Ways to Navigate Through Office Politics

Being good at your job also encompasses the art of dealing with office politics and difficult people, all at once. Career strategist Linda Raynier, in her video, discloses four groundbreaking steps that she believes are the key to helping individuals avoid getting entangled in such conflicts and instead allow them to focus on the job at hand, with little to no distractions on the way.

To begin with, Raynier throws a bit of light on the mechanism of office politics, itself to explain how business coordination or interaction in the workplace are often employed and leveraged for personal gain to climb up the ladder, along the way. Such environments furthering favoritism or preferential treatment of any sort can often be difficult to cope with. To combat these, Linda designates four crucial strategies that she believes will aid individuals, if implemented correctly. The very first step, Raynier says, is to establish a personal trademark by maintaining a consistent and high-quality performance at work. A remarkable standard of work is sure to impress one and all and make an individual stand apart from the rest of the herd. This should also be accompanied by a certain degree of specialization, a sort of professional credibility that is bound to make an individual almost irreplaceable in terms of the job that he does. As the third step, Linda explains that while it is important to abstain from trivial, inconsequential, and personal conflicts, it is, however, important, once in a while, to partake in the ones that might be significant and professionally relevant in more ways than one. The trick, therefore, is to pick and choose the battles that really matter, she ascertains.

The final step, as per Linda, is to avoid the gossipers but at the same time maintain a sort of professional courtesy and amiability without getting into petty conflicts. Keeping in mind these simple yet profound strategies are the non-negotiable tools for navigating through office politics and difficult people that might come along, in the way, at work every day.