should.

Allow me to illustrate this with a few questions for you to answer (and, yes, brutal self-honesty counts):  

•  At the split second in time when you recently met someone new, what (or who) were you actually thinking about?
• When you negotiated the final points of your last business deal, what (or who) were you actually thinking about?
• When you last worked with a dissatisfied customer, what (or who) were you actually thinking about?

For most people who are ok with the brutal self-honesty thing, the answer to all three questions is usually “myself.” 

If this is the case for you, do you think that at those three moments you were really focused in a way that moved you closer to the long-term results you want?  What about all of the other moments in your typical day – is it a stretch to believe that you are focused too much on yourself there too?  And how about others in your organization (hint: if they’re human beings, they’re susceptible too) – where are they focused?

One way to find out what you might be missing is to consciously change your focus during important meetings and interactions away from yourself to the other person.  Then see what happens.  Your thoughts drive your behavior, which in turn drives your results.

Give it a try to see if what you’re focused on needs to change.