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

Key Projects, Great Opportunities

Project work has now become fundamental to the way organizations function. This means that more and more of us are getting out more—which is a good thing. Well, at least we are getting out of our departments and working across the wider organization. This cross-functional work means that more of us report to different stakeholders and have multiple bosses, and between all these agendas, there can be tension and the risk of politicking. While there may be kudos for being on the hot project team, we need to be mindful of the risks, should that project crash. The key decision is not which projects we can join, but which will give us the best platform for achievement and demonstrating our talents.

 

• Check out the political backdrop before joining or leading a project.

• Understand the informal reporting structure as well as the formal one.

• Talk to other stakeholders about their agendas.

• Talk candidly but constructively about the politics.

• Always have a good “I’m sorry, no” strategy just in case you want to, and indeed can, refuse.

 

Our charter needs to include a commitment to investigating and understanding the politics around the project if we are to succeed. The politics will be there, we just need to figure out if they are positive or negative.