Dorie Clark in an article in the HBR,
November 2012, suggests that as part of your career plan you should draw a
power map, using circles that show who has the most influence over your career and,
in turn, the people who have the most influence over them. Then figure out what
you can offer the influential people - expertise, assistance on a project, help
with networking; and ways to cultivate unique knowledge or skills they’d find
valuable.
Places where your career progression is
as much to do with who you know; as it is to do with what you know, include the
consulting industry, the accounting and legal profession and sadly the armed
forces.
To give an example one global consulting
firm, considered one of the ‘top players’ in the industry, recently had a
change of leadership at the very top and what followed was like a ‘coup’ in
some despot country. All those people left in senior positions who had been
part of the ‘old regime’, presumably allies of the outgoing CEO, were replaced
by cronies of the incoming CEO – and a new ‘power’ base was formed. Where those
that had sided with and placed their ‘bets’ on the right ‘horse’ were rubbing
their hands with glee – while the vanquished started to look elsewhere for
their future careers – and of course it’s in this ‘misty fog’ of the new order
– that ‘the old guard’ run off and start break-away organisations, intent on
competing with and ‘destroying’ the new usurper to ‘their throne’.
Now I won’t discuss here how these types
of organisations are meant to set the example for other mere mortal organisations
to follow and hence should have a ‘mature’ view of organisational development
and talent management. But what is scary is that these organisations are rife
with internal political squabbling, to the extent that internal ‘tribes’ are
formed within these organisations, where employees place their future
development, advancement and financial reward behind those they perceive as the
‘potential’ future leaders. And if you spend long enough in these organisations
you can see the tribes – where they look like a troop of monkeys, where the
leader strides ahead with his ‘family’ following closely behind.
Of course as with all tribes you will
encounter, over time, traitors and defectors; and even within the ‘tribes’ you
can have ‘challenges’ for positional power.
For those joining these politically
driven organisations – the new incumbent isn’t aware of the ‘political’
machinations taking place at first – often because they are simply caught up in
the day-to-day hustle and bustle of the business, and find themselves learning
so fast that they often only realised they have been groomed and taken under
the wing of a ‘pretender’ to the ultimate throne one or two years after joining
– when the pace of their development starts to slow down and they have a chance
to look around them at what is happening. Up to then it’s just been an
exhilarating, if somewhat tiring, journey of self-discovery and access to
material wealth that they only dreamed of – where they are often exposed to
managers who live in a ‘colonial type’ bubble and who, for example, ask to have
their hire cars replaced when the ashtrays become full.
Not all organisations are political and
tribal; and few are as bad as the industries and professions mentioned above,
but ‘company politics’ exists to some extent in most organisations.
Clark mentions that “it’s still a slam
to be labelled ‘political’ in the business world. But it shouldn’t be. Thinking
like a campaign strategist will help you set clear goals, develop new skills,
and build relationships with the people who matter to your professional life.
Creating a career campaign plan ensures that, every day, you’re taking small
but important steps to better position yourself for a winning future.”
I think the thing that Clark misses is
that ‘political’ has a wide range of meaning from the manipulative narcissistic
games of a dictatorial leader, like Mark Taylor, the Dean at Warwick Business
School, who leaves a path of unhappy personnel and operational destruction in
their wake; to the planned ‘management’ coups that takeover and place their
‘people’ in positions of power; to the genuine organisations that are focused
on sustainable growth and continuous improvement and are very dynamic when it
comes to organisational development and talent management, having a culture that
never loses sight of putting the company and its people first.
References
Clark, D. (2012). A Campaign Strategy
for Your Career. Harvard Business Review.