Dan Rust joins hosts Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty for a fun and fast discussion of career advancement tips and strategies. They talk about the frustrations of younger workers who focus on just doing a good job, ignore office politics, and then get frustrated when some who are less talented or don’t work as hard seem to have greater career acceleration.
Click on the link below it listen.
This LinkedIn post is not an excerpt, but my new book “Workplace Poker” includes career advice with a dash of smirky, sassy humor. Is it is available everywhere books are sold. You can view a brief video of reader comments by clicking on the link below.”Why can’t people just say what they mean and mean what they say?” lamented Jenny, a mid-level manager for one of my client businesses. “If we focused all of this energy on the business we wouldn’t have most of the issues that cause the gossip, paranoia and backstabbing.”
Jenny was reacting to recent comments from a “friend” in the business, confiding that some of her coworkers were worried because she had been coming in late the past week. First of all Jenny was surprised because her cubicle was in an area where no one could see her daily comings and goings. She had been arriving about 30 minutes late ─ and staying 30 minutes longer at the end of the day, but apparently no one noticed THAT ─ because her husband’s car was being repaired and he needed her to drop him off at his workplace.
Jenny had just become a manager for this group three months ago. She knew they were a bit frustrated with her because she was more hands-on than their previous manager, who had retired after a long career with the company. What she didn’t know was the group had expected that one of them would be promoted to the manager position, so they were surprised when a young woman who had no experience in their business was hired. Jenny was bright, competent, hard working and truly a good manager. But I was hired to provide her with some coaching because the director for her division realized she had a blind spot which could derail her promising career ─ her response to the office politics and other messy human issues related to her job was to express frustration, complain to her own boss, then decide it was time to “clean house” and start to build her own team.
“She’s got the potential to be a strong leader for our business,” her director had told me. “And we know she has a difficult group to manage. Most of them have been with us more than twenty years and they aren’t interested in changing their ways. But their deep knowledge and expertise is critical to our business and you can’t simply replace them. It takes a full two year cycle to bring someone in their position fully up to speed, but Jenny doesn’t know the business well enough yet to really get that.” He went on to walk me through all of her strengths and capabilities, then said, “She also doesn’t get the chess game here. If you let one person go and replace them with a trainee, how does that impact all of the others. How motivated will they be to train the new person? And how many of them will start looking for a new job? All of that has to be part of the thought process. And speaking frankly, she was quite charming when we were interviewing her, but every since she started having problems with her team, that warm charm seems to have faded away. If we can’t get THAT Jenny back, I don’t think she will be here long, either by her choice or ours.”
I suck at golf, and not for lack of trying. I’ve been coached by great golfers, and I’ve spent many many hours trying to get good. Or at least good enough to not be embarrassed. A friend took me to an indoor golf coaching clinic where you hit the ball into a video screen while being recorded from two directions in order to analyze your swing. On my third swing the ball hit something hard on the edge of the screen, deflected up to the ceiling and hit a metal pipe then kicked back down to hit me in the forehead. Swear to God. As they were applying a cold washcloth to the growing red lump on my forehead the owner of the golf clinic said “Maybe you should try another sport. But not darts.”
So I hate golf. Now, do I hate it because I suck at it, or vice versa? You decide. I happen to love bowling and I’m good enough to not be hit in the head.
Most people profess to hate office or corporate politics. And this is primarily because they suck at it. This is of course a natural reaction. Who wants to play a game where you don’t know the rules, can’t understand what is happening, and lose every time?
But whether you claim to hate it, avoid it, or actively seek to eliminate it, the human dynamic is a fact of life in every business. And humans are messy, chaotic, fickle creatures. They are also very bright and alert, which just adds more intensity to the intrigue. And lets be honest, you’ve been playing human politics almost since you were born. When you smiled and giggled to encourage your mother to hold you, feed you, change your diaper. When you cried loudly if the giggling didn’t work. When you chose your friends (or enemies) in school, gave loyalty to get loyalty, did favors to receive favors, and the list goes on. When you give a generous tip to the waiter at a local restaurant because you know you’ll be returning many times and you want to ensure good service in the future, you are practicing human politics.
The human dynamic in business becomes more complex because there are both competitive and cooperative pressures. Plus these are people with whom you might not normally choose to associate. We select our friends instinctively, and can easily choose to “un-friend” them, but work colleagues are often foisted upon us. In this unnatural tribe of coworkers, the human dynamic allows some to gain advantage personally or for a cause they support, sometimes at the expense of others.
The hard truth is that you must learn to navigate the “minefield” of human dynamics if you want to ensure your own success and that of your projects. If you deny (or merely express frustration at) the ‘bad politics’ that may be going on around you, and avoid dealing with it, you may needlessly pay the price for your disengagement while others gain advantage. And if you avoid practicing ‘good politics’, you miss the opportunities to properly further your own interests, and those of your team and your cause.
And as you get better at this particular sport, you’ll come to enjoy it. Especially if you start with things like:
These are all things that a good decent person would do in the workplace, with or without any sort of “political” intent. And there are many things you can do (or perhaps do already) which have a “political” aspect to them, but are in fact purely positive activities in the office environment. Studies reveal that increased political skill of this type leads to better job performance – not just for the “political person” but for others as well. Research shows that this applies both to people in upper-management jobs and to employees in lower-level jobs that don’t require much personal interaction.
When you view the entire trajectory of a career, political skill proves to be the best overall predictor of above average achievement. Your tactical job performance, intelligence and personality traits are fundamental to success of course, but these will only get you to the career endpoint at which most other bright competent professional like yourself arrive. Not bad, but not exceptional. It is your political skills (or lack thereof) which will ultimately determine if your career endpoint is extraordinary. To deal effectively with office politics and use it yourself in a positive way, you must first accept the reality of it and make a firm decision to become a master of human dynamics in the workplace. (Doesn’t that sound better than being an office politician?)
The best way develop strategies to deal with the political behavior that is going on around you is to first be a good observer and then use the information you gain a deeper awareness of the working network you operate within. This will also help you develop a network of positive alliances and office “friendships.” I put “friendships” in quotes because the truth is that none of these people are your friends. Even the ones you go to lunch with. Even the ones you invite to your wedding. Even the ones you sleep with. They are not real friends. If you lost your job tomorrow, how many of them would be having lunch with you a year from now?
The first step in developing greater fluency with office politics is to think through the informal hierarchy within the broad business, as well as within your particular work group. Human influence and power often circumvent the formal organization chart. Sit back and watch for a while and then re-map the organization chart in terms of political power.
This is an exercise you should work on over time. Unless you have had years of experience observing this particular group, you should think through these questions and then spend time noticing their interactions at meetings, events, work discussions, etc. You can even ask others about their perceptions of particular people, but be sure to do so in a totally benign way – don’t telegraph a positive or negative perception of your own. Too often people will tend to mirror the perception you telegraph, or at least soften their own expressed opinion so as not to be in conflict with what they perceive your opinion to be. so ask neutral open-ended questions like:
Of course you have to be thoughtful about how you ask these questions and with whom you are speaking. In the workplace there seems to be a common underlying paranoia that doesn’t occur in natural friendships or families. Typically if you ask a family member to “Tell me about uncle Bob,” you won’t get a paranoid reaction (unless uncle Bob has some dark secrets that no one is supposed to talk about). But in the work world even the simplest questions about other people can generate paranoia. So if someone responds with “Why do you ask?” your reaction should be nonchalant. But you do have to give them a reason. Just saying “no reason, just curious” will make them more paranoid. So give them a benign reason, for example:
Over time as you gain a better sense of where the power, influence and natural respect of others exists within the organization, you can also start to pay attention tot he social networks:
Again the deep valuable answers to these question will come over time. To truly “crack the code” of an organization requires patient observation and interactions with people in many different situations. Think of Jane Goodall and her observations of Lowland Gorillas. She was patient, observing them in their natural settings for years, being careful to not disrupt their natural patterns and interactions. And over time she gained amazing insight into their social networks and hierarchies.
As you observe and deepen your awareness, you can also begin to build your own social network within the organization. You probably already have a natural network. If you are a new employee you may have aligned with other new employees. If you are an experienced mid-level manager you probably have a natural alignment with your direct reports and others at your level. But as you think about the political landscape within the organization you may want to expand your work/social network.
As you build your relationships, you need to learn to use them to stay clear of negative politicking, and also to promote yourself and your team positively. It is up to you to communicate your own and your team’s abilities and successes to the right people, and you do this through positive political action.
Use your network to:
In my first discussion with Jenny, the mid-level manager with poor (really, non-existent) political skills, she became impatient. Probably somewhat embarrassed because she understood the value of having deeper insight into those around her, but she wasn’t used to being coached or mentored. She had always been an exceptional performer in every previous job – hence her rapid career progress – and had always exceeded the expectations of her employers. So this was a new experience for her, having someone identify a “gap” in her performance. And not surprisingly, she wanted to rush the process, close the gap and never have this happen again. It took a fair amount of discussion for her to accept that there was no quick fix, and when it comes to the human dynamics within an organization, there are rarely easy answers.
But to her credit, she began the process described above. She came to a much deeper understanding of the dynamics within the group she was managing and eventually someone outside of the group helped her understand their frustration that none of them had even been considered for the management position. Right or wrong, it was as if the entire group had been dismissed, and they naturally took this as an affront. And even though Jenny was not part of that process, she was the focus of the group’s frustration. Being aware of this didn’t solve the problem, but it was a big step forward.
For Jenny her next step was to neutralize the negative dynamics that were occurring and begin the process of creating a more positive and productive relationship with her group of employees.
It takes a confident and mature person to smile and engage positively with someone you know has been backstabbing you. It takes an exceptionally gifted person to deal productively with a group of backstabbers. But I told Jenny that I truly thought she was up to the difficult task at hand. One of her early realizations was that her choice to work in a cubicle that was distant from her work group was an error. It created both a physical separation and a social distance, and she acknowledged that perhaps her own discomfort with the group drove her decision. “I guess I could tell from the beginning that they weren’t thrilled with me,” she said. “So when the facilities manager gave me options, I selected a cubicle away from them, sort of to isolate me from the negative environment. But I realize now that my job is to change that environment, not run away from it.”
Some negative people can be turned. Generally speaking you can positively influence those who are difficult because they see you as a threat, misunderstand your motivations, or feel slighted by you in some way. When you engage positively with these individuals, ask good questions and actively listen to them, they will often begin to turn. If you truly engage in an effort to mend fences and genuinely want to help them with their priorities, these people can eventually become allies. Sometimes they become your strongest allies. Others however can never be turned. And it is difficult to discern the difference.
Your mapping of the informal spheres of influence in the organization will have helped you to identify those people who use others for their own purposes, and not necessarily for the common good. It’s natural to want to distance yourself from these people as much as possible. But what can often be needed is the opposite reaction. The expression, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” applies perfectly to office politics. Get to know these people better and be courteous to them, but always be very careful what you say to them. Understand what motivates these people and what their goals are, and so learn how to avoid or counter the impact of their negative politicking.
Through observation you’ll learn what works in your organization’s culture and what doesn’t. Watch other people at work and identify successful behaviors that you can model. There are also some general standards to observe that will stop negative politics from spreading.
The philosopher Plato said, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” And this hold true today in the workplace: If you don’t participate in the political game, you risk not having a say in what happens and allowing people with less experience, skill or knowledge to influence the decisions being made around you.
Office Politics are a fact of life. Wise politicking will help you get what you want in the world of work without compromising others in the process. Learn to use its power positively while diffusing the efforts of those who abuse it.
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This post is not an excerpt, but my new book “Workplace Poker” includes career advice with a dash of smirky, sassy humor. Is it is available everywhere books are sold. You can view a brief video of reader comments by clicking on the link below.
“Humor is just another defense against the universe.” – Mel Brooks
We live in an age of “sharing,” when everyone seems to have a profoundly important opinion about everything, especially how OTHERS should behave. But sometimes the best career advice is to just shut up.
Keeping your mouth shut can be a big career booster, especially when it seems that so many have forgotten this basic lesson.
1. Customer’s do not want to hear conversations between employees.
I went to Whole Foods for lunch the other day and spent way too much on a kale salad, but I always take a big scoop of salmon dip from the free tasting platter (and TWO crackers) just to even things out.
When I got to the cashier, she was in the middle of a conversation with a fellow employee. I think they were debating the nutritional benefits of hard vs. soft tofu. Or maybe it was kale vs. spinach. At some point the cashier glanced at me and smiled as she scanned the price code on my recycled paper salad container, but continued the conversation with her workmate. She only paused long enough to tell me the price. “Five hundred dollars,” I think she said. Now, the actual delay might have been only 20 seconds, but it felt a lot longer because it seemed as if I was invisible to both of them the entire time.
This less-than-great customer service experience probably won’t keep me from going back to Whole Foods, but next time I’m taking an even bigger scoop of the free salmon dip.
My point is that when you are in any customer-facing situation, be very conscious of the conversations you have with coworkers. Even if you think you are alone in an aisle, customer’s in other aisles can still hear your banter. And of course the worst thing you can do is complain about customers within earshot of other customers.
2. Colleagues do not want to hear how you have been “wronged” at work.
Bhodi Sanders interviewed for a regional manager position at his company and in his mind there was no question that he was the best qualified candidate. So when someone from outside the company was selected for the position, a woman with very little practical experience in their specific industry, he was frustrated and angry. Which was a natural, understandable reaction.
Bhodi couldn’t contain his frustration and took every opportunity to tell his colleagues at work how badly he had been wronged. At first they were sympathetic, some even agreeing with him. But months later when the topic was still coming up, people began talking about his inability to let it go. Their perception of Bhodi shifted, he seemed small and catty to his colleagues, and when the next regional manager position opened up, he wasn’t even considered.
Here’s the truth: at some point (maybe at many points) in your career, you are going to be “wronged.” And while it is perfectly natural to want to tell others and gain their validation, this isn’t fair to your colleagues at work. Your complaints put pressure on them and ultimately can hurt your career potential.
How you respond to being wronged at work will tell others a lot about your character. If Bhodi had swallowed his pride and then focused on helping the new regional manager become successful in her role, people would have noticed. If Bhodi had been willing to self-reflect and seek to authentically understand why he wasn’t selected, in a positive and productive manner, people would have noticed.
So the bad situation could have been turned into a positive for Bhodi, but in this case it didn’t. His career flat-lined for a few years, and then he moved on to a new employer. By the way, his new colleagues get to hear his sob story many, many times. You can decide how you think this ultimately impacted his career with the new employer.
3. Colleagues do not want to hear about your sexual adventures or “conquests,” nor your alcholol-fueled antics.
Honestly I’m surprised that I even have to address this, but I’ve heard enough stories from people whose colleagues think it is appropriate that I want to at least mention it. Beyond the legal issue of creating an uncomfortable work environment for some people, it’s also really just stupid.
I have a strong libertarian streak in me and pass no judgement on what people do in their personal lives. You can sleep with whoever, drink or inject whatever, and I really don’t care. But if you bring it into the workplace, even by just mentioning it, you are opening yourself up to the judgement of others.
So on Monday morning when someone asks “How was your weekend,” your response should NEVER include any of these words or phrases:
… I think that’s enough. You either get it by now, or you don’t
4. No one at work needs to hear your political/social commentary.
Almost every business depends upon the ability of a diverse workforce to work together productively. People with different backgrounds and perspectives need to be able to align their efforts and work as a cohesive team – which means it is almost always best to avoid conversation topics that have the potential to be intensely divisive including:
There are plenty of opportunities at work to have great conversations with people, without creating division, discomfort or hurt feelings. And when someone else crosses the line, this should not be viewed as permission for you to do the same. Sometimes the very best thing to say is… nothing.
Dan Rust on Denver’s KHOW-AM radio with Ross Kaminsky talking about”Workplace Poker” and why people struggle with self-promotion at work. How can you “toot your own horn” without being perceived as a blowhard braggart?
Ross Kaminsky is the host of the Ross Kaminsky Show, heard every weekday morning on KHOW-AM in Denver, and a columnist and blogger for The American Spectator. Mr. Kaminsky is also a regular donor to other free-market and libertarian organizations including Reason, the Cato Institute, and the Independence Institute.
Click on the link below to listen.
William Arruda’s popular Reach Personal Branding interview series is a treasure trove of fantastic career advice. Listen to the audio recordings and you’ll find practical and proven wisdom from people like Seth Godin, Dan Rust, Gretchen Rubin and Ken Blanchard. Where else can you get this kind of solid advice, direct from the source, for free?
Arruda’s extended interview format allows his guest to go deep and share information you can apply right away. If you are committed to a high-trajectory career path, this is a great resource for you.
Click on the links below to listen to these four experts, then if you want more you can access the entire Reach Personal Branding interview series.
This was a fun interview, and while Dana never takes herself too seriously, she asks really good questions. It’s great to have a host who understands how to takes a serious topic, have some fun with it, and yet also share practical information to help listeners in her audience advance their careers.
Listen as we talk about why people find office politics so distasteful, why the “good ones” don’t always get their fair share of recognition and reward, and how to “play the game” in an ethical and positive way.
Jordana Green hosts a radio show on WCCO 830 AM (Minneapolis) weeknights from 9 p.m. – 11 p.m. CST. On this show segments below she interviews Dan Rust about his book Workplace Poker, and offers her own insight into the modern work environment. They discuss self-promotion strategies, how to effectively “toot your own horn” without being perceived as a blowhard.
They also discuss the importance of personal charm and charisma in career advancement, and whether or not someone can actually learn to be more charming. Dan shares stories of several “charm-challenged” individuals who were able to develop greater effectiveness in this area. It took time and significant effort, but eventually these overly-serious grumpy folks were able to become quite pleasant and indeed, charming.
The total interview (parts 1 and 2 below) lasts about 30 minutes.
Part 1:
Part 2:
This show aired April 27th 2016, on Cincinnati’s WLW700 radio station. Scott opens with a summary of the recent rift between Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan, then asks Dan to comment on how this relates to the concepts within Workplace Poker.
Fair warning: The hard truths below may not be politically correct, and may even offend a few “mature” workers. But I am well into the final decade of my own career and count myself among the legions of old geezers who are fighting an uphill battle for continued career acceleration and relevance on the job. Like medicine and therapy, what’s best for us isn’t always pleasant.
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“I don’t want to spend my last ten years working as hard as I have for the previous thirty,” a friend recently admitted to me. “But I also don’t want my career to flat-line.”
And with those comments he neatly captured the dilemma facing many people in the final chapter of their careers. They are still ambitious in terms of wanting promotions, new opportunities to contribute, more status, more money, etc. And at the same time many of them don’t have the same internal “fire” for work they used to have. They have other priorities including time with family and friends, a personal “bucket list,” or other things that have become important to them. Plus there is the reality of aging. Our 50ish bodies and minds don’t have the same capacity as they did in our 20’s and 30’s.
Older workers also have to deal with the perceptions of others in the workplace, and the reality that they are competing with younger, often more aggressively ambitious colleagues, for every significant promotion and career opportunity.
Companies are much more willing to invest in a younger person who has perhaps a 30-year trajectory ahead of them. They are more willing to assign them to growth projects and “stretch” assignments. And the unspoken truth is that often people are simply waiting/hoping for the older worker to pack it in and retire.
So if you, like me, are an “old geezer” with a little kick left, what can you do to maximize the final years of your career? I can assure you that the tips below will help, and I can also assure you that your initial reaction may be resistance because these may not be easy or natural for you. Like I said before, the best medicine sometimes tastes the worst. So here we go…
1. Master the technology your younger colleagues are using. Do whatever it takes to get up to speed with the workplace technologies that others around you are using to boost productivity. Especially the basic everyday apps that your younger colleagues are using to boost productivity. In the minds of others at work, almost nothing more powerfully tags you as a “dinosaur” as being the one person who has to have help converting a Word document to .pdf format or editing your PowerPoint slide master. For internal systems and applications, you may need to find someone at work who can help you. But for all external/public applications I would go outside for tutoring. Take a class, live or online. Or buy a book. Get a smartphone. Buy a tablet. And use them.
2. Reject the idea that you are owed something for your years of service. This isn’t about what is right or moral or legal. It is about helping you adopt a mindset to accelerate your career path. If you hold on to even the slightest sense of entitlement, a feeling that something is owed to you, in subtle ways you give yourself permission to coast a bit. In business today, your contributions over the past decades aren’t relevant – it is the value you are creating for the business TODAY that matters.
3. Show your vitality. There is an element of theater in business, and you want to make sure you are putting on a daily show of vitality and energy. You are pushing against the perception that your age means less energy and less mental acuity. In reality of course, as we age there is a decline. We can minimize it with healthy habits, but we can’t avoid it completely. But to prevent this from impacting your career progress you’ve got to project the energy and vitality of someone at least a decade younger.
So stop talking to work colleagues about your age or health issues. Yeah, I have the aches and pains and twinges and spasms. And when you get together with your geezer friends it is natural to fall into a conversational comparison of hip replacement techniques. But at work, NO ONE should hear any of this. It just reminds people of your age and reinforces perceptions of decreased vitality.
4. Stop pointing out problems. Use your experience to create innovative solutions. Because you have so much experience, and because you have seen so many things tried in so many ways, you will OFTEN know that certain ideas or approaches are unlikely to work. And it is OK to OCCASIONALLY share the wisdom of your experience. But many of us fall into a pattern of ALWAYS being the one to point out why something won’t work. Even if you are right, eventually people start dismissing your comments because they don’t want someone who is always pointing out problems. Instead try using all of your experience to come up with unique and innovative solutions. And if those solutions can leverage technology (see first item above) that’s even better.
5. Be younger. Thinner. More energetic. I almost didn’t include this last point because it is so sensitive. Focusing on the cosmetic aspects of aging seems shallow, but this is a big part of the way others view us. If you’ve gained a few pounds each year and are now on the “heavy” side, if your hair has gone gray, if you walk more slowly, all of these things definitely impact the way others perceive you.
So don’t be shy about coloring your hair – yes, a little gray can look nice, but generally this is only true if you have a physically fit, trim physique. Pudgy men and women with gray hair just look…old. And seriously, it isn’t too late to get back in shape. Losing even twenty pounds tends to make you look at least five years younger. And the added energy you gain from being more physically fit will help as well.
I’ve had enough conversations with older workers to know that many of you are already thinking through why these suggestions won’t work for you. God bless you and your bad knees. For those of you who are willing to step up and push for a few more years of energetic relevance at work, I would be thrilled to hear about your experiences with these ideas.
“Why can’t people just say what they mean and mean what they say?” lamented Jenny, a mid-level manager for one of my client businesses. “If we focused all of this energy on the business we wouldn’t have most of the issues that cause the gossip, paranoia and backstabbing.” She was reacting to recent comments from a “friend” in the business, confiding that some of her coworkers were worried because she had been coming in late the past week. First of all Jenny was surprised because her cubicle was in an area where no one could see her daily comings and goings. She had been arriving about 30 minutes late ─ and staying 30 minutes longer at the end of the day, but apparently no one noticed THAT ─ because her husband’s car was being repaired and he needed her to drop him off at his workplace. Read more →