Not paying attention to office politics will kill your career. Career advice will often warn you against getting involved in office politics. The reality is that if you don’t pay attention to office politics, it will negatively impact your career. Trust me, I know from firsthand experience.

I can confidently say that knowing how to manage and play office politics is a tried and tested way to succeed in your career. It’s a fact of life that wherever you get people together in a competitive environment, knowing how to manage interpersonal relationships will determine your success. There will be personal power battles and differences in most work settings.

What is ‘office politics’?

Workplace politics refers to the activities, attitudes, or behaviours that are used to get or keep power or an advantage within a business or company. It’s the resulting actions of people competing for status within a corporate environment.

There are 7 types of office ‘politicians’ or common roles that get played out:

1. The gossip: those who love to talk about others to gain personal advantage or make themselves appear superior to those being spoken about.
2. The bully: someone who acts at the expense of others. This can range from being slightly annoying to seriously harmful to the well-being of the team.
3. The climber: social climbers are those tactically building relationships with those above them to get noticed and to climb the corporate ladder. They ignore those they see as ‘beneath’ themselves.
4. The credit thief: I’m sure we’ve all fallen victim to somebody else claiming credit for our work and trying to pass it off as their own.
5. The adviser: those that help the decision makers i.e., middle managers. This can be both a positive and negative role depending on their motive for organisational good or personal gain.
6. Lobbyist: this will be someone with an agenda who makes organised attempts at persuading decision-makers. Again, this could be positive in terms of enacting organisational change or negative if they’re influencing others to better themselves.
7. Saboteur: the most toxic of office behaviours. This is an individual who may purposefully derail others’ projects and progress or use underhand tactics to out-compete others.

During 2015 I transferred to a leadership position in a new country. Before my first day, one of the senior leaders took it upon himself to tell me who I needed to befriend in the organisational hierarchy to get ahead. He took me through their agendas and the best way to approach each person to get support from them. I was surprised by the amount of time he had invested in what felt to me like a game of chess.

It’s almost sad that everywhere I’ve worked this has been the case. Office politics can be draining, time-consuming and demotivating. Especially when you see those advancing at the expense of others or because of their personality over skillset. When I played the game, it worked.

Here’s what I’ve learnt that made a difference for me being able to get ahead and progress without compromising

Understand the culture and hierarchy

Ignoring it is going to do you no favours. If you want your work to be recognised or need allies to help you get collaboration across departments, you’ll need to know who are the decision makers and what is their agenda

Demonstrate your value

By working hard and helping others, you’ll show them that you’re a valuable resource and should be treated with respect. Speak up in meetings, be open to ideas and make everyone feel part of the wins.

Learn soft skills

Hard skills are trained and measurable, they can be easily learnt such as theory and practical tasks i.e. how to do a tax return. Soft skills are intangible and developed alongside personality traits. This includes how to relate to different personality types, communication skills, adaptability, problem-solving and managing your emotions effectively. These skills are often much more innate but can be learnt through coaching.

Spread positive energy

If you make people feel good and bring positivity to a project, more people will want you on their teams and you’ll receive additional opportunities. Nobody wants to bring in someone who is extremely pessimistic or negative to be around into a project or account.

I believed in myself and also in doing what was best for the company. I chose to ignore office politics and only associated with those who could actually help me do my job. Where nobody else stepped in to call someone out for not following up on inaction or avoided being completely transparent, I would. Non-performance impacts the entire business so in my efforts to do my best for the company, I would always make it known.

It didn’t work in my favour and one of my peers gave me this feedback, which was probably true for most of my corporate career: “I’ve got full confidence she’ll go far but some behaviours are stopping her from reaching her highest potential. By choosing specific people to work with or not work with, she’s creating an environment that may stop her from being most effective. Her effectiveness creates anxiety where she is seen as a risk to others’ positions. “

Things could’ve worked out very differently for me had I ‘played the game’ and had a better understanding of myself and others.  If you want to kill your career, ignore office politics. I’d advise anyone else to invest in understanding their own belief systems and that of others.