23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Coaching for high integrity organisational politics and networking Tim Bright 23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice 1-3 March 2017 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice “One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” Plato 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Why should coaches think about politics & networking? Failure in these areas are important derailers for our clients We can make a real difference – challenging mindsets and offering tools Networking is increasingly important for success Challenge our own beliefs as coaches – what do we really think of the corporate world? 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Common attitudes to organisational politics & Professionalising your Practice networking “It’s how weak people make progress in the company.” “It’s a dirty game I don’t want to get involved in.” “Networking is all political BS.” “We should all be judged just on our own performance, and the best people should be rewarded. We don’t need to network or worry about politics.” 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice What is corporate politics? The “essence of politics is competition for a prized and scarce commodity or resource.” Egan Egan (1994) also talks of the ‘hidden organisation’ which deals with what is not found in company documents and organisation charts. We can think of politics as ‘ informal use of power ’ ‘Politics’ is most usefully conceived neutrally as the informal procedures for how power is managed, decisions are made and how things happen or don’t happen in organisations. 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Observations from coaching Cases – coachees who joined large corporations early in career, trust them to manage their careers. Often from expert or technical backgrounds, e.g. technically expert marketing executives. Coachees often either want to not engage politically at all, or engage reluctantly. We need to engage positively and optimistically. Coachees need to promote themselves and their ideas, even more so in today’s world. Limited time, overload of information, companies less able to manage their careers. 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Managing with Power , Jeffrey Pfeffer (1992) Managing with Power means - Recognize that in every organization there are varying interests - diagnose the landscape and the relevant interests Figure out what points of view these various individuals and groups have on issues of concern to us. Understand that to get things done, you need power, and have to understand where power comes from and how these sources of power can be developed. We must be willing to do things to build our sources of power or we won’t be as effective as we could be. Understand the strategies and tactics through with which power is developed and used in organisations, including – timing, structure, social psychology, influence. 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career & Company Success 2004 book by Rick Brandon and Marty Seldman – rethinking of the field Authors define organizational politics as the "informal, unofficial and sometimes behind-the-scenes efforts to sell ideas, influence an organization, increase power, or achieve other targeted objectives" These can be constructive or destructive depending on the goals. People are hurt by their political blind spots, not understanding others. You need to understand your own reputation – ‘corporate buzz’ Importance of self-talk 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Political styles – two extremes (Brandon & Seldman) Power of Ideas Power of Person Substance Power Position Power Focus on feedback & learning Focus on image and perception Do the right thing Do what works More open agenda More private agenda Meritocracy-based decisions Relationship-based decisions Results & ideas speak for themselves Self-promotion 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice “The organisational savvy continuum” Under political Over-political Appropriately Political 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Political astuteness – Jean Hartley and others Framework for political astuteness – 1. Personal skills: Self-awareness, self-control, pro-active disposition. 2. Interpersonal skills: Listening, encouraging openness, curious with people. 3. Reading people and situations: See others’ perspectives, understand power structures, recognize the threat you cause others. 4. Building alignment and alliances. 5. Strategic direction and scanning: strategic thinking and action regarding organisational purpose; thinking and sensing weak signals about longer-term issues 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Developing your political astuteness – Jean Hartley & co 1. Reflect on experience, talk to a boss, colleague or mentor. 2. Maximise your learning from mistakes and crises – and from the example of other managers – by honing your skills of observation, reflection and questioning. 3. Check if your political awareness skills are as good as you think they are. Encourage feedback from all sides. 4. Seek the chance to observe, or play a part, in situations demanding political sensitivity; and then think analytically about how well you read people and situations. 5. Improve your strategic scanning skills – keep abreast with current thinking in the trade press and draw useful lessons from outside your usual network of contacts. 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Summary for coaches - 1 Challenge your coachee’s beliefs, if appropriate. Politics isn’t good or bad, it just is. See politics as ‘informal use of power’. We and our clients need to engage. If they resist the term ‘political’, talk about ‘influence and impact’ instead. We all do it. Intention is key – hiring example. High integrity politics is in line with your values and the good of the organisation. With integrity - you promote yourself, but you don’t’ harm others. If you are going to make good decisions for the organisation, it’s your duty to get and use power. High integrity politics can also include a sense of stewardship - using your power and influence for the organisation’s long term interests. (Egan) If necessary ask coachee how they make decisions. (We all use informal methods.) 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Summary for coaches - 2 Use the political continuum, are they under political or over political? The concept of ‘ political capital ’ can be helpful for coachees – how do they spend it, how do they earn it? Also analyse positional power versus personal power in themselves and others. Work with coachees to think through the power and influence landscape they are in. Work with the coachee to plan positive political activities – who to help, how to build alliances, work before and after key meetings. Encourage coachees to use their competencies – social skills, EQ, influencing, intuition. Encourage them to pay attention to and develop political intuition. (See Blink , Gladwell) Also challenge coachee’s views on human nature, if overly negative – ‘nice guys finish last’ 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
23 rd Annual European Mentoring and Coaching Conference Professionalising your Practice Do nice guys finish last? 1-3 March 2017 Edinburgh, Scotland
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