Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of executive

coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way you want to

be perceived. I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today we're talking about politics in the workplace.

I was hired to groom Danielle for a promotion.

Less than a week after our first coaching session, the head of her division, who had been a fixture for a dozen years, announced he was leaving for another opportunity.

Overnight, every senior leader in the division, including Danielle, was thrown into a major game of musical

chairs. Some people would zoom upwards, while others would stay where they were.

Danielle felt this was the perfect opportunity for her to snag her promotion.

I agreed it well might be.

I began to ask Danielle about the details of her relationships with each of the most senior players in the division.

After a bit, Danielle slumped down and muttered,

Ugh, I hate politics.

Whenever I hear that comment, and I'm surprised by how often I do hear that comment, I reply with a suggestion.

How would it be, I ask, if you substituted the word politics with the word relationships, would you still hate it?

Usually people say no.

Now the truth is, politics exist.

But just as the word power is neither positive nor negative, the word politics by itself

doesn't tell you what sort of politics exist in your organization or how you relate to it. Most often people who say they

hate politics believe politics are nefarious, illegitimate means of getting ahead.

While that certainly can be true, it's rare that I see an

organization play by those rules. What I do see is that every company and every

group within every company has its own rules about how politics are played.

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