A fakers' guide to mastering office politics

Forget hard work. Playing thepeople game is often the fastest way to climb the greasy pole, writes Mary Braid WHEN it comes to career progression, there is no shortage of advice about timemanagement, presentation skills and sheer hard graft. However, the singlebiggest factor determining how far we climb up the ladder, according to businesspsychologist Rob Yeung, is "other people". Yeung argues that however much wemight want to deny it, the reality is that colleagues have a far greater impacton our careers than how hard we work or how talented we are. "A lot of peoplelike to think that their organisations are not political and that they can geton without being political. But the fact is that the most hard-working people donot make it to the top - it's the politically savvy that get there," he says. "You have to learn to look at colleagues and consider what is driving theirbehaviour. You have to understand their professional and personal agendas." According to Yeung's new book, The Rules of Office Politics, colleagues havenever been trickier to deal with because of the pressures that organisationalchange, mergers, downsizing, outsourcing and globalisation have brought to boththe private and public sectors. These pressures have turned the workplace into"a minefield of treacherous personalities, unexploded resentments and tickingegos", and understanding office politics and what makes colleagues tick hasnever been more important. The trick, Yeung suggests, is to discover whatcolleagues' "little hot buttons are" and then press them. He offers a host oftips for handling other people, and claims colleagues can be divided into fourtypes - bigwigs, rising stars, no-hopers and has-beens - depending on theirlevel of influence and seniority in an organisation. He suggests the ambitiousshould cultivate relationships with influential bigwigs and rising stars, butwaste no time on no-hopers and has-beens. Understanding the politicallandscape of an organisation is crucial, he says, and when gatheringintelligence - about who likes or hates who, who is on the up or on the skidsand so on - Yeung recommends that the ambitious work on showing a genuineinterest in people. He also suggests they encourage colleagues to divulge theirinnermost thoughts, particularly when their guards are down - when workmates aredrunk, tired or emotional. Yeung believes that attentiveness is the way tobecoming a targeted colleague's best friend. He even offers tips on how to fakeit. "You probably aren't really interested in their diet/new curtains/recentyoga retreat/groin operation," said Yeung. "But if you aren't interested, atleast pretend by using 'active listening' cues. Lift your eyebrows and 'flash'your eyes occasionally to signify that you understand what is being said. Nodintermittently to encourage them to continue ... use verbal cues such as'uh-huh', 'mmm' and 'yes' to reassure them you are hanging on their every word." For those who might recognise the dog-eat-dog workplace that Yeung describes butfeel a touch queasy about blatant politicking, Yeung says he is offering adviceabout how to succeed in the real, not the ideal, world. And he does not thinkthat the public sector is any less dominated by office politics than theprivate. "Public-sector organisations can actually be even more political,"says Yeung. "In the private sector there are clearer measures of performance. Inthe public sector, the lack of clarity in performance measures creates moretensions, and decisions are seen as political more often. I've found the publicsector as much of a political minefield as the private." For those who do notrecognise the world he describes, Yeung says "wake up and smell the coffee".Bosses, he says, always have favourites, organisations do not care aboutemployees and the only person with responsibility for your career is you, so putyour own interests first. AppointmentsPage 1 Page 2 Yeung says his book is a manual for dealingwith reality. "I'm not saying that the rules of office politics are right orwrong," he says. "I'm just saying that's the way the world is. The politicalgame doesn't disappear just because you refuse to play it. "I'm sayingbitching, sniping and complaining about other people is not productive and thatpeople should instead observe colleagues' behaviour and do something about it." Isn't it bleak, though, to suggest that the only way to get to the top is toaccept the rules as they are and play by them? Without challenging the existingculture, how will workplaces ever change? And doesn't acceptance of the existingrules allow organisations to escape their obligation to create fairer workplaceswhere what you know might come to matter more than who you know? In his book,Yeung admits to instances where he put his own career before principle. He talksof two former bosses - Alistair and Sean - and how he adapted to suit their"styles" even though those were objectionable. Alistair swore a lot and so whenhe was with him, Yeung would swear more too. Sean had a fixation with women'sbreasts, so Yeung says a breast joke never went amiss when Sean was around. "Thekey to office politics is that people like people much like themselves," saysYeung. So how does Yeung personally square the reality of the workplace andhis own career now? Interestingly, he chooses to work for himself. "The reasonI run my own business is because I no longer want to play the political game,"he says. It seems ironic that the author who advocates the ambitious play bythe rules rather than try to change them has himself walked away from theoffice.