ReaderStrength™

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©LeaderStrength Systems, Inc. 2004

Political Savvy: Systematic Approaches to Leadership Behind-the-Scenes

When teaching managers and supervisors how to think and act as a leader, I ask them to look at the organization’s vision and align their own career goals with the overall goals of the organization. It sounds easy in the classroom; however, when the managers go back to the workplace they encounter a landscape shaped by complex human behaviors most commonly referred to as organizational politics.

Often managers come back to class or to their first coaching session complaining that either their career or their organization is doomed because of the behaviors of a few cunning or ruthless players. It works to coach them through the process of finding an action that would be appropriate in their given situation. However, I have been looking for a book or another kind of learning tool that will give them deeper insight into organizational politics.

Recently I attended a presentation by author and researcher Joel R. DeLuca, Ph.D. He led us through a discovery-based exercise from his book Political Savvy: Systematic Approaches to Leadership Behind-the-Scenes. Impressed by his research that examined people who were intuitively politically savvy, I believed his book could be the learning tool I have been seeking.

The book has many insights and strategies. It was difficult to select just one or two to include in this review. Because I am so often confronted with managers who complain about a particular kind of active political player, I decided to share and shed light on what DeLuca calls Machiavellians or Machs for short. Chapter 11, my personal favorite, is called Handling the Machs.

Let me clarify that DeLuca’s purpose in writing the book is to encourage ethical behavior. He uses many real situations to explain how people who are politically savvy have the best interest of the organization in mind, a small need for ego satisfaction, and a willingness to spread credit as a driver for their actions. He begins chapter 11 this way. . .

Part of what it means to be an ethical player is to help keep the organization ethical. Every company has its share of Machs. This chapter presents an orientation for dealing with Machs, which combines ways to identify them with a few basic counter measures.

Reading the chapter, I discovered that Mach behavior is easy to identify, yet DeLuca is quick to point out that brain research indicates there is a potential for Mach behavior hidden in every one of us. Personally, I appreciate the reminder not to become self-righteous about my behavior compared to a Mach’s behavior.

One strategy is to discover what is important to the person who displays Mach-like behavior and to attempt to channel their ambitions for the good of the organization. Another strategy is to recognize that Machs generally take credit for projects that are seen as successful in the eyes of the people in positional leadership roles while averting responsibility for anything that is seen as a failure. The people in leadership positions often do not recognize a Mach, while everyone else in the organization can clearly see what is happening. DeLuca does not recommend confronting a Mach directly or going to the senior team to expose the Mach. He reasons that the Mach is good at justifying his or her behavior and therefore the process will make the person doing the confronting look petty. Instead we should notice predictable behaviors and allow the Mach's unethical behaviors to be recognized by a larger audience.

DeLuca presented an example of a VP who took credit for things she had no part in creating. The politically savvy manager noticed a predictable pattern: this Mach took credit during meetings when senior management was being briefed on the result of successful projects. In this example, the politically savvy manager was looking out for the interests of some lower level managers in the organization that were getting ready to share their results with the senior team. The politically savvy manager prepared for that meeting by sharing the results of the project with several other VP’s one-on-one prior to the meeting. At the meeting, the Mach began her predictable behavior of taking credit once she saw that the senior leaders were impressed. The other VP’s who had been briefed on the project naturally asked her detailed questions about the project and the results. She didn’t know the details but somehow managed to get out of the situation gracefully. After that meeting, however, her peers and the senior leaders looked at her with suspicion whenever she spoke. She eventually left the organization for a lateral move to another company. In this example, the savvy manager didn’t even need to disclose the behavior of the Mach to another person. He just quietly set up a situation in which the Mach exposed her own self-interest and caused people to distrust her in the future.

You probably know from experience that people who display Mach-like behaviors undermine the morale of those in the workforce who don't get recognition for their efforts. Being able to look out for the good of the organization by exposing unethical behavior is a much needed leadership skill in our organizations today.

ReaderStrength definitely recommends this book to leaders/managers. A leader can’t accomplish organizational goals without understanding and making choices about the complex behaviors that fill every human organization. Trainers and coaches that support managers who are starting to assume a leadership role will want to read the book also. The book is loaded with insight and strategy that can be applied immediately. The structure of the book includes stories for the right-brained reader and strong conceptual details with charts, graphs and maps for the left-brained reader. The final two chapters act as a quick reference for the details and conclusions from the first eleven chapters.

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