Ask Christa! I Hate Office Politics - Help! (S4E43)

Introduction

Hi everyone and welcome to Ask Christa! the place where you can ask questions about how to work through business challenges and workplace issues. I'm Christa Dhimo and today’s listener question is about POLITICS—YUCK!, oh wait… not politics-politics, but OFFICE politics, and our listener dreads work because of them, but I want all of us to forget what we know about office politics and shift how we talk about it: it’s really office influence, and while that doesn’t make the bad stuff better, it DOES put it in perspective and offer YOU a chance to make some changes AND… maybe feel a bit BETTER around the politics.

Here we go: 

Listener Question

“I’m in my late thirties. I started working right out of undergrad for my family’s business, which is a big company. We bring in about 6 billion dollars a year in revenue and have about 15,000 employees worldwide. We pride ourselves on running a culture that focuses on our employees, who are empowered alongside their managers to make their work as efficient as possible without skimping on quality for our customers or value for our team members.

After five years at my family’s company, I decided to work at different companies to get a sense of how things work elsewhere and bring BACK BEST PRACTICES while also getting a sense of where we could do better—and HOW. 

I shifted industries for obvious reasons, kept my background quiet, and learned A LOT. Five years at one company, then I moved on to another company, and now I’m back at my family’s business with fresh eyes and experience. I’m so glad I experienced two different companies in a different industry, because when I came back, I realized that our company isn’t as great as we always thought it was.

We definitely DO place a big value on employees and culture. I see that easily and every day. But I also see that office politics get in the way of making big differences that could make things better for our customers. I cannot provide details, since you read out the questions, but I’ve come to realize how much I hate office politics—help! 

How can I reduce the amount of politics I see in my family’s business?”

The Value of a Different Perspective (from different places)

First, I think it’s fantastic that our listener took the leap to go into different companies but ALSO a different industry! Obviously for non-compete reasons they wouldn’t stay in the same industry, but the move shows a thoughtful approach to gaining valuable real-world learning and perspective when it comes to a lot of what matters in business: how things ACTUALLY work when it comes to running a business with good humans involved.

I’ve worked in eight different industries and across multiple functions in my career, and while 30-plus years ago it might have seemed weird to do that, about 20 years ago I started to be tapped on and ASKED to work with companies in need BECAUSE of my rotations in and out of industries and functions. I fully encourage this if and when it’s possible.

Of course, my work requires a broad AND deep view of how organizations work and can do better, but even if you’re a specialist in a specific lane of an organization, I cannot tell you HOW ENRICHING it is to move into different industries as you move into different organizations, especially early in your career as you’re ALSO learning what you like, who you want to work for and with, and what you stand for and against in a work environment.

Of course, the purpose of our listeners sojourn was to, as our listener said, and I quote, “… get a sense of how things work elsewhere and bring BACK BEST PRACTICES while also getting a sense of where we could do better—and HOW.” (end quote)

It sounds to me like our listener got exactly what they were hoping for: a refreshed perspective, a clearer and more OBJECTIVE view of their family business, and areas where there could be improvements, particularly in the camp of office politics. 

Politics Are About Influence

So, let’s talk about office politics.

Politics is derived from policy, and in very broad and commonly considered terms, it’s about how to split up and offer fixed or finite resources through governance. 

But the other side of politics, and this is where office politics comes in, is about status or elevating status. I’ll include the Merriam-Webster definition in the show notes, because you can find additional information there related to terms like “playing politics” alongside FIVE official definitions of the word, which then include multiple facets of each definition.

In either case, a primary driver of politics from a governing perspective or a status perspective, is most times: INFLUENCE.

And when it comes to office politics, which is often about status and power, I want you to instead think about INFLUENCE.

Not All Politics Are Toxic, But When They ARE Toxic, They’re REALLY Toxic

I ALSO want you to be open to considering that not all office politics are toxic. 

If you unseat a bad CEO who had a history of TERRIBLE behaviors, and the new CEO coming in is the opposite type of person (because the Board was really smart about bringing in someone who could rebuild trust and various other aspects of the organization’s foundation and performance…), the new CEO will have to “play politics.” That doesn’t mean they’ll have to be conniving or coercive or manipulative, as most would probably think of when they hear the term “playing politics.” But it DOES mean the new CEO has to maneuver in a likely broken environment, with toxic politics everywhere from the executive team down, within a culture that is used to surviving through a blurry sense of status and power versus thriving because of clarity and effective leadership. Clarity and effective leadership aim to uplift the organization, advance the goals, improve anything aligned with performance that can ALSO bring out the best in your employees every day.

Former CEOs—or ANY person in power, including frontline managers and supervisors—with a history of terrible behaviors absolutely blur workplace clarity where it’s no longer about good, effective work getting done, but who is in a position to influence what work is done, when, and by whom.

But there ARE good politics where employees still use influence from a position of power and status, but they do so to elevate, enable better decisions, and raise up those who need it while offering additional support to those who need it.  Think about your favorite manager, if you’ve had one (yet): how did that person look out for you? Offer that promotion? Enable a rotation into a different team? Make sure you didn’t leave? YOU saw an effective manager, and OTHERS saw a good manager looking out for their team members…but… in the end it’s also about influence. Sure, for a promotion they probably had evidence of your good work, and lined everything up to make sure that promotion went through, but I guarantee they also talked to multiple peers, various leaders, and perhaps even clients to gather all the reasons why (evidence) you DESERVED that promotion, for example, and THAT was so they would have a higher grade of influence when in the room talking about WHY you deserved that promotion. That’s… good politics.

So: not all politics are toxic… but when they ARE toxic, they’re REALLY toxic. And I know this. I’ve lived it. I’ve seen it up close and can sense it a mile away.

The toxic politics ARE conniving and coercive and manipulative,. They include behaviors that aim to depress and suppress others as a means to elevate their status and power.

We don’t know what our listener sees in their family’s business in terms of office politics, but it’s probably related to what everyone typically refers to as “land grabs,” or “jockeying for position”—ways some will gain influence and “play politics” as a means to amass more teams or elevate their status and get a promotion whether it’s deserved on merit or not.

So, let’s talk about ways to manage office politics, because we all hate the toxic type, but as long as you’re working with humans, you’re going to experience politics. 

Ways to Manage Office Politics

Any time I’m working with a leader, especially executives, chief officers, and board members, I start and end with the company objectives for the year—those are our North Stars, and ANY TIME there is a distraction, that’s where I go back to.

And in the face of toxic office politics, I want you to start there, too. It’s a grounding exercise that forces perspective where you can say, “In the face of anything and everything, this is what we’re here to do.” Let the company objectives relieve you from the snarly mess that toxic office politics can often bring with them, because it’s not about the toxicity of a company, it’s about what you’re ALL aiming to get done.

From there, I usually ask people to make three columns on a piece of paper—old school style… like, seriously, get a piece of paper and a pen or pencil out—and in the first column or section, write a list of words that you feel when you think of the toxic politics in your workplace—just, get them out: icky, powerless, distraught, stressed out, played, coerced, abused, overlooked, invisible, belittled, disrespected… just—list them all out. The simple act of getting them out and seeing HOW they impact you will be helpful. This column—it’s how you feel when you feel toxic office politics. We want to reduce those.

In the second column, write down how you WANT to operate in a workplace environment: respected, listened to, understood, valued, able to get good work done, meet my goals, work effectively, use my time wisely, collaborate… that second column, the middle column… that’s who you are, and that’s how you WANT to work—but it’s how you want to work whether there are toxic politics or not. Notice how I didn’t ask you to consider anything about office politics, only how you WANT to operate in a workplace environment.

The third column I’m going to leave to you to continue working on as you wish, because this is a shorter question/answer segment, but in this column I want you to write out your action plan to learn about and then effectively manage toxic office politics in a way that suits you.

For our listener, it might be that they go to the tipity top of the company (presumably a family member) and report out the findings: this is how we operate, this is what I saw before I left, I worked in two other places, I came back, and this is what I see. But importantly, this is ALSO how what I SEE impacts WHO we ARE, and HOW employees WORK, and THIS (perhaps your third column or perhaps a different document) is what we should consider doing if we’re to improve… our competitiveness, our employee engagement, our cost structures, our revenue lines—whatever goals you see available with the reduction of toxic office politics.

And for our listener, maybe they’ve always been there, but they’re just seeing them now that they’ve been to two other companies across the last several years.

So, bring in the valuable lessons from other places and be specific so that it’s actionable, such as “I saw far more efficiencies gained because the two other companies I was in didn’t have the politicking we have here: they… focused on the work, employees were satisfied, teams worked well together, and customers were delighted every day. Some of the changes I think we can do here is related to toxic office politics and behaviors I see that…. And then provide examples of how the toxic office politics negatively impact the business…

Of course, if the toxic office politics are coming from the family members all the way up the top… that’s a bit different… and probably best for a different episode of Ask Christa! 

Additional Resources

For your resources, I’ll start with one that will help you all with that third column for your action plan as you learn how to manage through toxic office politics. The article is from Niven Postma called, “You Can’t Sit Our Office Politics,” and it was published in Harvard Business Review in July 2021. It’s a wonderful perspective from someone who shares wisdom AND what it takes to navigate the choppy waters of toxic office politics. The writer even admits, right up front, that they refused to engage in office politics for a while—to no avail. Also remember: you can sign up for a free account at HBR. You’ll have access to a certain number of articles each month. 

Next up? Ginny Clarke, a leadership expert who places an emphasis on culture, conscious choice, and accountability. Her impressive background is in executive recruiting and strategic talent management, and it shows. She does a lot of work in conscious leadership, which focuses on leading with deep purpose with a high level of self-awareness. I am not affiliated with her work, but as an organizational performance expert, I CERTAINLY appreciate it. You’ll see she uses a lot of tried, true—and evidence-based best practices when it comes to what politics mean, how to use and manage them effectively, and how to get the best out of the good humans you’re working with when, if, and while the more toxic office politics may be in the midst.

I’m offering two videos. One is the first video she posted about office politics called “Office Politics: How to rise above while getting ahead.” It’s from December 2024, runs about eight minutes. She runs through a quick review of what it might look like, some of the behaviors that come along with it. It’s a wonderful video and will probably be very therapeutic for many of you. 

The second was posted a month later in January 2025 and it’s called, “Office politics: the game you must learn to play.” Her guest is Kaleeqa Rouse, Founder of Real Well Media, and with a duration just under 15 minutes, she dives deeper into more specific behaviors and situations with toxic office politics.

The most replayed portion of the video? When Ginny Clarke talks about how “meek doesn’t mean weak,” and a quieter disposition doesn’t mean you don’t have power or a voice. Check it out…

Wrap Up & Submitting Your Questions

And there it is for Episode 43 of Season 4 where we’re focused on Doing the Work!

Submit your question on my show’s site, AskChrista.com, that’s Christa with a C-H, where you will see all my episodes listed based on category and season. While your there—sign up for my More Answers… newsletter, where you will receive additional content on Sunday nights to set you up for the work week.

As always—thank you for your support. And remember, if you have a business challenge or a workplace issue—Ask Christa!