Winning at office politics

Within eight minutes of sending my email I had received eleven replies, including responses from two senior managers and three directors, plus two phone calls and one high importance flag.

My email with its subject went viral in the worst way possible.

I am on this job for a year now and I can see that people are still taking things as fiasco.

Someone stepped in and said, "His mail was not intended to be in the way that you thought," and those were the magic words needed to end a started drama.

Here’s what I’ve learned about winning at office politics.

To win at office politics I must know who is most likely to cause drama: Certain people that I should think twice about before emailing; certain people that I should always call or talk to in person instead of emailing

Telling myself, "I don't engage in office politics, I tell it like it is," is a dumb tactic that will get me into trouble.

It is exactly like asking a pregnant woman how much weight she’s gained in the past few months and, when she gets mad at you, tell her that you were genuinely curious and didn't mean any harm by it. She won't believe you no matter what you say, and that is one relationship you’ll have to work hard at reviving. Which brings me to my next point.

I HAVE to engage in office politics to WIN at office politics.

Engaging in office politics doesn't mean I have to play games to win. Rather it means that I have to be hyper-aware of my surroundings.

To know the trigger words. Every office has trigger words that get everyone up in a frenzy once someone blurts them out.

In my case the word I mentioned in my email was a trigger word because there was a controversial changes. I didn't know that but it was why my email got out of control. Supposedly there was a process of engaging and my email inferred that I wanted to follow my own different process.

Follow the fear. Sometimes people act irrationally, even in response to a worded email or question.

This usually happens when someone is sending fear down the management chain, thus making everyone act differently. The more you understand about where the fear is coming from, the better you can navigate office politics.

Avoid "reply to all" like it's the plague. There is a 99.9999% chance I didn't need to reply to all. Here is the rule of thumb. Unless 100% of the recipients will find your information useful, only reply directly to the sender.

“Reply all” is too often the cause of a drama.

No matter how hard I try, I will not be able to avoid office politics, even in a friendly environment. The winning strategy is to seek first to understand, then to be understood. -  Words said by Stephen Covey and it explains a lot.

Never start drama on a Friday.

·         Best time to start drama: Monday afternoon.

·         Worst time to start drama: Friday afternoon.

The problem with office politics on Friday is that it can run over into the weekend and then start again on Monday. It will ruin weekend because all I can think about is the politics in the office.

If you're going to cause problems, cause it on a Monday so it doesn't ruin everyone's weekend.

There are only losers in office politics, never winners. I know my post is titled, "Winning at office politics," but the truth is there are no winners, just losers.

If you find yourself in a heated battle trying to prove that you were right and someone else was wrong, you’ve already lost the battle.