– Creating a positive impression – assuring that key people find you and your ideas interesting.
– Positioning – being in the right place at the right time.
– Cultivating mentors – locating experienced advisors.
– Lining up your ducks – making sure any idea you advance has support from the right people.
– Developing a favor bank – doing for others, not only because you want to, but so that someday when you need to call in a chit, you will have the “currency” to do so.
Why, you might ask yourself, should I spend my valuable time managing politics instead of doing my job? The truth is that understanding politics is required to do your job in most of today’s organizations.
Why not start by assessing how things get done — by whom and in what ways — where you work? Seek guidance if it’s available from people who are adept at managing politics. Become a student of politics. Learn, for example, to detect disconnects between what is said and what is done, between what is requested and what is rewarded. In most organizations, there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. It never pays to be the last one to know.