A case study shows 3 risks of being overly-political at work
Do you – or other leaders in your company – fall into the trap of being overly-political?
In this article, we’ll share a case study of a leader who fell hard after becoming overly-political and examine 3 risks of this type of behavior.
What does it mean to be overly-political?
As highlighted in the Magnify Impact Coaching (MIC) model, ‘Navigate Politics’ helps drive the success of any senior leader. Skillful navigation of politics requires balancing influence and integrity. Problems spring from being too far to either end of the scale – under-political or overly-political.
A recent article introduced the Organizational Savvy Continuum (OSC) from the book Survival of the Savvy by Rick Brandon and Marty Seldman and explored the risks of falling at the extreme left as an under-political leader.
Since the ideal style is to balance in the middle of the OSC, the extreme right of the continuum – the Power of Person style – leads to issues of being overly-political.
Overly-political leaders fall at the extreme end of the continuum. They focus so much on their own agenda that they neglect the broader needs of the company and can cross ethical line and create toxic work environments.
Case Study
You have probably experienced overly-political leaders in your workplace. Let me tell you about one from my past – let’s call him John.
Case study – the star starts with influence
John joined my company and initially looked like a star. But that star soon fell. He ended up crashing and burning and leaving meteor craters in the organization. Superficially he appeared strong, but, in reality, he was a dangerously overly-political leader.
The company hired John to run a major department. He quickly rose to golden boy status. He looked like a leader – he was confident, dressed well, had a commanding presence, spoke up in strategy meetings and got his department running well.
Case study –the overly-political star starts to fizzle
But then the whispers started – and there were only whispers. The senior team remained smitten with John for a long time, so other people hesitated to speak against him.
John started gaining power and used it to solidify his own department at the cost of others. His department got results, but the bigger system and collaboration across groups started to break down.
He gathered a group of supporters around him – these were all people who had worked with him at a previous company and then come to this one. They formed a sub-culture in the organization in which they were loyal to each other and themselves before the company.
John pushed out several leaders from his team of direct reports who pushed back at him. That action caused others to retreat and hesitate to say anything against him.
Case study –the overly-political star falls
John also showed a pattern of making promises and not following through. He always provided excuses, but the insincerity started piling up.
For a long time he spun a good story to the senior team and they believed it. But, other than his cronies, other people started avoiding him.
The company finally fired him after a well-documented case of sexual harassment. At that point, the real stories started emerging about his manipulation and bad political behavior. He left a path of destruction and distrust behind.
John epitomizes the risks and downsides of a leader who falls on the extreme Power of Person style as an overly-political leader.
Extreme Power of Person style can lead to being overly-political
Overly-political people lose sight of the company goals and focus on their own. These people value their own success over everything else which can result in ethical problems.
The concept of ‘politics’ get its bad rap due the actions and consequences of overly-political people.
Overly-political risk 1: Focus on influence and not on ideas
Whereas under-political people link power to the best ideas and solutions, overly-political people focus more on hierarchical position power. They study the hierarchy and determine who does and does not have power –based on position and other kinds of power dynamics. They seek to align themselves with people they perceive as powerful.
For overly-political people, ideas and solutions don’t stand on their own – they are only judged by how the senior leaders will respond to them.
Overly-political leaders also tend to self-promote beyond the real value of their contributions.
Overly-political risk 2: Create an environment of distrust
Leaders in the middle sweet spot of the OSC have goals and use influencing, such as consider how and what they say, to help get things done. Those skills of influencing and framing messages enable success in any organization.
However, overly-political people tend to have private agendas and control information and resources to support them. Their goals benefit them first individually and the organization as an after-thought.
Concerned with their private agendas, overly-political people manage other people with a biased lens. They often collect a team of people who give their loyalty to the leader rather than the organization. If the leader leaves one organization, he often brings this team with him to the new one. The leader protects the loyal team members even if their performance declines and can freeze out team members who are not part of the inner circle.
Overly-political people desire power over others which can lead to intimidation tactics. Symptoms of this extreme power trip include hoarding resources, protecting their turf, dropping names and an obsessive focus on who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ with the key senior leaders.
Since they see people in terms of advancing their own agenda, overly-political people will often ignore or dismiss those with no power to help them.
Overly-political risk 3: Power eventually shatters
Too much focus on personal agendas can lead to the leader trading integrity for power. Some leaders fail to realize how transparent these overly-political behaviors are to other people. The loyal team members reinforce this behavior, but colleagues and other team members often see what is happening.
Eventually, this negative behavior takes down the overly-political leader. Brandon and Seldman share four ways in which this can happen:
- Being exposed. Poor leadership catches up eventually. Complaints mount through HR reports, exit interviews, climate surveys and other feedback.
- Power shifts or shutdowns. When leaders align themselves to powerful people, they risk their own careers if that person falls. Instead of standing on their own accomplishments, overly-political people have manipulated and controlled their way into power. If a former rival takes over, the overly-political person pays a price for the earlier alliances and behavior,
- Mutiny and coups. At some point a disgruntled team could decide to band together and push back or leave all at once.
- Silent sabotage. Overly-political people invite sabotage. Often others do not want to directly attack a political person, but they can make work challenging.
Applying this information
Fortunately, this extreme behavior falls at the end of the continuum, so it is not common.
Brandon and Seldman present a continuum of organizational savvy. The healthiest and most effective place in the continuum falls in the middle – balanced political – not too little and not too much.
Leaders who work in this balanced middle can get things done, maintain relationships, stay ethical and grow their careers.
Successful leadership requires balanced political ability. Consider these questions:
- Do you see leaders in your organization who are overly-political? If yes, what impact does that behavior have?
- Do you display any of this extreme behavior? If yes, how can you balance it to be more productive?
- Is the overly-political style wildly different than you? If so, check out this description of being under-political to see if you fall into that extreme.
- How do you personally structure your work and interactions to balance workplace politics and your integrity?
References
Brandon, R. & Seldman, M. (2004). Survival of the Savvy.
Find an overview of the research behind workplace politics and political skill in the Science of Working article ‘What is political skill?‘
The risks of being under-political appear in the article ‘The danger of being under-political‘.
