Office Politics and Survivor on T.V.
No one survives and thrives on their own.
Think of office politics as alliance-building. But avoid unethical office politics.
Rob Jolles explains that it’s one thing to get a job. It’s another thing to survive and thrive in organizational life. (Why People Don’t Believe You …)
Commit to alliance-building:
Jolles says It takes soft-skills to thrive in organizational life. People lose jobs because they lack soft-skills.
Soft-skills are the new hard-skills.
Success over the long-term requires alliances. Anyone who wins on the T.V. show Survivor does it because of alliances.
Doug Conant, retired CEO of Campbell’s Soup, was a head’s down – do your work – type of guy. After losing a job, he became an introvert who could network. Eventually his network helped him with his decision to go to Campbell’s Soup.
Success is about what you do AND the relationships you build. Jolles offers three suggestions.
#1. Don’t avoid alliances, build them.
“Typically, those who duck alliances are seen as aloof and not team players.” Jolles
Realize there’s a difference between friends and alliances. They may be the same, but not always.
#2. Choose alliances wisely.
You’re known and judged by your alliances.
Jolles suggests that when you align with someone who doesn’t fit, you may be the next person voted off the island – out of the organization.
#3. Remain loyal to your alliances.
“When others put their faith in you, like it or not, they expect you to understand the politics of your position and behave accordingly.” Jolles
Tips:
- Don’t sacrifice ethics and values.
- Stay true to your carefully chosen alliances.
- Reject the need to always be right.
Rob Jolles on Survivor and office politics (2:36):
What does ethical office politics mean to you?
Sadly, all too often office politics is about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. Also, there’s nothing like office politics to remind you you’re as good as your last failure.
Very interesting and spot on, choose your alliances wisely, grow them. What I have found is that even if you might lack some soft skills if you make yourself so good in your job but a bit quieter (i.e you let you work speak for yourself) you can get away without some of the “rah rah” alliances. Very simply you are too good to let go and you accomplish tasks in a manner others can’t. You get viewed as valuable and someone who does not rock the boat (a survivor in a different format) and you therefor are most likely left standing when the disruption (that always occurs) happens. Strange that it comes that way but in every job I’ve seen that and I am always left standing; usually as the smoke clears with those I have closer alliances with and whom I truly actually like.
I use to watch Survivor … and I soon stopped after being kicked out of my ‘tribe’ per se at a government job. The office politics was THICK with toxicity. I tried to remain positive and work towards positive goals. However, when you become a target you have to be quick in switching alliances. My blind trust in people (those who I thought had my back) sacrificed me to save a manager’s job when they demoted her into my former position. I guess the back-stabbing nature of ‘Survivior’ (one of my favourite shows because one of my friend, Kelly Gleason, was on the 2nd season) became too much of a trigger. I learned my lesson the hard way about the importance of alliances.
Tribes are very powerful. There is also a power House book called Tribes by Seth Godwin and his Tedtalk.
Game changer
Soft skills are the new hard skills – Alleluia. I have always believed this.
As a lot of people are now saying, it’s all about the conversation.
I struggle with seeing the words ethics and politics in the same sentence. Politics has always had a negative connotation for me. I tend to agree with Roger L.’s view expressed above.
Great article — only thing is “loosing” a job is mentioned twice and it should be “losing” 🙂