Hide all chapter contents.

Practice Positive Politics

Politics can be constructive
Understand what politics is
There is a time and place for both pragmatism and ideology
Favor inclusiveness over domination
Shorten your time horizon
Abandon behaviorism and revenge
Narrow your own goals
When things turn toxic, get help
When a difficult conversation is ahead, prepare
Know your options when you're asked for a favor
Know how to respond to requests for favors
Know how to make peace
Take Responsibility, Not Blame
Know the difference between Blame and Responsibility
Know the culture you work in
Be attuned to language
Notice diagnoses
Notice the grumbling
Notice whether Blame runs downhill or uphill
Notice whether we blame processes
Notice whether CYA is a standard business procedure
Notice whether you apply revised policy retroactively
Notice whether you revise policy in response to success
Notice whether you have people who are "designated winners"
Notice whether we blame people for breaking unwritten rules
Notice whether people get sandbagged
Avoid blaming yourself
Treat retrospectives with care
Acknowledge failure - maybe
Never, ever, kill the messenger
Messenger deaths have long-lasting effects
Watch out for spin
Re-educate and reassign, but don't destroy
There's no way to use Blame constructively
Conflict isn't always what it seems
Deal with Rumors Decisively
Be careful how you think about rumors
You can't shut down the rumor mill
In responding to rumors, make your self-esteem your first priority
Manage your knee-jerk reactions
Don't spread rumors
Rumors become more damaging with age
Most rumors are credible
Packaged rumors spread more rapidly
Quelling a rumor is a waste of time
Dismissing rumors doesn't work
Respond constructively
Circulate the truth
Truth flies on emotional wings
Openness can be risky
Leave no voids
Don't wait for rumors to develop
People will worry if they want to
The First Rule of Rumor Management
Be prepared to reorganize
Ethics and Integrity Do Count
Practice ethical influence
As a "newbie", learn about ethics from the veterans
In for a penny, in for a pound
Trust only the trustworthy
Don't appeal to judges or the public
Accept that loyalties change
Avoid actions that need to be covered up
Behave in ways you can be proud of
Beware personal benefits
Even inaction is action
Tricky language is neither protection nor a valid excuse
Know the law, but don't abuse its protection
Finagling budgets to conceal trouble is trouble
Know the indicators of gray areas
Be skeptical of security precautions
Check politics at the door
Avoid exporting your troubles
Looking the other way is usually unsafe
When you look the other way, you risk involvement in discrimination
When you look the other way, you risk involvement in cronyism
When you look the other way, you risk involvement in bullying
When you look the other way, you risk involvement in theft or goldbricking
When you look the other way, you risk involvement in sexual, political or religious
harassment
Seekers of illicit information use "holography"
Exploit Smart Tactics
Delay is always an option
Choose your battles
Practice the art of compromise
Sometimes it's best to walk away
Choose your dance partners
Make agreements explicit
Make exchanges contemporaneous
Keep loads uniform
Space milestones evenly
Milestones near deliveries are critical
Deliver usable results at regular intervals
Help the customer with the post-delivery environment
Expect confidences to be broken
Negotiate time limits for confidences
Negotiate a limited right to repeat confidences
Negotiate escape clauses for confidences
Don't staff the ammo dump
Choose your enemies carefully
Ask permission (and get it) before you give advice, feedback or help
Be funny when you want to be
Be Prepared to Lead
Share the credit
You can't control what people believe
Use empathy to frame messages effectively
Knowing when to act or speak is as important as the act or the speech
To lead, motivate, inspire or deter, appreciate the internal state of others
Know how to inspire people to achieve an immediate goal
Know how to inspire people to achieve a distant goal
Know when people are overloaded
Work always to improve your empathy skills
Reject the myth that a few firings will shape them up
Reject the myth that pay-for-performance is the answer
Reject the Strategy of the Whip
Do what you can to enhance retention
Learn how to build a trusting environment
Know the signs of an untrusting group culture
Know how to deal with "knife-edge performers"
Don't do virtual terminations
Be skeptical of indirect measurements
People aren't bolts of cloth
Leader, measure thyself
Measure your metrics
You don't always get what you measure
Know How to Face the Tough Challenges
Know what problem you're solving
Be certain that the problem you're solving is yours to solve
Consider what happens if you wait
If the problem isn't yours, whose is it?
Be certain that you're solving the right problem
Address first the smallest problem you can usefully address
Consider asking for help
Know what kind of help would help
Consider the confrontation option
Take inventory of what you already know
In meetings, be aware of solution-seeking
In problem-solving meetings, diplomacy is essential
Negotiate from their perspective
Practice Smart Strategy
Superior job performance is your foundation
Get a coach
Know that workplace politics isn't a game
Understand how political attack differs from routine politics
Political attackers have the advantage of planning
Political attackers have the advantage of surprise
Political attackers control the tempo of the exchange
Political attackers can control timing
Political attackers can choose their venues
Political attackers can exploit prepositioned assets
Political attackers are usually more comfortable with attacking
Think beyond precedent
Work hard but not too hard
Rest when you can
Acquiring resources can be a distraction
Don't ride point
Always, always have a backup plan
Know what to do when all your options are bad
Accept the bad news as good news
When you hit a dead end, change your tactics or strategy
Dogma, politics, budget and schedule tend to bias our hunt for solutions
Suspect first the distasteful parts of a broken solution
When trouble strikes, increase information distribution
When trouble strikes, take smaller bites
For first-of-kind efforts, educate everyone about the inevitability of setbacks
Be wary of near-completion setbacks
Reward honesty and failure
Reduce overload
Read
Know what other people are reading
Change your experience instead of changing other people
Get in touch with your "No"
Organizational psychopaths do exist
Embrace Change
Understand the Politics of Communication
Deliver the headline first
Use the "So What?" test to determine the headline
Deliver the bad news first
Choose task names and code names carefully
When in trouble, don't talk - deliver
Short schedules help perceptions
Don't expect breakthroughs to erase anxiety
Use a four-step framework when presenting to persuade
As presenter, don't evaluate questions
As presenter, stay out of the rabbit hole
As a virtual presenter, make special preparations
As a virtual presenter, beware technology
Know the special techniques of virtual presenters
When you're asked a question, let the questioner ask the question
When you're asked a question, make sure you understand
When you're asked a question, withhold derision
When you're asked a question, stay in bounds
Don't joke about serious matters
Know how to handle spacing out
Be right
Learn to recognize brilliant questions
Learn how to ask brilliant questions
Learn to deal with ambush questions
Learn to deal with leading questions
Learn to deal with loaded questions
Learn to deal with implied accusations
Learn to deal with pressure tactics
Learn to deal with cheap shots
Learn to deal with trap construction
Learn to deal with zingers
Know the most common dismissive gestures
Know some tactics for changing the subject
Know some tactics for ending conversations
Keep a working journal
Understand the three varieties of condescension
Know when to hold back
Know when to walk away
Groups have their own minds too
Language does count
Become familiar with the rhetorical fallacies
Manage Your Relationships with the More Powerful
Be careful about how you experience mistreatment
Avoid the Fundamental Attribution Error
When the situation is unacceptable, accept that it is unacceptable
When in trouble, seek support
When in trouble, remember that some things aren't about you
Base your self-esteem on yourself
When leaders fight, everyone feels the pain
A fight between leaders is a performance issue for the feuders' supervisor
In proximity to a leadership feud lies danger
In a leadership feud, you can lose (win) even if your boss wins (loses)
Prepare for the day when peace arrives
Avoid the role of fender
Hands-on project managers risk schedule collisions
Hands-on project managers have inherent conflicts of interest
Hands-on project managers are more susceptible to distraction
Hands-on project manager roles create team risk
Decision-makers are biased in favor of the hands-on project manager role
Currying favor is a corrosive tactic
Know the tactics of ingratiators
Know what to do when others curry favor with your boss
If your boss really is a dolt, look above
If your boss is a dolt, worrying won't help
If you're really unhappy in your job, fish or cut bait
To stay in a so-so job, make a commitment to it
Know what to do if your boss's poor performance affects yours
If you undertake a coup d'etat and fail, you pay
Managing your boss really isn't in your job description
What you can do to others can be done to you
Know and recognize the three types of promotions
If you're aiming for a promotion, know your real motivations
To get the right promotion at the right time, know your true capabilities
When seeking a promotion, see yourself as others see you
To gain promotion, clean up your act
To gain a promotion, attend to relationships
To gain a promotion in place, get known as a resource
To gain a promotion, document your contributions
For a promotion in place, know that your contributions won't change in kind
To gain a promotion in place, understand your employer's goals
If you're aiming for a promotion in place, check the resources
For a promotion in line, understand your employer's goals
To win a promotion in line, demonstrate capability
To win a promotion in line, be replaceable
To win a promotion in line, make the people you work with look good
To win a promotion in line, be flexible about relocation and travel
When you're entering as the lowest in rank, enter gently
As a "newbie", know the value you bring to the team
As a "newbie", establish credibility opportunistically
Know how to identify a micromanager
Know how to deal with a micromanaging boss
Know when to break the rules
Know How to Deal with the Devious
Your enemy might not be your enemy
Credit theft is lowbrow
Talk about credit theft
Credit thieves spare no one
Watch for blowback
Complexity is your friend
Know how to deal with the minimalist stonewaller
Know how to deal with the parental stonewaller
Know how to deal with Major-Major-Major stonewalling
Know how to recognize a lateral micromanager
Understand the tactics of the lateral micromanager
Know how to deal with the lateral micromanager
Fight back when you must
Beware the hypothetical trap
False opportunities abound
Beware diversions
Flirtation, flattery and romance are not always what they seem
Know how to deal with nepotism and patronage
Beware the non-chance chance meeting
Some people fly false flags
Trust-building isn't just for the trustworthy
It seems like a mistake, but it could be bait
Disinterest isn't always what it seems
Relationship-building isn't either
Beware the conspiracy as tactic
Recognize rhinestone opportunities
Decline diversions
Avoid dead ends
Forgo forays
Don't do calisthenics
Don't run three-legged races
Recognize the hit-and-run
Recognize the proxy target
Learn to recognize confidential disinformation
When there is a favored subordinate, make a decision
Beware unfair information swaps
The rational model of human behavior is often wrong
Negotiators might not be acting irrationally
Deceptive negotiators can use intimidation tactics
Deceptive negotiators can use shame-based tactics
Deceptive negotiators sometimes seize the drafting role
Deceptive negotiators can exploit the drafting role
Injustice for one leads to injustice for all
Beware the Hospital Pass
Anticipate alliances
Be wary of empire builders
Dividers-and-Conquerors are dangerous