Political Dilemmas at Work: How to Maintain Your Integrity and Further Your Career

Resistance

Tact and diplomacy are important if we are to make friends and allies, but we will also need to be able to offer resistance appropriately. We might need to say no to powerful folks and defend our views and the work of our teams. And for some of us, we will need to overcome our need to be liked to find appropriate ways to say no. Resistance can sound scary for some people. And political role models in government will not be able to help us with this. Theirs is an arena of point scoring, undermining, and character assassination, which is not appropriate in any organization. We could all do without spending time on managing the political fallout of our mistakes. We need to be able to come away from our political skirmishes having done the least possible damage to our relationships. We will probably need to continue working with our opponents at the next meeting. Resisting assertively and challenging effectively increases our chances of being influential and at the same time protecting both our integrity and our relationships.

• Assertiveness techniques are for everyone.

• Accept that good bosses don’t always want to hear yes people, so learn how to say no.

• Remember that agreeing with everyone all the time is a transparent and ultimately weak strategy.

• Saying yes when we mean no gives away your own rights and damages your self-esteem.

• Remember to challenge and debate the issue—not the person.

• Ensure that tough feedback is focused on the task—not the person.