How To Minimize Office Politics In A Polite Way

If we are talking about how to minimize office politics today, the credit goes to the emerging yes-man culture in the corporate sector. Employees are often influenced by this culture and unwillingly (or maybe willingly sometimes) indulge in politics to be the young-poppets of superiors and traduce the fellow workers. Individuals who believe in favoritism often move to dispiriting politics for the sake of their position. 

While some new-age leaders appreciate office politics by the sense of “Survival of the fittest”—corporate pundits are strictly against it. They believe that office politics function as termites and affect the business’s bottom line. More often than not, it takes away the opportunities for employees who might otherwise be star players but failed to fit the political environment. Therefore, you must think about how to minimize office politics.

If the idea of eliminating political behavior in an organization turns you to ban gossip at the water cooler, you are doing it wrong. In this post, we will talk about what office politics is, its examples and will share some proven tips on how to minimize office politics.

Let’s talk about it.

What Is Office Politics?

In today’s fast-paced working environment, office politics is a common experience and exists virtually in every workplace worldwide. There are various ways to define politics in the workplace. However, the level might vary depending on the size of the workforce and favors asked to do.

Office politics involves a series of slanders and other aspersion techniques performed by fellow workers to flourish their status and evolve their agenda. These self-serving actions are often performed in the aftermath of disagreements. However, it is harmful to the business in any form. 

The conflicts might come up in different ways. How would you identify the signs of office politics? Below are examples of office politics and how to minimize office politics politely.

What Are The Examples Of Office Politics And Office Politicians?

To help business leaders and employees identify the political environment in the office, we have marked the six types of corporate politics. If you’ve ever worked in a corporate environment, you would be familiar with these modern techniques. Later we will talk about how to minimize office politics.

Gossipers

There is always a person or a group in every office who knows everything that goes around in the office. They love blabbing secrets to co-workers and confidential information. When you find colleagues of this trait, it is critical to keep your conversation related to business only. If the gossipers try to drive the conversation towards personal lives, you better exit the conversation as soon as possible.

Credit Stealers

It is common to find such personalities in every corporation. Such people will do everything to go ahead, even if that requires stealing credits for someone else’s ideas. How would you avoid being targeted by credit stealers in your workplace? In simplest terms, you can speak up about your views and ideas in front of other co-workers. In addition, frequently update the authorities with your ideas to avoid confusion with original and fake ideators.

Bootlickers

People with this personality are likely to pass compliments left and right, but it is difficult to tell if the flatters are genuine or licking the boots. Luckily, the corporate culture will teach you to differentiate between fake and genuine people. So, you don’t need to worry about the bootlickers in your office.

Wreckers

Such people only work to benefit themselves. While it is not informal to gain benefits, the situation worsens when the wreckers become critical of others and don’t hesitate to backbite the co-workers. The easiest way to mark such personalities is to find people who never take responsibility for their mistakes and avoid answering straight.

Influence Peddler

It is always hard to win over such a lobbyist who works hard and has the power to swing opinions in their favor. They have come all the way through corporate politics and know the political world inside-out. To make sure your views are heard and taken into action, speak when you disagree with the influence peddlers’ opinion. But make sure you are ready with the facts, or the idea will bite back.

How To Manage Politics In The Workplace?

Corporate politics are mostly self-serving behaviors that occur in the aftermath of dissatisfaction. In other cases, a person’s motive to engage in office politics may be to sell their ideas, accomplish a targeted objective by minimizing competition or influence the people at the top. Whether you are a business owner or leader, you should take immediate steps to reduce office politics. Here are the eight easy tips on how to minimize office politics.

Promote Employee Communication

Like most workforces, yours is likely to be full of different backgrounds, views, personalities, cultures, religions, values, passions, and, most important, political views. While diversity in the workplace can lead to variation in ideas, it can also trigger potential conflicts and office politics. So, how to minimize office politics in this case? It is simple. Promote healthy communication between employees and take advantage of variations in their views to get great new ideas to grow your business.

Encourage Respect Among Co-workers

A healthy workplace is determined by respect among co-workers. One easy tip on how to minimize office politics suggests evaluating employee behavior during the probation period. Cut the employees who do not respect others or are unprofessional.

Break The Inner Cliques

Every workplace has friends, tight-knit groups, and love birds, which are inevitable parts of the workplace. These cliques often pose a threat to a company’s productivity and ultimately lead to office politics. And once again, you will end up searching for how to minimize office politics. Follow what Netflix did and be aware of unhealthy clique-forming in your organization.

Build A Solid Company Culture

Besides attracting better talent, a strong company culture saves your organization from breaking into pieces. One easy way to prevent you from searching ‘how to minimize office politics’ is to train your leaders to manage office politics effectively in the first place.

Replace The Wreckers With First Principle Thinkers

You can fight the office politicians alone because they are multifaceted. So, your search for how to minimize office politics should include replacing the wreckers with the first principle thinkers. They will help you develop a unique worldview to reduce or even stop office politics at its roots.

Move From Words To Deeds

Finally, it’s time to switch from how to minimize office politics to managing the politics in the workplace on the ground level. These tips on how to manage political behavior in organizations won’t work by themselves. The result of a plan depends on its execution. So, start with applying these rules to everyone in your office, from CEO to the receptionist. 

Final Words

Office politics is not bad but must be addressed mindfully before it starts affecting your internal decisions and productivity. However, everything starts with a string of dissatisfaction in mind, so it is always a good idea to focus on employee satisfaction. So, they won’t indulge in nasty office politics.

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