Dealing with politics is a necessary evil no matter where you work and at their worst can be so complicated that they can drive you out of a company or stand in the way of great work going out the door. In this episode, we will look at some of the emotional issues behind office politics and talk about the 8 habits that you can use to be able to survive them with grace and integrity.
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http://thecrazy1.com/episode75
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Dealing with politics is a necessary evil no matter where you work and at their worst can be so complicated that they can drive you out of a company or stand in the way of great work going out the door. In this episode, we will look at some of the emotional issues behind office politics and talk about the 8 habits that you can use to be able to survive them with grace and integrity.
SHOW NOTES:
http://thecrazy1.com/episode75
FOLLOW THE CRAZY ONE:
Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook
What's going on everybody and welcome into the 75th episode of The Crazy One podcast. As always, I'm your host, Stephen Gates. And this is the show where we talk about creativity, leadership, design and everything else that helps to empower creative people. Now, be sure to subscribe to the show so you get the latest episodes whenever those come out, because I travel like an absolute idiot so they don't always come out on the most regular basis. But here we are doing another show. And remember, look, you can listen to all the shows, get the show notes and more for this show and every other one just head over to the crazy one.com that's crazy and the number one.com So yeah, I've been man I have been spanning the globe since last we spoke to each other. I just got back from two weeks in Australia. We can Phoenix tomorrow. I'm headed to Santa Fe to do design Leadership Camp before being home for all 24 hours before headed to South by Southwest. But I wanted to make sure that we kept the cadence going kept the conversation going and did it Another show now, probably about a week or so ago, I went out on social media, which I do on a decently regular basis and asked, based on a couple topics I was thinking about, Which one did you want to hear about most? And this is the topic that one. So I think the thing here is that how you're able to accomplish, what you want to do inside of your company can be so complicated, because other people are involved. And you know, I think one of the most common things that stands in the way of getting a lot of that work done is politics. And I think that dealing with politics, often in my experience is a necessary evil no matter what you think about them, no matter how much you maybe enjoy it, maybe you're like me and absolutely hate it. Because I think this is another one of these critical topics. And the reason why I think it's critical is because politics often will affect our budget, our ability to grow our team him our ability to get work out the door, and a lot of other things, because since creativity is subjective and involves other people, it tends to have a pretty big bearing on what it is we do. And I know I mean, it's a, it is a difficult subject, this is a subject that, you know, just to be totally honest, there are times whenever I want to take on the subjects, and this is one of them. I don't think that I'm an expert on this by any stretch of the imagination, I think in any, if anything, sometimes the politics and self presentation and some of the things like that is something I still have quite a bit of work to be able to do but but i think you know, for me is the opportunity to try to learn something and try to share what is I learned try and share some of my experiences and my struggles. And you know, the challenge in doing a show like this is that politics are a dynamic problem and that they are unique to each company because politics are directly associated with personalities and personalities are different. So with that in mind in this episode, I want to take a look at, I think some of the emotional issues behind office politics. And I think really talk about how to deal with them in terms of habits instead of things like actions or lists or something like that. Because I've just as I started to think about this show and work through it, I just don't think that that's going to be any advice. It's going to just sort of be broadly helpful. I think that it may be, you know, something that I learned or saw one particular company, one particular person. I'm not so convinced that that's going to scale. But today, we're going to take a look at corporate politics, one on one the intros the basics, and how to survive any of it with any amount of grace, dignity, and most importantly, I think, any effectiveness. But where do we start about this? Because I think that, you know, I've worked for a lot of companies left a company, because you know, what office politics really boiled down to was about one word for too many people. And that word was power. And in the face of that the politics at some of these companies that some of these teams truly almost becomes just honestly like a Bloodsport. It's like the Hunger Games where it's just, you know, whoever can pull off the biggest political victory, whoever can do these sort of things wins. And I think it's really becoming a big issue. And I think in many cases, the reason why I say that the reason why I think it's important to this discussion, is because I see in so many cases where these internal politics and these wars and these power struggles, they almost become not they almost they really do become more important than the work that's being released, they become more important than what it is we're there to do that somehow, you know, coming in it who's right or winning this particular victory or doing something like that? That that seems to be more of the judge of success than actually shipping the product then creating good experiences, then having good ideas. And I think especially for creatives, we're much more susceptible to this because I think, you know, obviously the work that we do is very personal the things that we put out there we love. And so whenever politics and some of this stuff comes into it, I think that and this is why I sort of, I guess, wanted to start with the discussion around power, because I think power implies. And I think for many people that they think about politics, and they think about what goes on in seven companies like it's a game. And I think if you think about it, as in any game, that implies that there is a way to win. And, you know, for me, whenever I think about this stuff, I just think nothing could be further from the truth. Because if a game has an end, and someone wins, there is no way to win at business or win at office politics. So, you know, there's not a trophy, if you get the biggest team, there's not a trophy. If you have the most power. There's there's not an end to this game. It's not a finite system. It's sort of an infinite thing that goes on and on and the company goes on and the industry goes on and they're these sorts of things. So It's not, it's not a game where there's an end. But I think there's underlying thinking that we should be playing for power is just fundamentally flawed. And I guess I don't really know that I have an answer for that. But it's definitely an observation that I've seen in a lot of companies and a lot of my own work and a lot of my own career is that people treat politics like a game. And that's not the discussion I want to have today. Right. Like, I know, as I did a lot of research, and the reason why I said I think there's a lot of information out there, it's not helpful is I found tons and tons of articles about how to win at office politics. I just, I fundamentally, I guess, reject that. And I think that this is the point where I struggle in this in my own career, where I think sometimes I rejected to the point of almost not engaging in it whenever it happens to me because I just fundamentally dislike it so much, that it's just it's a difficult thing for me to deal with. But but that's why I said is this I don't want to do this in terms of like, right or winning or Because I just I think for what it is we do, that's not going to be a productive path. And to that end, I think that since so many people do play it like a game, that the consequences and I guess this is why I feel this way is that the consequences of those politics, they can be damaging, and they can be hurtful. And I think in many cases, the reaction to this, the reason why I think so many people wanted to hear about this, is that the most common reaction here is that sort of fight or flight mentality. And those are both, I think, also problematic, because I think fighting is only going to cause more resistance, more drama around whatever it is, is trying to get achieved, right? Because I think in many cases, you know, if you decide you're going to fight on something, there's sort of two outcomes. Either the person is going to just simply get run over by you by whatever your opinion is, and accept it, which is not an outcome that you want, or they're going to sort of return fire. They're going to stand up in an equal way. say, Look, I'm not okay with this. And I think flight can be just as bad Right, because I think if you're gonna run away with it, if you're never gonna deal with it, then you sort of get labeled as a pushover, and that people are going to take you for granted. And it's a hard balance. It's a hard line to walk to know, how do I get these two things, right. And the thing for me is that the fight or flight is that neither one of these options are appealing. And you know what, neither one are really good for your career. And so I think, you know, the first point I want to make whenever you're dealing with politics, no matter what it is, is that just remember, like whenever you do this, you always have a choice. And that you've got to be conscious about how you choose your reactions in the situation. Because even if you have the right message or the right intent, but it's given the wrong delivery, or isn't given a voice or things like that, those are your sort of reactions. And I think, you know, having gone through this the one thing that I realized is that the only thing that I can truly control is me and me being the way that my mentality is Me being the way that I think about things and me being the way that that isn't expressed in the way that it affects other people if you play games if you don't tell the truth if you try to again do those sort of things to take advantage of you and who you are then those have negative effects and that's why I said as I think this is something I'm not good at because you know, there are times whenever I get hurt I don't know what I mean offended seems like the wrong word. I don't know what disconnected something I try to do my best with it, but I know man, I can handle this so much better. I think this is one of the things that I'm you know, just candidly sort of currently working on is trying to figure out how to be better with some of this stuff or how to see the glass half full whenever sometimes it gets hard to want to keep pushing that rock up the hill and and i think that but this is the thing, right is that just remember in all of this, that that you've got a choice. Remember that no matter how bad the circumstances Aren't no matter how bad the situation is, you have a choice and how you feel, and you react. I think you know what, think about your emotions, think about what prompts them and how you handle them. I really talked to in the past and repeatedly about why self awareness and sort of self regulation around emotional intelligence, like we talked about this, in Episode 70 are on emotional intelligence, like why this is important. And I think it kicks in here because I think, you know, this sort of emotional intelligence, it helps you pick up on what other people are doing, what their emotions are going on, and understand, you know, what, what's the sort of approach that they might like or dislike it lets you get a little bit of insight into that. And so I think, you know, for me, that's, that's sort of the foundation for this, but let's go and actually start talking about how to you like I said, not when it politics, but definitely at least understand it. And, you know, I think that the reason why this is important, why can be I don't know what in some cases can Useful other cases frustrating is because politics often really short circuits, your traditional like org structure, right? Like whatever you see on paper, whatever people put up in like, okay, here's the CEO and direct reports and all those sorts of things. If that's your traditional org chart, one of the things that I've seen is that, you know, politics doesn't sort of rearranges those boxes. And, you know, that's why a lot of cases whenever I come into a company commands a new team, you know, one of the things that I like to do is honestly, just sit back and watch people because I think you can tell a lot about what's really going on because you'll see that the power in a company rarely flows through the lines of an org chart, right? Like it rarely goes that sort of straight top down in some companies that does, but I think as you sort of get beyond the the sea level of the CEO and their direct reports, organizational power gets very interesting and very different. And like I said, I think it flows very differently. And as you start to study this, and this is something that I think sort of became aware of I've tried to be more deliberate about is that it, it really will sort of come into two different forms there is what can be described as sort of like hard power and soft power. And let me explain what each of those are. Right. So I think, you know, hard power lines are the ones that these are the ones that come from an org chart, right? It's based on things like if you have a title based on your years of experience, in some cases, whether you have an office or a cube or different things like that, right. But these hard power tends to be very visible and obvious to everyone it is, you know that my title is bigger, I am higher on an org chart, My office is bigger, right? Like there is some hard tangible thing that shows a demonstration of power. Now, the ways you can usually spot this in an organization. There are a few sort of tricks that I'll look for. I think one is notice on your team if people are referred to by title or again, if they have an office or like things like that, right like and they're not referred to by their name. Those are hard power lines, right? Like those are things that are definitely signifiers, that that is something that is important by a company. And you'll work with some teams. And you'll notice, like, they never refer to somebody as you know, Kevin or Susan, it's like our SVP our, because somehow with the title will then come that well, since they have that title, they must somehow be more important. We know that that's not the case. But it's something to look for now. soft power lines. Those are something a little bit different, because these are the ones that don't follow the org chart. These are the ones that don't necessarily follow those sort of big visible things. These are ones that are it's a little bit more based on things like relationships and trust hierarchies. It's based on what people can do, whose ear they have, you know, what can they influence if you think about it, even on your team, there's probably somebody who isn't, you know, really big title but that's the one person that everybody goes to or that's the person that you know, can get things done. That's soft power that's sort of more of the hidden network, inside of teams. And I think, you know, you can often see this because you'll look for things like decisions that are made by just rarely a handful of people and that their power does not correlate to their title or their position in the company. Now, sometimes that can be because they're really caring, they really go out of their way, they're very giving like it right, like soft power comes out from a really good place. There's also times where soft power lines can be a bit like watching an episode of Game of Thrones, where it's just everyone's trying to manipulate each other and what can they do and who has one influence and trading on this sort of stuff. It's politics in the true negative sense of that word. But I think it's something that I do want you to be aware of, and to pay attention to. And that even when you go back to your team to into your company, start to look for the difference between where the hard power lines set and where do those matter, and where are the soft power lines and where do those matter because you're going to find Both and recognizing when and where they come into play is important, because then you actually will understand have a better sense of how do things really get done. Now with that is, again, sort of the foundation about remember you've had a choice and remembering to be able to kind of look for these power lines. And I said, I don't want to talk about this in terms of winning, that, you know, for me what I want to talk about this in terms of his habits that I think are going to serve you well, because I think that he was, like I said, politics are since people are involved, they're very different. They're very different, different organizations. And I think, you know, as a creative, where we tend to need to move between a lot of different teams, there are just some habits that I think are probably going to be better for you to be able to develop. And so that's what I kind of want to walk through is to be able to do these and so really sort of put together what I think are the six biggest the six best things that I think are going to help with this. Now the first one is you know, look we're in this age where we sort of moved from visual design to product design where in many cases, we're being asked to do more we're being asked to include more people in our process we're being asked to, to play a different role than just like the quote unquote, and make it pretty crowd. Right. So, as we're sort of in this space, I think one of the things that you'll see is that a lot of people have not caught on to the fact that this isn't just visual design anymore. And so we need to act differently. We need to do different things to be able to get our work approved. And I think one of the first biggest ones is how do you actually build your connections, your network, your you know, your sort of group, your circle, power, whatever that is, inside of your company, because, you know, I'll even see like the number one problem that I see in a lot of leadership, a lot of creatives, whenever they come out of something like an ad agency, and they go to an in house team. They don't really understand the importance of building connections and you see them struggle because you know, they think that they can either do whatever they want. Or that they can just simply, I don't know why almost like dictate that sort of thing, like just tell everybody else how it's going to be. And that's not how you get things done. I would argue even at agencies, that's really not how you get things done. But I think you know, like you come from a very design centric culture, design lead, maybe you can get away with it. But you need to include other people, you need to include other teams, you need to build consensus to be able to do this because again, remember, creativity ideas, oh, you know, a lot of these things are highly debatable. And so our ability to bring other people in this to build consensus to build a cohort around us that agrees with us. I think one allows the work to move forward but then I think in many cases and the reason why I want to start with this is because it can protect really good ideas. Because if you have an adversarial relationship those people are then going to come in and try to rip down the idea to find faults in it to immediately go to here's what's wrong. It's that snap judgment just react without all the facts thing that drives creative sideways up the wall, right like it doesn't. It's not the way We work. And you know, because what we're dealing with is something new, it's a little bit more fragile. So what you need to do is you need to look beyond your immediate team, you need to look at, you know, again, what, what are the what does that hierarchy? What are those power lines, what are the people that you are very, you don't start with very natural places, that maybe you've got connections, maybe it's coworkers, managers, executives, things like that. Because, you know, that's, that's where you want to start, is start with the people where again, where they quote, unquote, get it, because those are going to be easy conversation for you to start with. And then once you do that start to work out to the people that are a little bit more challenging, but just sort of build your base. And the other thing I'm going to tell you to do is to not be afraid of people that are politically powerful. Like I said, maybe that's a hard line, maybe it's a CEO, maybe it's a senior executive SVP a big title, right? Don't be afraid of them. Or don't be afraid of people that again, have a lot of sort of soft power and everybody get things done. Get to know them. But I want you to Do that, because the reason why I see this go wrong so many times is that people want to get to people who are politically powerful to suck up to score brownie points to to just be like, Oh, you know, I can talk to the CEO or whoever that is right. You need to build higher quality connections and that right like that's sort of empty flattery, that bs that suck up brown nosing thing with an executive of any quality with a person of any power is going to fall flat. And if anything, is probably actually gonna play against you. Because I think in many cases, just sort of finding that hollow reason to be able to do that just so that you can get that little. I don't know what self validation, I guess, is not going to serve you well. But I think in many cases, I also see too many great people too many great ideas, too many great things like that, who stopped themselves because they're like, oh, that person is too busy. Oh, that person doesn't have time. Oh, I don't you know, there are two important there. Whatever that is. That's you stopping yourself. Let's be clear. That is not them saying no like, Look, you go to them, they don't have time they don't do whatever it is they're not interested Fine, then you know, but take the shot. Try to build that connection, try to get that voice because again, I think especially right now, as we're looking at this as creatives are trying to get more of a seat at the table, as we're trying to say, what is the impact of design? How do we measure what we do, we have to find more ways to break through. We've seen this in the numbers. We've seen it in the studies that most designers and most design teams struggle whenever it times to move past just them as a time times time to be able to start to work with other teams, as it comes time to be able to start to interface with these other people. This is where we struggle and we aren't sure what to do, because these are arenas that we're not comfortable in. But look, that's the thing, right? Like be friendly to everybody, but also to reach out and to make progress invest in this and look don't have like I would say don't whenever you do start this don't align yourself too closely with any one group or another, especially if it is a highly politicized environment where it's sort of like West Side Story. Where it's one side against the other. Don't get caught up in that because at some point that will usually blow up burnout, do something. But to think about how are you building your connections not only for you personally, but for your team, especially if you're in a leadership position, you need to be able to think about these things to be able to figure out how do you position your team to be successful, not only today, but in the future. Because in many cases, you might want to move them to a different part of the organization, you might, you might want to get them funded differently, you might want to get them seen differently. And this is the way you're going to start to be able to do that. Now from there, I think that politics is about people. So this is one of those cases where I will make an argument, I think that strong interpersonal skills will help you build and maintain a really good network. And this is going to come out of a few, a few different things, right? I think they're the obvious ones around communication skills about being friendly about going up talking to people being open, you know, are you setting up office hours or ama's? Or like whatever that is, right. Like those are just sort of the basic communication skills, there's 100 places you can go to find out about that with a lot of people who are smarter than me. I do think that when it comes to people skills, though there are a few wrinkles in here that are important. I think one is, most importantly, how do you manage differences meaning, look, you're going to encounter conflict, you're going to encounter differences that might seem hard to sort of make sense of this is going to happen at some point in your work. And I think that the ability to work through this and to not because like this unresolved conflict, I think it's damaging, it's disruptive. It affects morale and productivity. It can result in a lot of personal animosity, a few people feeling like, you know, they've got to take sides, they can, you know, people can get very hurt, and most of the time would have retracted back. It's usually over some really dumb shit, or it's like over something that if handled the right way, really could have just been handled in a five minute conversation and not blown up into this Machiavellian, you know, soap opera telenovela thing that it seems to have turned into But But understand how do you manage the differences? And I think in many cases, managing differences, usually for me comes down to two things. One is getting to make sure that both sides understand the communication style in how do you actually communicate? Are you emotional? Are you rational? Are you a driver? Are you a facilitator? Are you like, there's a lot of different studies online, I'll put links to a few of them in the show notes. But, but to understand that, again, people will communicate and want different things that does not make you right or them right or you wrong or them wrong. It just means that they're different. And as I've talked before, and you've heard me say, I feel like these differences, when managed correctly, can really go a long way. But I think whenever there are these sort of things, when you don't know how to manage your differences, it becomes suffocating, Li toxic. And it's one of these things where like I said, you need to be able to figure out, how do you do that, and again, for your company and for you, but it's something you're going to need to do and then there's the inverse of also How do you manage agreement, because the first step in in in that sort of thing, and interpersonal skills in developing relationships with other people is trust. Because trust is gonna let you be more effective, it's gonna make you take more risks, it's gonna make you feel more secure. And I think there are a lot of different things that you can you can do about this. But I think, you know, you also need to look at how do you manage when things are going well, and how do you manage trust, because you know, both of these sides of the coin on the conflict, the conflict side is easier, because it's just so much more apparent. But I think, you know, whenever things are going well, trust can become a really important thing, because I think also the fall from a position of trust is so much bigger, it's so much higher, you feel even more emotional whenever something you know, comes out of that. But I think the other part of this is and I see, like I've seen a lot of people sort of lose their way as they try to develop this is that whenever you're developing these skills, whenever you're thinking about you, I want to make sure Do you think about how do you maintain your integrity, right? Like your ability to stand up for what you believe in. Because I really think that that's sort of central to any interpersonal skills, right? And integrity enables you to measure your choices and your decisions when you deal with other people, right, and to somehow benchmark it against your values. And I think that I've seen so many people who lose themselves, they lose themselves trying to be what they think executives or the company wants them to be, they lose themselves trying to pretend to be somebody that you know, that they think is the way important people act, they lose themselves, by you know, sort of not walking their talk, they lose themselves for a lot of different reasons. And, you know, the ability to do that with integrity is important, but I think this this is a tricky one, because I think in some cases, there's also a difference between integrity and ego. Integrity is that you do what you believe in. That is your like, somebody We'll talk about about living your truth speaking your truth doing things like that, right like that. Integrity is you doing that, but I think your integrity and your opinion cannot blind you it cannot it is not a right it is not a pass for you to run other over people. It is not your ability to just do whatever the hell it is you want. Yes, believe in what you believe, but do not discount in the face of that what other people believe. Because I think you know, integrity does have sort of a moral aspect to it. In this case where I know in the past, I've sort of split the words between like honesty and candor and different things like that, because I felt like honesty was a moral judgment. Integrity, I do think does need to have a little bit morality to it. Because in a lot of cases, you know, especially in this case, when we're talking about politics, it doesn't give you the right to run over other people to crush them. They just do whatever the hell it is you want in service of your goals. Those sort of leaders will stumble at some point those sorts of people will have to reap the whirlwind at some point. And the point whenever that happens, the thing that they're Gonna find is that the people who thought about other people, the people that even if we disagreed, we were able to have a discussion the people that even if we disagreed, we were still able to respect each other, the ones who instead will just do whatever it has they want, they're going to start to play games, they're gonna play politics, they're going to do all this stuff where, you know, I think a lot of people are going to come to the other side of that sort of feeling play, they're gonna feel, they're not gonna have a good feeling about that. And whenever that happens, whenever that person stumbles, nobody's gonna be there to catch them. And it's hard and it's lonely. And like I said, as I think, you know, like, I'm well aware that many cases is taught people to be to be crazy, but I'm also very clear about not being stupid. There's a difference, because I think crazy is the one that will stand up for what you believe but but it's not doing it in the face or the blindness to the organization or what's going on around you. So I think that that sort of leads to the last part about about kind of developing your skills. You need to invest time in listening. You need to slow down need to focus you need to learn and you know, because this is about people, you need to listen to them. But then I think it's also, you know, your responsibility. And again, I think this is where one of the things I'm working on is I think you also need to create situations that allow for that listening to happen, where you need to ask questions where you need to solicit feedback, where you need to be able to do that. And I think in that moment, you also need to understand that if you're the one that's being asked for feedback, you carry the burden of telling the truth, to have honestly telling the truth, not like harboring a grudge telling everybody else trying to like because again, that's the that's the the side of politics, that is destructive, is the point where it becomes again, that sort of emotional mess. But I think you know, that there is in that moment to listen and to be on the other side to be able to speak. I think this is why a lot of things like you know, engaging in improv class or things like that for a lot of creatives can be really valuable. And the reason why I will you know, ultimately even recommend doing things like improv is because improv is about active listening and then active reaction. And I think when we talk about leadership, when we talk about a lot of these sort of things, these are the skills that become really important. But they're often things that you're not going to have much control over to it. Because if we're gonna have an honest conversation about politics, I'm not going to, you know, spend some sort of Pollyanna tale about, you know, you're going to be able to go out and control everything and be able to great and run the world, right? Because one that's a winning construct. But look, there are times where there's corporate politics, client demands, you know, mandates from your boss that influenced you in your work, and that not everything is something you're going to have, you're going to have the ability to really influence. But I think at the same point you on the one hand, look, I don't I don't advocate going to war over it. But on the other hand, I don't advocate just simply sitting there and sort of taking, you know, quietly just accepting it. Because for a lot of people and like I would put myself in this, as I look back over my career, like, you know, too many people too many times too many times, I've just sort of bitched and complained about these events that I can't control. And when you step back and you think about it, it is a short term emotional outlet, and I think this is one of the places where again, I will be very open that I tried to work on about how not to give in to that. You know, I don't know what that is slightly darker, slightly more emo side of myself that just that just wants to be angry and sort of not in just I don't know what and I guess the response tends to be proportionate to the size of the change if it's a small thing, I just sort of like grumble around you know, go pet the dog feel better move on. bigger things like that are a little harder for me to move past but i think you know, the thing is that the ability to do that it is a short term mercial emotional outlet. But what, what results? Did it really accomplish? What What did it make better? And you know, what, pretty much most every instance it probably didn't really accomplish much of anything. So here's the thing is it instead of feeling victimized or angry about the situation, focus on the things that you can do to influence that, that that situation, focus on the ways that again, even if you don't agree with it, how can you make it better, how can you change it, influence it? Maybe that's one conversation, maybe it's a series, maybe it's something can be done quickly, maybe something's going to take a whole lot of time. But the way you want to do that here again, is that your circle of influence those sorts of people, those relationships you built can be your power. Because if it's something you believe in, go fight for it. Go, you know, express your opinion, go do something about it, make changes, do something different, don't because again, don't just blindly accept it, because that's going to sit and fester. But I think the ability to have this network to be able to have that sort of support system helps you overcome, because ultimately what it is, is a feeling of helplessness. Again, if we're really going to be honest, that's where politics for most of us sucks the worst in and it takes that victimized feeling away. And it lets you see that someone you know, what cares? It lets you see that you have support. It lets you have conversations. It lets you release the frustration in a more productive way and be able to have a conversation around it. But here again, they need to be honest conversations because again, if you start playing games and playing politics and doing that here again, now we're back to having a problem. And look, you may not be able to change the eventual outcome, you may still have to accept whatever the decision was. But you can walk away knowing that you've done your best. And you didn't let this bad decision, you know, on the on the behalf of other people, you didn't let the politics you didn't let somebody else doing something make you bad too. And in many cases, because I think at the end of the day, you know, at some point, the team fades away, the company fades away and you're left with you. As you move from company to company, as you move through your career, you're left with you. And, you know, the thing is, and all this, none of us are perfect, we're all broken. We're all broken somehow. Some some ways may be very small, some ways may be very big. But your ability to live with you to live with the decisions that you made to live with the truth that you know, like I said, Don't Don't be blinded by it. Don't Don't just say that I'm always right and don't do that. But your ability To know that you fought the you tried and you did it better. That that is what we can become incredibly important. But I think that the other part of this and one of the things that I do think is important in this that I really want to bring up is that because look, whenever their office politics, you're going to get angry with people. It happens, right? No team is perfect. Especially whenever you do creativity. Whenever you do things like that ideas are shared, taken, you know, worked on, teams are built people come and go. Not everything you know, is sunshine and rainbows. there gonna be times when you want to sort of give in to that urge. give somebody the peace, the peace of your mind, and teach him a lesson. Yeah, don't. I think that in many cases with politics, like I said that that's the ugly side of it. That's the manipulative side of it. That's the side that is not going to serve you or your career, any good. Because you know what, people, people remember the moments when they were humiliated or when they were insulted. Remember Moments they were lied to, they remember the moments. They remember the arguments, they remember the times whenever they thought somebody was one person, they turned out to be something else. Even if you win the argument, or you know, even if you make some sort of short term decision that gets you the business result you feel good about, you may feel good about it now, you're gonna pay the price later, because I think, you know, my only thing is just, this industry is too small. Too many people know each other to me, like, it's just, you know, and the one the one of the only real things you'll carry as you go forward is your reputation. And this sort of win at any cost mentality. You know, yeah, there's some companies that want it. I'm sure you can find a career and make a very good track out of doing that. For me, for the way that I've done things, you're gonna pay the price. And you're because you're gonna need help from somebody down the road. You're gonna need help from some sort of thing or recommendation, you're going to apply for a job and without, you know, even being on the reference list. Somebody's gonna call somebody or Right, like, it's like I said before, you need to build a network. And the last thing you want is to screw it up. Because you got anger towards somebody, you know, all because you enjoyed this sort of brief moment, this emotional outburst at somebody else's expense. And I think that's the part of all of this, right? Is that it? It can't, it can't become personal. We need to be able to disagree. We need to even at times be able to be angry. But we need to be able to sort of put it in the middle of the table to be able to discuss it honestly, openly, fully, and be able to move on from it because of the moment that it gets personal the moment that there feels like there is an agenda. That is where politics that is destructive. That's where politics ruins relationships, it ruins people. I've seen it with too many people I've seen with people who don't even understand that it's happening to them, and they don't understand why. Because they've given into these these sorts of things. And so if it's not going to be personal, what should it be right? Because whenever conflicts happens when our politics happens, it's easy to be sucked into that like tunnel vision focus on Okay, great. Well, what's the immediate difference? What's the immediate reaction? I'll tend to say that whenever you sort of turn it just, you know what, what can I get out of it? What can I do? Like whenever, whenever it starts with, you know, I too many times and too many sentences in a row, it becomes self defeating. And the thing is that, you know, in many cases, wherever it is that sort of personally driven agenda, the chances are, you're gonna, you're going to invite more resistance by focusing on the differences in people's positions and opinions, then then if you try to focus on something else, and the thing for me is that with all of this is to take it out of being personal, the way to sort of mitigate that without looking like, you know, you're trying to because again, like I don't want to look like I'm fighting to emerge, the winner in a conflict is out of focus on again, to realign the source of truth. We talked about it in the work about how do you rely on the source of truth, politics really is pretty much the same. Focus on a business objective. Because like in the light of what's best for the business, you can discuss the pros, the pros and cons of that it becomes a neutral Round to be able to talk about this. Because you look at the end of the day, hopefully everybody wants the business to be successful. And if the business doesn't win, then nobody in the organization is going to win. So it gives you a sort of this third party gives you a place that by steering the discussion in that direction, you're going to, you know, you're going to disengage from those petty differences from the personal stuff. And you're going to make it about how do you get things done? Right, because politics at its best is about how do people come together? How do they work together? How do they get stuff done? It's the structure that gives that frame, it's the power that drives it forward. at its worst, is whenever it becomes personal becomes about power becomes about something else. Right? So focus on the business, but like I said before, and I think this is the last point that we've sort of talked around a little bit is that you know, in many cases, politics comes down to power. Who has it? Why haven't you have it? Who has it who's right stuff like that? Right? And, look, I think maybe it happens because we're taught to win, right? A maybe that's just because in so many things, there needs to be a winner. But the problem is that All that somebody else has to lose. And at the same time, we're afraid to let other people win because it implies that somehow we're weak. We're not a leader, we're not in control. Because if there's a winner, then there has to be a loser. If there's right there's somebody is wrong. This is why I continue to come back to when we talk about creativity in a personal relationship, stuff like this. Right is not the goal. Winning is not the goal. And for me, it really is about you know, I'm a big believer in you put the shoe on the other foot. Learn to think in terms of how can we both win in this situation? And I think a lot of cases, this requires you to understand the other person's perspective and what's in it for them. This is why I'm a big fan of put the shoe on the other foot. Because if I'm about to do something, if I'm about to say something if I'm about to act in a particular way, if the roles were reversed, how would I feel? Would I be okay with that in that decision being inflicted upon me Would I be okay with with me acting that way with someone else acting that way towards me. What I Think about it. It's a simple thing, but it can be powerfully enlightening to be able to go back and say, Okay, look, I did this, I made this decision. I, you know, did whatever it is. And I believe in that. There can be a real arrogant blind spot in that. It Like I said, the ability to flip the roles around and be able to say, look, if this hard decision if this whatever it is, if this way of acting, whatever that is, was about to be done to me, how would I feel? And look, you know, there's somebody brahmer, maybe you don't care, you should? Because I think you need to find a solution is gonna work for both sides. And I think this ability to produce things is when when it's an enduring strategy, I believe, I think that it's how you build allies, and it helps you win in the long term. And that's, that's really what this is about, right? Is that it is about how do you build these relationships? How do you get stuff done? How do you look back because whenever you look back at things It, it really is about. It's about how do you look back at what did you accomplish together? Right? You remember the good stuff? You remember those sort of really high moments. And you remember the low moments, everything else in between seems to fade away, right? Like all the conference calls, all the discussions, all that stuff fades away. But how does everybody win? How does everybody get better? Because that's what I said is I see too many teams. Too many organizations that that's what they value is winning, they value winning an internal battle. That's why all of their experiences, you know, the organization, their experiences match their org chart, that's why you know, that their superpower The best thing they're best at is rationalizing mediocrity because the work is the truth. Keep saying it for a reason, right? You've internal battles and politics are what it is. You really want to win. It's going to show up in the work because all of those battles and all that stuff, great internal victories. does not do a damn bit of good for the work. And that ultimately is what's going to matter. That's your source of truth. But that's the thing here, right? Be open, be honest. Don't play games, but at the same point, right? Like, don't be naive. Know your value. Know what you bring to the team. Know what you can do but know that your responsibility and obligation to the team is bigger than just you know, one politics has gone too far. Look, nobody's perfect. I'm not saying that. I'm not asking you to go out and make their best decision every time. I'm asking you to think about other people. I'm asking you to try to take the better road and when you don't go back and have a conversation about an honest conversation about it. Sam, sorry, talking about whatever that is find a way to get past it. Don't let it sit. Because that's when politics is at its worst and the most destructive is whenever we make it about all this other stuff, right? We make it about winning. And that's that's not what this should be about. Like I said it, you know, in some ways I wish I could probably help give more tangible, specific, you know, go talk to this person and do this and 123, you know, equals five, but that's just not the way people work. And so, like I said, focus on these couple things, right? Like, go out and build connections and do it genuinely. And honestly, you know, develop your people skills really look at how do you manage the differences? How do you manage agreement? How do you do it with integrity, and to listen to people while you do it, to understand that, you know, again, that that network can be a source of power, and it can really be a place to be able to help you do that. Whenever you have these disagreements, when you do this sort of politics don't ever make it personal. Because that just takes it to a very different place. Instead, focus on the business and focus on other people think about how to both sides win, not just how do I get my way? Because that's sort of black and white thinking. Again, somebody's writing somebody wrong. Why can't we just find a better way forward? Right, cuz I think like any creativity, any any of the work, we do the best way Work is going to figure out how do I take this challenge and overcome it? How do I incorporate that client feedback but still make it something that I'm proud of. This is a struggle that permeates through everything that we do. The thing is that whenever it goes into this space and into politics, it somehow becomes ever so more personal and as a result for so more difficult to be able to make it work. So look, if this is helpful if any of these shows are helpful, do me a favor, head over your favorite podcast platform take just a couple seconds. Click on the stars leave a review let people know what you think about the show. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast on that same platform so you don't miss any episodes. As always, you can find out more about the podcast related articles learn about different things stuff like that head over to the crazy one calm the words that crazy and the number one calm. You have any questions you want to follow up on this, like follow me on social media like the show on Facebook. I'm always posting updates articles. ask me any questions I'll get back to you as soon as I can. There are times like now whenever I'm traveling like an idiot. I will try to do it as quick as I can, but I'm just gonna be honest Like sometimes I get overwhelmed. So if you write me and I don't get back to you within, I don't know what we'll say a week, how about a week is week something good? That if it's inside that timeframe, pay me again and say, Hey, you know, I certainly would love that answer. As always, everybody down legal wants me to remind you that the views here are just my own. They don't represent any of my current or former employers. This is just me talking. And finally, I say it every time because I mean it every time. But thank you for your time. I know the time is truly the only real luxury that any of us have. I'm always incredibly humbled that you want to spend any of it with me. So go out there, fight the good political battle, go out and make a good difference. And whenever you do it, don't be stupid and instead stay crazy.