Embrace Office Politics

"Bodacious" means to be bold, outstanding, and remarkable.
Take those attributes to work and you're on your way to
building a fulfilling, bodacious career. Does having a
bodacious career sound exciting to you? It is! After
starting as an $8 an hour customer service rep, I rose
through the ranks of AOL, accepting four promotions and
surviving over six layoffs to become the head of corporate
training for 12,000 employees. Along the way I learned I
needed to be bodacious to achieve the career I wanted. Out
of that experience I created my "cheat sheet" of the
essential Bodacious Career Builders. Here's another:
Embrace Office Politics

I try not to dwell on this too much. But had I known this
sooner, this little bit of intelligence may have prevented
a lot of angst and propelled my career to even higher
levels: Office politics can be a good thing.

Surprised? Me, too. If I had been a little more savvy
about how I could make office politics work for me, I might
have avoided the glass ceiling and stayed at AOL a little
longer. I might have achieved the title of Director or
even VP. But no. For 10 years, I operated as though my
job was to get the work done with passion and to be a team
player in helping AOL realize its big vision.

In my noble naïveté, like a good foot soldier who's not
completely concentrating on where she's going, I tripped
and fell on my own sword. Was I skewered by someone else's
scheming? Was this something to blame someone else for? I
don't think so. I was just so focused on the greater
mission of the work at hand that I didn't take steps to
show my boss that I was also capable of strategizing a plan
for the future. You don't need a nasty conniver to be on
the losing side of a political game. Sometimes you just
have to be dedicated to your work.

I finally realized that office politics is simple -
relationships plus power. Now, I'm all for good
relationships at work, most women are. I strove to create
deliberate relationships for my Bodacious Career that could
help me move forward. Sometimes this is a challenge, but
all in all, it doesn't press my 'good girl' buttons.

But, power, that's another story! It's evil, right? Well,
it can be. It's not as if we don't have enough stories
about power being abusive, harmful or strictly
self-serving. Admittedly, that's one side of power. But
there's another side of power.

Let's be real. Every workplace is political, and the
higher up the organizational chart you go, the more
political the workplace gets. That's because there's more
at stake. The higher up you go, the more things get
accomplished by virtue of relationships and positioning.
Bodacious Women know that the higher up you go in an
organization, the more office politics you get. They also
know that the question isn't whether to play, but how.

Consider that, on a day-to-day basis, office politics can:

-Allow people at all levels of the organization to move up
and around, because politics can give individuals the
opportunity to get recognized.

-Help managers support their employees through acquiring
the resources they need to get the job done and serve as a
buffer between the employees and pressures from higher-ups.

-Help the company as a whole succeed as senior level
leaders use politics to cultivate support and enthusiasm
for company initiatives.

In other words "office politics" is just another way of
spelling "leadership". And that's a good thing! Like
leadership, political acumen is the artful technique of
making people feel good about themselves while they are
helping you. It is a form of plugged-in power that is
created when we are trusted and have built a track record
that says, "You can count on me." We may use the
strategies of office politics to gain a competitive
advantage in our own careers, but in most cases, we gain
from office politics only if what we do ultimately benefits
the company, its employees, and stakeholders.

These are just a few of the positive affects of leveraging
the power of office politics. Perhaps you can think of
more. But, none are possible unless we accept that office
politics is a fact within any organization and that it can
be a good thing. Don't let the 'good girl' hold you back.
Embrace office politics.

BODACIOUS CAREER BUILDER: Accept office politics as a fact
within any organization; embrace its positive potential.

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Mary Foley, author of "Bodacious! Woman: Outrageously in
Charge of Your Life and Lovin' It!" and founder of the
Bodacious Women's Club, inspires women to be courageously
in charge of their lives. You can be inspired, too! Get the
free audio "Live Like Your Nail Color!" today at
http://www.LiveLikeYourNailColor.com .