Negative vs Positive Politics

Image courtesy of Naypong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I had a great conversation last night at the Cocktail Antabli with a friend that lasted for a good two hours about how poisonous his environment has become. I think we both suffered from sugar overdose. Anyway, it's funny because he currently has the job  I applied for eight years ago when I was scrambling for work (I might tell you about it sometime). In a nutshell, he was approved for a promotion from all management levels but was backstabbed by a suck up  who managed to steal it from him. How did that happen you ask? Simple, wrong management priorities! There was a good reason my friend managed to get all those approvals, he was a talented engineer who was able to take bold steps during very narrow windows of opportunity to shine and bring his employer big $$, he was a rockstar.
So what happened? This is exactly what internal negative politics refers to. It is beyond any logic or comprehension, it's human nature. That suck up  mentioned above had a good relationship with the immediate supervisor in charge of forming the production team and choosing the next team lead (the promotion my friend was approved for). In a quick meeting, he managed to convince the supervisor to choose him over my friend for the team lead position. NOT COOL ! So how can you avoid this situation? It is not that simple, but very doable. My friend did an incredible good job shinning in this company and if I could go back in time and give him a quick insight, I would have told him about  positive politics. My friend had proven himself to his immediate supervisor. I bet he had gained so much credibility that his supervisor would not have refused if he had asked to present in front of higher managers on the latest business win. This would have given him the chance to give credits to his supervisor in front of his supervisor's managers and VPs. Though everybody knows who is really the rockstar, people will applaud the supervisor for his team's accomplishment, this is how they protect each other's legitimacy. This very important move would have made his supervisor look very smart in front the higher management. And who doesn't want to have a guy that makes you look good in your team? Overtime, higher management and VPs will quickly catch up on that little engineer who happens to be good at what he does, but also make people smile and look good. You bet they will do anything to promote him and have him work in their team, and that is how you skip the whole concept of corporate ladder! A lot more details about this topic in the up and coming book!