Management Perspectives

Understanding the work environment is fundamentally important for career success. It is quite the adventure when learning the inner workings of workplace politics. Politics is often perceived as negative. In fact, politics is just a set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations between individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. In this context, politics, just like emotion, intention, and circumstance, can be positive or negative. The key to navigating office politics is strengthening one’s awareness of political skills.

Work environments, even those with teams devoted to ‘the greater good’, can be a breeding ground for competition. Everyone wants to do their best. Some will do anything to achieve personal goals and ego can sometimes get in the way. And ego can trigger certain behaviours.

When a person’s ego is triggered, he or she may resort to gossip and ‘venting’ to others in order to feel better about a particular situation. There may be instances of passive aggression, perceived favouritism, or even blatant bullying. Navigating politics varies across businesses, but there are some fundamental political skills that everyone can practice, making most interactions peaceful and fruitful.

Awareness is essential
Often, we exhibit workplace behaviours without even realising it. We also witness common behavioural trends that either embrace, dismiss, or become passive aggressive. The best way to conquer workplace politics is to strengthen your awareness of these behaviours.

At its core, politics is just the dealings and interactions with others. The Baddeley and James Political Skills Model is an insightful tool broken into four groups or quadrants. The model measures subject integrity from high to low and emotional/environmental awareness of others.

Before we dive into understanding the model, it is important to be aware that we exhibit a myriad of behaviours during our lifetime. It is rare for someone to remain in the same quadrant throughout their adult life. As humans, we are capable of all ranges in the model from low integrity and awareness to high integrity and awareness.

The ‘animal’ behaviours of office politics [Baddeley and James Model]
The Political Skills Model is a great way to help build awareness of your own behaviours as well as that of others. Animal behaviour determinations fall into four quadrants:

• Sheep (innocent): Individuals who have high integrity, but low awareness are categorised as sheep or innocent within the model. These individuals rely on authority. In a work situation, they are given lots of work. They have a deep sense of loyalty to superiors and stick to the organisational rules without questioning them. Sheep are blind to hidden messages and social cues because they do not read between the lines. They are wonderful colleagues and are often innocent to a fault.
• Donkey (inept): The donkey or inept behaviour type has low integrity and low awareness. Individuals in this category exhibit behaviour that is simplistic, insecure, and unprincipled. Donkeys tell you what you want to hear if they can figure that out, yet often they cannot. They can say the right things but rarely appear authentic. Donkeys focus on the end instead of the means and cannot think far ahead in most circumstances.
• Fox (clever): When low integrity meets a high political awareness, you have the fox or clever behaviour type. These people are very aware of all things and can spot sheep and donkey behaviour instantly. Foxes are cunning, they can manipulate others. They stand behind the scenes and push their own agenda through someone else. Those who exhibit fox behaviour may create secrecy, fear, and doubt. They want to be perceived as powerful and exploit weakness to their own advantage.
• Owl (wise): The last category is a behaviour we should all strive to achieve. The owl behaviour has high integrity and high political awareness. Owls always know what is going on around them. Their role in leadership is to expose foxes while protecting sheep and donkeys. Owls are credible leaders who can cope with being disliked and have excellent emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills. They are great listeners and negotiate with honesty.

Understand that these are not labels but behavioural qualifiers. That means with professional development and self-work, the behaviours can be changed.

Strategies to overcome office politics: Let us say you encounter a difficult person at work. After all, these encounters are inevitable. Before reacting, pause. It is wise to assess the situation and determine if sheep, fox, donkey, or owl behaviours are involved. Before responding to the situation, ask yourself, “Which behaviour am I exhibiting if I take a certain action?” Would you be a fox in your response? Or perhaps an owl?

Next, ask yourself “What behaviour do I want to exhibit that represents who I am and who I want to be?” Is it the same answer as before? If so, you are on the right track. Being humans, we will always encounter situations that can upset us. Beyond awareness, what more can we do? Here are some strategies you can engage to control your emotional state, build awareness, and interact with a difficult individual in a positive manner:

• 1. Take inventory of your feelings. When you are faced with a situation at work that causes your emotional stress levels to rise, pause for a moment and do an inventory of your feelings. For example, perhaps a colleague blatantly ignores you when you ask him or her to help you with a project. Ask yourself “Why do I feel angry?” and “Why does this upset me?” By processing these feelings, you will give yourself a buffer of time to contemplate your next step instead of reacting impulsively.
• 2. Dissociate your negative emotion. Once you have taken inventory of your feelings, pause and rephrase your emotion. If you are in an angry state, say, “I am not angry. There is anger in me.” There is a difference. An uninvited negative emotion has penetrated you and you need to get rid of it.
• 3. Remove yourself from the trigger, if possible. Whether it is a heated argument with a colleague or a blatant show of disrespect from a customer, try to immediately remove yourself from the situation gracefully. Grab a water, ask for a few minutes to collect your thoughts. If you cannot leave your physical workspace, try standing instead of sitting, or face in a different direction for a few moments.
• 4. Channel your empathy. Be attuned to the things that wake up your human side. Empathy can pacify negative emotions instantly. Try to remind yourself that the trigger is someone’s partner, son, daughter, brother, sister, friend.
• 5. Take notes and shred them. Sometimes it helps to get all of your frustrations and negative emotions out on paper. Write exactly what you want to say and then shred them. The simple act of writing down your feelings can help you remain calm.

With proper awareness, empathy, and the right attitude, you can navigate workplace politics and co-exist peacefully with difficult people. Always remember you are in control of your emotions and your actions. However, you cannot control the emotions or actions of others.