• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

People Equation

Leadership Development and Career Success Tips

  • About
  • Services
    • Life Story Coaching
    • Business Writing
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Contact

Office Politics: It’s Personal

by Jennifer V. Miller

Our 5-part series on positive office politics, (The P Quotient) is drawing to a close.  In this final installment, Jane Perdue looks at personal influence, one of four key behaviors needed for a person to be considered politically savvy in a productive way.  

Just tuning in to this fascinating topic?  Start here for the first installment, Politics are Necessary, but Not Necessarily Evil by Jane Perdue at her blog Life, Love, Leadership.

Then, it’s my turn with Networking Inside the Company Walls.

Next up is Mike Henry at the Lead Change Group with Sincerity and Office Politics.

Installment 4 was Susan Mazza on What’s Your Agenda? at her Random Acts of Leadership blog.

Which brings us to the final installment of the series, Influence and Intentions by Jane Perdue. Jane suggests her readers consider their level of personal influence with this question:

Is my word and/or my involvement sufficient to make something happen?

Now that’s a question to stop you in your tracks.  Is the fact that you’re involved in a project enough to get others to join in?  In reflecting on that question, I offer the some follow-up questions:

  • Does your track record shine with not only successes, but with recovery from tough setbacks?
  • Do people know that when you give your word, you’ll come through?
  • If for some rare reason you can’t deliver, will people hear about it as soon as possible?
  • Will people listen to your “crazy” ideas because they know that you’ll find a way to make them happen?
  • Do you know how to gracefully cut your losses and move on, rather than gripping tightly to an idea so that you can be “right”?
  • Do people know that if they follow your lead, they’ll be heard?

If you can honestly answer “yes” to several of these questions, then you are a person of influence. And that, my friends, is what office “politics” should be about.

Feb 09 2010 · Categorized: Office Politics, Personal Effectiveness · Tagged: Authenticity, Courage, Personal Effectiveness, Workplace Dynamics

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Deirdre says

    February 10, 2010 at 4:21 am

    I love this. Can I make stuff happen? Excellent.

  2. Jane Perdue says

    February 11, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    Jennifer – great summary of the team’s good work! Really like how you added many more “food for thought” items to the “do you have influence” list. Working with you on this series has been enlightening, enriching and just plain fun!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Explore the people equation.
Sum up what matters.

Reflections on leadership, legacy and life storytelling.

Topics

  • Bad Boss Diaries
  • Book Review
  • Business Management
  • Communication
  • Food for Thought Friday
  • Guest Blogger
  • Human Resources
  • Leadership
  • Learning
  • Life Story Work
  • Office Politics
  • Personal Effectiveness
  • Social Media
  • Team Effectiveness
  • Training Delivery
  • Weekend Reflections
  • Workplace Issues
  • Zen of Jen

The People Equation blog by Jennifer V. Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Footer

Follow the People Equation

  • LinkedIn
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure Statement
  • What’s with the llamas?

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Sign Up

Copyright © 2025 · People Equation