Category Archives: Blog

How To Avoid The Pitfalls Of Office Politics

Although you might think of “office politics” as a phenomenon beginning in the business world, I believe its origins trace back further. For example, if you take a long view of it, one’s behavior in the workplace might stem from childhood experiences, such as those in the family unit, on the playground or in the classrooms. As a leadership coach, I’ve seen that if these behaviors are negative, they can play a role in creating in office politics and an unhealthy work environment.

According to a 2019 study by Randstad (registration required), a “pleasant work atmosphere” is among the top five most important attributes for U.S. workers. If you’re someone who wishes the politics of climbing up the corporate ladder could be eliminated and replaced by a logical, merit-based process, you’re certainly not alone. There are likely a number of workplaces out there that can fit this ideal description, but sometimes, they might feel hard to find. If you don’t feel you’re in a positive work environment, below are five steps you can take to navigate your workplace without getting stepped on:

Scope out the playing field.

What does the official organization chart look like? Perhaps, more importantly, what does the “unofficial” organization chart look like? There are figureheads, and then there are the people who really get things done. It pays to know who is who.

Consider how your position fits into the team structure.

Who do you regularly interact with, and how can you build on those relationships? If you’re constantly at loggerheads with a colleague you work with frequently, every day can seem like a battle. The first thing you can do to make the situation workable is to try to understand why the interactions are unproductive and consider the other person’s point of view. Do you always insist on things going your way? Are you uncompromising? What is the other person being tasked with producing? Are your business goals the same? Taking the emotion out of the equation can be a big help in this step.

Have the courage to ask a couple of associates whose opinions you trust and respect what improvements you could make in everyday interactions with other employees. How are your listening skills? Does your body language make you appear unapproachable? If you’re having problems with your interactions with team members, they might be on your end, not the other person’s, so it’s critical to look at how you might be contributing to the situation.

Find common ground.

When you get an assignment you don’t like or have to work with a peer you don’t get along with, what is your reaction? If you take the easy road and immediately start complaining to your group of friends, it accomplishes nothing. And in my experience, if word of that behavior circles its way back to your boss, it probably won’t be looked upon favorably.

Instead, spend a bit of time figuring out how to make the assignment a success. How can you manage to make the assignment more palatable? Try to find common ground with your peer. Is there anything you have in common that isn’t derisive? For example, is there a hobby or sport you both enjoy? Or, perhaps you both have children the same ages. There is likely a common denominator to be found that can help defuse the combative urge between you.

Don’t make others look bad.

It might be incredibly tempting to take down the colleague you don’t get along with during an important project meeting, especially if you have them dead to rights. But put that fantasy out of your mind and take a breath. Making them look bad might feel good for a minute, but you likely will have made an enemy for a lifetime. No good can possibly come out of revenge in the workplace. Think about how you would want to be treated in that situation.

Your colleague isn’t necessarily a bad person. They might have made a mistake or misunderstood their assignment, and you never know — they could be going through something in their personal life. Ask them privately what the problem was, and offer a solution or assistance. (But do remember that if they constantly drop the ball, that’s a different scenario and might require some more input to from their direct manager if they aren’t in your department.)

Make it a win-win situation.

When it comes down to it, our main function at work is to make the company a success. If that doesn’t happen, nobody wins. In today’s competitive economy, if your company isn’t able to reach its goals, another company probably will (and you might find yourself looking for a new job). When approaching any new assignment, project or interdepartmental endeavor, ask yourself what would be a “win” for you. Then, take a moment to ask the others on the team what would make it a “win” for them. And most importantly, what would make it a “win” for the organization?

If you can find a way to weave all of these needs together in one coherent strategy, you’ve already completed the hardest part. If everyone thinks they’re getting something out of the deal, I believe they’ll be much more likely to fully participate in making the project a success.

In her book “Secrets to Winning at Office Politics: How to Achieve Your Goals and Increase Your Influence at Work,” author Marie G. McIntyre notes, “Unfortunately, if people lack clear goals, have unpleasant working relationships, or simply don’t understand how organizations operate, the joy of accomplishment is often replaced by frustration and disappointment. When people fail to master the political side of work, their jobs may become unrewarding and unhealthy.” Wishing that your office environment weren’t so political won’t get you anywhere. It’s up to you to create a better environment, adapt to the one that currently exists or plan your exit.

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This article has previously been featured on Forbes

The Impact Of Connecting At Work

Humans are social animals — we crave meaningful interaction with others. Unfortunately, when we don’t get enough of it, there can be serious repercussions. This need, unsurprisingly, carries over to our lives at work. We spend so many hours of our lives working that we can end up shorting ourselves on important interactions with family and friends, so it’s only natural that we crave real connections in our work environment.

In a 2018 survey of 20,000 U.S. adults by Cigna, the company found that there are consistent traits among those who lack a connection with others: “It was found that lonelier people are more likely to have infrequent in-person interactions, disagree that their ‘social skills’/relationship statuses are good, be in fair/poor overall, physical, and mental health, and have less balance in their lives — all of which are interconnected and come with repercussions of their own.” For instance, only 36% of those who never have in-person interactions say they get enough sleep (compared to half of those who have daily interactions), and only 37% say “they get the right amount of family time (vs. 65%).”

Furthermore, a whopping 50% of those who never have in-person interactions are in fair/poor overall health, and they have an even harder time finding balance in their lives: “Only a third (33%) of those in fair/poor overall health are getting the right amount of sleep (vs. 51% of those in good, very good or excellent overall health), while 38% of those in fair/poor overall health report working for the right amount of time (vs. 57% of those in good, very good or excellent overall health).”

For those of us who work alone as freelancers or those of us who work in the corporate world but feel overwhelmingly isolated, what can we do to ensure that we have a better quality of life? One answer seems to be that we should satisfy our need to belong at work, and that appears to come down to trust and respect. According to EY’s Belonging Barometer study, “more than half (56 percent) of respondents feel they belong most at work when they feel trusted and respected, with baby boomers feeling this way the most at 63 percent, compared to Gen X at 56 percent and millennials at 53 percent.”

People also want to feel as though they’re being heard and understood at their places of work. As EY’s study found, “thirty-nine percent of respondents feel they belong most at work when they have the ability to speak freely and voice their opinion.”

Having others show that they care also can play a role. As EY reported, “thirty-nine percent of respondents say that when colleagues check in with them about how they are doing both personally and professionally, they feel the greatest sense of belonging at work.” In fact, people appear to value check-ins more than public recognition, receiving invitations to events outside the office, being invited to meet with top leaders and inclusion in email conversations with top leaders.

And so we come to the crux of my point — we crave human contact. Even at work (or perhaps, for those who have few other human interactions, only at work), we want to feel that someone else cares enough about us to inquire about our well-being.

Clearly, it’s very important to connect at work. People tend to be less healthy and have less balance in their lives when they feel they exist in a vacuum.

You also can see the results of employees feeling engaged with other employees and engaged with their work in Gallup’s 2017 State of the American Workplace report. Business units that score high in the area of employee engagement have 41% lower absenteeism and 59% lower turnover than business units in the bottom quartile. In the same engaged group, there also were 70% fewer employee safety accidents. These, plus other positive statistics, help businesses in the top quartile realize a 21% higher profitability.

Interestingly, according to the Cigna survey, “loneliness scores differ when analyzed across age/generations. Gen Zers (adults ages 18-22) surveyed have a total average loneliness score of 48.3 — granting them the title of the loneliest generation — while scores gradually drop as respondents continue to age, culminating in a total average loneliness score of 38.6 for the least lonely group, the Greatest Generation (adults ages 72+).”

Therefore, while management might intuit that the portions of their workforces who are loneliest and most disengaged are their senior employees, they would be incorrect. The employees they may need to concentrate on keeping engaged are the junior employees. But, in actuality, every employee likely wants to feel engaged and acknowledged.

One of the important things to keep in mind when trying to engage people in the workplace is their communication preference. Some employees might prefer a face-to-face chat. Those who are much busier or working remotely might prefer a video chat. There are still other employees who really prefer an email. The key to making employees feel involved, seen and acknowledged is communicating with them in the method they find agreeable. Doing this shows that you respect their individual needs for communication, which can boost your image as a supervisor or manager who has excellent communication skills.

The general idea is that interacting with people is important. Encourage your employees to interrelate. Taking the hard line that “work is work” and “personal is personal” isn’t likely to win you any prizes. Today, meaningfully interacting with co-workers is how many people get their daily dose of humanity, and that can go a long way toward employee satisfaction and company productivity.

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This article has previously been featured on Forbes

Are Your Employees Engaged At Work?

According to the latest Gallup Poll on employee engagement “The percentage of ‘engaged’ workers in the U.S. — those who are involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace — is now 34%, tying its highest level since Gallup began reporting the national figure in 2000.” Although this is good news — or at least, better news — the number of disengaged employees is still far too high.

The same poll places the percentage of “actively disengaged” workers (people with miserable work experiences) at 13%, leaving the majority at 53% “not engaged.” These workers don’t feel connected emotionally or cognitively and will be out the door at the first job opportunity that’s even marginally better.

Fifty-three percent. It boggles the mind. How are companies doing so many things so wrong that the majority of workers would rather do the minimum and punch a time clock than actively bring themselves to work alive, awake and ambitious for achieving greatness?

What is causing the disengagement, and what can we do as leaders to reduce it or eliminate it altogether? It’s an important puzzle to solve, because according to a report from Rapt Media, “Disengaged employees cost U.S. businesses $450-$550 billion in lost productivity annually.”

It’s incumbent upon leadership and management to actively confront the problem to get these numbers under control and re-engage their employees.

In its survey, Rapt Media found that 57% of employees “feel their leaders are detached from the workforce.” If managers spend most of their time in meetings or locked away in their offices, how will employees ever know if they understand or even care about what they do? Interpersonal connectivity is important in the workplace and goes a long way toward making employees feel valued by the company.

How many of your company’s managers, VPs and people in the C-suite know what their people do day to day? Do they have an idea of how the actual or virtual machinery works for the average worker on the line? If they don’t know, they ought to. The more distant a manager is from the front lines, the more of a disconnect their employees will feel from them and from their overall purpose in the organization.

If the company you work for has an open-door policy, encourage your employees to work within the system. Let them know you value their valid complaints, honest criticism, and ideas for improvement. Make them feel heard, and make a plan to incorporate some of the better ideas. When employees feel like they have some input at the company where they spend 40-plus hours of their lives every week, it makes a difference in their attitude.

If you’re committed to improving employee engagement in your company, a good place to start is by offering encouragement. Everyone likes to hear that they’re doing a good job. When was the last time you told an employee you were impressed with their project or presentation?

When your company or team is going through changes, do you keep your employees in the loop? When organizations don’t disseminate important information, rumor has a way of rearing its ugly head, and it’s a notorious productivity killer.

It’s not always better to give than receive, especially when it’s honest feedback. As a manager, you need to be open to feedback not only from your boss, but from your peers and your employees as well. In an environment where frequent feedback is the norm, engagement thrives.

Employees don’t want to be overworked, but they do want to be challenged. Constantly going back to your top employees with more of the same work because they’re good at it is a sure recipe for burnout. Instead, provide them with new tasks that will stretch their abilities. As Peter Kokkinos wrote for Inside HR, “Ambitious employees will want to remain innovative and grow their skill set. If they can develop new skills at your company, an offer to work elsewhere will be less appealing.”

Another way to create and maintain employee engagement is for the company to offer opportunities for professional development. Whether it’s cross-training with another department, training courses or certifications, these opportunities show employees that the company cares about their advancement and values knowledge building.

If your company is one that doesn’t put much stock in the idea that employee engagement is important, share this nugget of wisdom from the Gallup Poll: “Compared with business units in the bottom quartile, those in the top quartile of engagement realize substantially better customer engagement, higher productivity, better retention, fewer accidents, and 21% higher profitability.” You just might change their minds.

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This article has previously been featured on Forbes