Some people are ultra political by nature. They walk into a room at a crowded party and immediately get a feel for who is powerful and who is not. Worse, they brush by those who aren’t important to get at those who are. Eventually, the behavior gets noticed and discussed, and a reputation develops. A consensus forms that such a person is not to be trusted, and must be dealt with carefully.
Other people become political by experience. They learn the art of politics because they realize that being political is essential for achieving their objectives.
If power and influence are leadership commodities, then politics is the marketplace inside the organization through which many deals and bargains are made. Everyone knows that leaders compete for resources; grappling over slices of the budget pie, CEO face-time, manpower, etc. To a degree, such resources are a way of quantifying power and influence. Leaders also compete for followers ¾ with each other, with outside distractions, and with conflicting organizational priorities.
My father, a wise, blue collar, salt-of-the-earth man, who earned every penny he ever made, said it best: “Watch out for that guy. He’s a politician.” To my father, a politician was the worst thing you could be. Straight shooters say what they mean and do what they say. They live by their word. They don’t try to trick you, turn the tables on you, make promises they have no intention of keeping, say what they know you want to hear, cut you out of the loop, use you, or do an end run around you to reach their objectives. For my father, that was the one big turn-off of working for a large organization: way too much gamesmanship, politics and backstabbing. Who needs it?
