How to avoid politics at workplace?

There is no office or organisation without politics.  Yet, there should be a limit otherwise it will hamper the development, demoralize the people in the organization and decrease reputation.  Let’s see how an individual and management can deal with office politics.

Get along with people

The most effective way to avoid problems concerning politics is to mingle with people.  It is not that you need to be very close to everyone.  You can be assertive when necessary but during other times you can be pleasant.  If there is any issue you need to concentrate on the issue and not on the person.  If you have to deny a request you can explain the reason and give alternative solutions to the people.

Power Struggles

Another scenario in every organization is power struggle.  You need to be very careful about choosing sides during this time.  Your productivity and performance may be affected if you side with one faction as you will not be comfortable with the other side.  And there is the risk of your faction losing.  At such situations focus on your work only.  Approach both the sides only for tasks and avoid unnecessary talk that was the basis for the issue.

Focus on tasks at hand

If any confidential matter has been said to you, keep it to yourself.  Discussing with others will damage yours as well as your management’s reputation.  This behaviour will not be appreciated by any organization.  This will make them lose confidence in you.

Be approachable

There need to be priority for work, responsibilities and objectives.  Do not prioritize people, but give importance to the work.  Being helpful to others when you have time will be very fruitful in developing a rapport with people.  It need not be very big and time consuming.  Just small offers for a drop at home, a doubt in drafting letter, doing a job etc, will win the affection of the people around you for yourself. Political capital and loyalty is built in this way.

Quit gossip

Gossip just makes the works stumble in an office.  There is no good in gossip.  Do not talk about others for other than appreciating them in their absence.  If you want to point out their mistakes in work it can happen only in their presence.  Otherwise it becomes a gossip.  Due to lack of time you might have conveyed a mistake to another person, but this is considered only as gossip.

You can stop gossip by diverting the group by changing the topic.  Instead of talking about people, the work involved can be discussed.  Then too, the negative aspects must be avoided. 

Article Posted By : Nisha Hassan  On October 14, 2012lView All Articles

Interested in Reading, Gardening and Travel. Writing is my passion.

Article Source :

http://www.veethi.com/articles/politics-in-workplace-article-1094.htm

Keywords :
office politics , gossip , organizational development