Transforming Office Politics Into Opportunities (Featured On The Straits Times – 14 July 2017)
Transforming Office Politics into Opportunities.
Office politics is a dynamic of power and relationship. I called it the workspace energy – a honeycomb of tension and opportunities intertwined with one another and here is no need to fear it.
Here are three new honeycomb perspective on how we can see this energy in a positive way so that we can manage them with higher awareness and understanding.
- Workspace energy is a honeycomb of relationship.
A friend recently shared that he went for an interview and the interviewer asked him on how does he handle office politics at the workplace. He did not know how to answer them because he prefers not to get involved in the first place because he hates it.
I decided to help him to look at this workspace energy from a different perspective. Office politics is, in fact, a relationship. Either you focus on building a positive relationship with the person over time, or you decided not to create any of it, that is, to not get involved.
However, if you decide not to build a relationship from the beginning, you have no power to maneuver through it and are thus at the mercy of the collateral damage. Since office politics is often inevitable in the workplace, it is logical one should always strive to build a healthier relationships.
- Workspace energy is a honeycomb of untapped power
The interesting aspect of office politics is that no one knows who has more power in totality until the tension arises. When the tension rises, the fight for power increases because it is a human instinct to protect one’s turf.
To build healthier relationship with the person, seek first to understand what they are protecting. If you can help both parties to protect what they want and align them to see a common point, it’s easier to maneuver through the wave. And if you are at the center of it, it’s crucial that you build the honeycomb of relationship.
- Workspace energy is a honeycomb of opportunities
Office politics can be a landmine, but you can defuse the mine and turn it into a fertile soil of opportunities. It is a landmine because no one knows how to deactivate.
If we can understand what people are protecting and build a genuine and positive relationship with them, we can harness valuable intelligence about their workspace energy through their network and colleagues. That allows us to move around it and finding a possible solution for the issue.
Article By:
Joseph Wong, the behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia and thought provoking keynote speaker on influence, leadership, and performance across the Asia Pacific. Email him at ignite@traininggearasia.com
