Article location http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/14/politics.html
 
December 18, 2007
Tags: Leadership, Careers, Human Relations and Organizational Development, personal growth

The Good Guy’s (and Gal’s) Guide to Office Politics
By Michael Warshaw

When Cindy Casselman took a communications job at Xerox headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, the company’s communications weren’t so good. If Xerox made a big acquisition or had a disappointing quarter, many of its 85,000 people read the news in the papers before they got the scoop from the company. Casselman was determined to change things. “I was manager of employee communications,” she says. “I took my job seriously.”

But Casselman, now 50, didn’t have much formal authority. She was, to use an out-of-favor phrase, a middle manager: someone whose boss had a boss who had a boss. So she assembled a makeshift budget and mustered a volunteer team that she called the Sanctioned Covert Operation (SCO) – “sanctioned,” because her direct boss tolerated what looked like a modest project; “covert,” because her actual goals were more ambitious than she let on.
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How to Win at Office Politics (Hint: It’s Like Basketball)

March 3, 2008 BY stergeron

Original article can be found at http://www.ploomy.com/2008/03/03/how-to-win-at-office-politics-without-selling-out-hint-its-like-basketball/

I’ve been fortunate to work at many different types of companies: a mom-and-pop business, a start-up, a mid-size company, a Fortune 500 company, and also my own small business. Regardless of where I worked, one constant remained the same—you must play office politics to succeed.

Office politics is such a dirty term you say? You may think no way not for me, I’m above that tomfoolery stuff. The reality is you’ll have to start playing at some point because everyone is playing this game whether they know it or not.

And if you think about it long enough, playing office politics is just like any other game. Matter of fact, it’s sort of like basketball. There is a general manager (your boss’ boss), a coach (your boss), players (you and your co-workers), and even bench warmers (those who think they are above the game and don’t get to play because they suck).

And with that, let’s go over some of the fundamentals of office politics. Grab your mouth piece, lace em up and get ready for the jump ball.
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Editor’s note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com.

Politics in the workplace can get vicious — and we’re not talking about the governmental kind. Rather, office politics, or how power and influence are managed in your company, will be a part of your career whether you choose to participate in them or not.
art.biz.pol.jpg

Don’t align yourself too strongly with just one group at the office because they may not hold power forever.

Some workers say they don’t want to get caught up in politics at work, but most experts argue that playing the game is crucial to your career success. By not getting involved, you may find your talents ignored, your success limited and you may feel left out of the loop, says Louellen Essex, co-author of “Manager’s Desktop Consultant: Just-in-Time Solutions to the Top People Problems That Keep You Up at Night.”

…..

The complete article can be found at : http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/03/10/win.office.politics/index.html

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/management/7-habits-to-win-in-office-politics.html

January 24th, 2008 in Management
7 Habits To Win In Office Politics

Office Politics

Office politics – a taboo word for some people. It’s a pervasive thing at the workplace. In it’s simplest form, office politics is simply about the differences between people at work; differences in opinions, conflicts of interests are often manifested as office politics. It all goes down to human communications and relationships.

There is no need to be afraid of office politics. Top performers are those who have mastered the art of winning in office politics. Below are 7 good habits to help you win at the workplace:

HABIT #1 – BE AWARE YOU HAVE A CHOICE

The most common reactions to politics at work are either fight or flight. It’s normal human reaction for survival in the wild, back in the prehistoric days when we were still hunter-gatherers. Sure, the office is a modern jungle, but it takes more than just instinctive reactions to win in office politics. Instinctive fight reactions will only cause more resistance to whatever you are trying to achieve; while instinctive flight reactions only label you as a pushover that people can easily take for granted. Neither options are appealing for healthy career growth.

Winning requires you to consciously choose your reactions to the situation. Recognize that no matter how bad the circumstances, you have a choice in choosing how you feel and react. So how do you choose? This bring us to the next point…

HABIT #2 – KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE
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www.officepolitics.com

What is OfficePolitics.com? Real People. Real Problems. Expert Advice.

What problems are you grappling with? Is a co-worker making you want to tear your hair out? Did the Boss call you into his/her office and then pull the rug out from under you! Did you snag a fired co-worker’s furniture, only to have it stolen by someone else? We’re here to help… Check out the full listing of our letters.
 
Job Websites with Career Information and Advice

www.careerbuilder.com

As the U.S.’s largest online job site, CareerBuilder.com puts over 1 million jobs in front of poised job seekers wherever they are – at home or at work – in print and on the Internet. More than 23 million unique visitors come to the site every month to check out the opportunities in every industry, field and job type.

www.careerplanning.about.com

About.com is an online neighborhood of hundreds of helpful experts, eager to share their wealth of knowledge with visitors.

Every month, over 60 million people* visit us for help with everything from health care and parenting issues to advice on travel, cooking, technology, hobbies and more. And we offer solutions in the form of over two million hand-crafted, original articles, recipes, product reviews, videos, tutorials and more.

All created by our network of expert ‘Guides’ – real people who, like all good neighbors, help others so that everyone’s life gets just a little better.

Founded in 1996, About.com was acquired in March 2005 by The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT). Today, About.com is recognized as a top 15 content site and one of the largest producers of original content on the Web.

hotjobs.yahoo.com

As a leader in the online recruiting industry, Yahoo! HotJobs (www.hotjobs.com) has revolutionized the way people manage their careers and the way companies hire talent. Yahoo! HotJobs’ tools and advice put job seekers in control of their careers and make it easier and more cost-effective for employers and staffing firms to find qualified candidates. In addition to its popular consumer job board, Yahoo! HotJobs provides employers, recruiters, and staffing agencies with progressive recruiting solutions.

www.monster.com

Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: MWW) inspires people to improve their lives. We are the parent company of Monster®, the leading global online careers property that has changed the way people look for jobs; the way employers look for people; and the way companies connect with their target audience.

We continue to define and expand an industry that did not exist a mere 10 years ago. Monster works for everyone by connecting quality job seekers at all levels with employers and providing the best career advice available online.

As the migration to the Internet continues, over 75 million of Monster’s visitors have established personalized accounts that take advantage of our wide breadth of services, including our global resume database or proprietary job search agent technology, that enable them to better manage their careers. Monster Worldwide is consistently ranked among the top 20 most visited sites on the Internet.

With approximately 5,200 employees and operations in 36 countries, Monster Worldwide has an unparalleled international reach.

www.theladders.com

We are the world’s largest community catering exclusively to the $100k+ job market.

TheLadders.com offers online job search resources and content for the $100k+ job seekers and recruiters. Our specialized job search engines are an invaluable asset to top-earning job seekers in Sales, Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Law, Technology, Operations, and all other $100k+ fields.

Other Job Websites with Limited Information and Advice

www.indeed.com

Indeed is a search engine for jobs – with a radically different approach to job search. In one simple search, Indeed gives job seekers free access to millions of employment opportunities from thousands of websites. Indeed.com includes all the job listings from major job boards, newspapers, associations and company career pages – and we continue to add new sites every day.

www.simplyhired.com

Building a good search engine is sort of like writing a good haiku. Coming up with one that works well may require repeated and thoughtful effort. But crafted properly, the result can be incredibly simple and effective, even enjoyable.

Simply Hired is a vertical search engine company based in Silicon Valley, and we’re building the largest online database of jobs on the planet. Our goal is to make finding your next job a simple yet effective, enjoyable journey. We can’t always promise you’ll discover your dream job, but we’ll give you the best chance possible to get a bigger paycheck, a more considerate boss, or a shorter commute.

When a public restroom isn’t so public. From the European show “Just For Laughs”.

Why am I doing this video blog? Not because I like the way my wrinkles show on the webcam and not because I like how my voice sounds … believe me. Ahhh to be younger with a Lauren Bacall voice but that is the land of dreams and not reality. And anyway I am very happy to be the age that I am – I have earned it!!

So why do I do this video blog and expose so much of myself and what I am doing? I do it because I think it is important. The power of social media is the power to leverage one’s message far and wide and to receive feedback and information in return.

Seth Godin, a marketing thought leader, recently wrote a post on his blog titled “What’s Your Super Power?” In it he discusses how he used to love reading the Legion of Super Heroes and the Justice League of America comic books when he was younger. In the beginning of these comics, the super heroes would introduce themselves and would introduce their super power. He then goes on to state that we all need to figure out what our own super power is and to use this in introductions of ourselves. That way we can let others know, when we meet them, what we do and how we might be of assistance.

By creating these video blogs, I am taking my experiences and giving them super powers. I am giving my experiences the super powers of being able to reach far and wide and deliver information and value to those that might need them. Will every one need the information in every one of my video blogs? No, absolutely not. But by my sharing of my start-up experiences, I may be able to help many entrepreneurs out there with either questions they have or have not even thought of yet. Or even put another face to an individual trying to sum up the courage to take an idea, give it shape and make it happen.

I am also giving my experiences of struggling, exploring and learning with a child with learning issues the power of Superman. I may not have X-ray vision, but the insights that I have learned with my child could trigger the development of insights with another mother and her child.

So my video blog is about the pain and pleasures of life and giving them more value, more meaning by sharing them and giving back to the world in a way that I hope brings value.

Lipstick Wisdom is centered on this idea of the sharing of personal stories and experiences. Lipstick Wisdom is not about TMI – too much information … it is about sharing the learnings of life so that someone else can benefit from it. Obviously I am still at a very early stage with the company and I have yet to get my very first user generated personal story uploaded to Lipstick Wisdom. I hope I can because there is so much freedom and empowerment that accompanies taking your own knowledge and leveraging it through sharing. I am going to try my best to see if I can get other women to share their wisdom. In the mean time, I am sharing mine!

So what is your super power? What valuable gifts of knowledge has life given you? What wisdom can you give super powers?

Come register at Lipstick Wisdom and tell me your wisdom or email me a kgriffithgryga@lipstickwisdom.com so we can explore your super powers together!

Warmly,
Karen

Last week I had the pleasure of attending Social Media Jungle: New York City, a Jeff Pulver event. On the agenda were both individuals exploring corporate social media questions as well as questions regarding personal implications and opportunities for social media. Although the growth with social media has been and continues to be rapid, it is still early in its development and its evolution will continue to be dramatic and fast.
 
Although I will do a data dump for you below of some of the more interesting learnings of the day, the power of Social Media Jungle event is in the attendees themselves. The attendees are a fascinating mixture of those newly exploring social media and those with a ton of experience. Every one there is eager to meet, discuss, share and explore. In my view the best way to prepare to attend one of these conferences is to develop a list of questions or ideas that you want to explore with a fantastic and diverse group of people.
 
Some of the salient data points that I gathered during the conferences include:
 
1. Social media enables communication with a large network and can instantly affect outcomes i.e. Facebook status.
 
2. Humanness is a necessary component of social media even for brands.
 
3. It takes thought and reflection to understand the true nature and power of permission and how it can be leveraged.
 
4. Attention Economy: with every abundance there comes a scarcity. Social media has enabled ridiculous reach at zero marginal cost. As a result, getting an individuals’ attention has become the new scarcity.
 
5. We are now in an environment of Community Driven Marketing (CDM) where good old-fashioned word-of-mouth has the most impact. As a result, messaging has to give people a reason to talk about you and with you.
 
6. The focus of outreach should be on the individuals that are most passionate about you, your product or brand (raving fans). Raving fans will spread your message further and faster than any other method currently available.
 
7. Measurement and monetization of social media are still in their infancy. A new measurement model emerging for social media measurement is ROCI, Return on Consumer Investment, which is a measurement on the return and investment of all initiatives and outreach that touch the consumer. According to Ben Grossman, discussion leader, the rise of the semantic web and utilities like Facebook Connect are going to make this type of measurement easier and more cost effective. Ben calls the amount of data available, breadcrumbs of data. Josh Kopelman of First Round Capital has been talking about this for a while and calls it data exhaust.
 
8. There are many gray areas when it comes to an individual twittering regarding when they are representing their individual opinions and when they are representing their employer or brand. The trick with social media is to remember your role at all times and interact appropriately.
 
9. Social media not only offers a huge platform and opportunity to get your message out but it is a huge opportunity to listen and hear from those around you. According to the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hseih, social media is not about being interesting, it is about being interested.
 
10. TV and the Internet are on an equal footing at this point and most experiences are becoming social.
 
11. All forms of presence are starting to become interconnected (hence remembering your role is that much more necessary).
 
12. The discussion around monetization of social media is becoming more expected and accepted.
 
13. Social media is not new but the speed at which it works today is.
 
14. Social media for the Social Good is being heavily explored.
 
15. In order to understand the dynamics of adoption of social media, you need to realize that social media and technology are like languages that need to be learned.
 
16. Participatory Marketing is in. Social Media Marketing is out.
 
17. I am old (according to Oz Sultan and Israel Minsky) and the greatest amount of growth within social media is from women 35 and older!
 
18. Corporations and brands have huge opportunities to deliver value to their users in new and meaningful ways and that corporations are just starting to realize this.
 
Anyone interested in social media should definitely plan on attending one of Jeff’s excellent events. I learned a great deal but more importantly met some fantastic individuals.

Warmly,
Karen

Welcome to My Party!!! I am so excited to be here and thank you to 5 Minutes for Mom for hosting such an awesome event!
 
My name is Karen and I am the voice behind Lipstick Wisdom. I am a full-time working mom with two wonderful children. My daughter, Morgan, is 11 and my son, Griffin, is 7. Check my personal video blog, under “Karen’s Blog” to the left.

My awesome kids!!

(Register for the site during the week of March 20-27th and be entered into a raffle to win a $100 gift certificate to Zappos!!)
 
I got the idea for Lipstick Wisdom when struggling to figure out my son’s learning issues. He has language processing issues so that he has trouble getting the information into his memory (receptive language) and has trouble getting the information out of his memory (expressive language). As I was evolving into my understanding of my son and facing both internal and external hurdles with understanding his issues, I wanted to connect with other woman who had experienced or were experiencing what I was going through. I wanted to hear their stories, their advice and share with them information, antics and advice. I could not find this confluence of information and connectivity on the web.

 
The richness of information on the web is incredible!! However, when trying to find information on particular situations or conditions, it can be incredibly difficult to find, if it exists at all. I know for me, the best information and advice I have ever gotten is from others with direct experience.

 
At Lipstick Wisdom, I want to feature YOU and more importantly, the advice that YOU Have to share with others having lived it firsthand. Personalized stories are out there in blogs, in forums and in YouTube but it is incredibly difficult to find, gather and consume.

 
Lipstick Wisdom is starting out as a blog but I hope to launch as a fully functional website in the future. I also want to produce videos featuring real people and their life experiences. Check out the ones I had produced here under “Lipstick Wisdom Videos“.

The bloggers I have read and connected with are so awesome!! If you have a personal story and advice you would like to share on Lipstick Wisdom including a link back to your site, please let me know. I can be found on twitter at twitter.com/lipstickwisdom, on Facebook or at kgriffithgryga@lipstickwisdom.com.

Feel free to register for the site and the opt-in to receive either our weekly or monthly newsletter. Everyone who registers during the party week March 20th- 27th, will be entered into a raffle to win a $100 Zappos gift certificate (I mean who, really, does NOT like shoes!!). This gift is from me – I have no affiliation with Zappos.
 
Thank you so much for stopping by and please leave a comment so I can come check out your party too!! Any feedback you have on the concept or videos are greatly appreciated!!

There are so many cool prizes to be won at this year’s Ultimate Blog Party, but my top three picks would be:

* 101 — $178 in PR Training for Moms from PR in Your Pajamas; Provided by: Elena Verlee, PR in Your Pajamas
* 89 — $100 gift card to HomeGoods; Provided by: HG Openhouse
* 41 — Your choice of our Simply Precious Photo Tile Necklace ($110), or our key clasp style Boston Locket ($185); Provided by: Elemental Memories

And if my top three picks are already chosen, I’d love any of the following (in order of preference):

19, 21, 22 (I live at Target practically), 71, 50 but I would be happy with anything at all!!

March 12, 2009

I have heard it said that the number one problem in entrepreneurship is fear and I believe it. Fear of the unknown (which only gets stronger as you age, it seems), fear of failure, fear of losing prestige based on your current position, fear of losing material possessions or of not being able to buy material possessions, …

I had to face a lot of fear when thinking about Lipstick Wisdom. My fears were definitely focused on the fear of the failure. While acknowledging my fears, however, I decided that I needed to focus on my desires. For many years, I had wanted to start up a business. I had invested in start up businesses but it was important to me to walk the walk myself. When I discovered that my son had learning issues and that I could not find the information and community online that I wanted – I found my passion. And for that I am forever grateful.

So do I have times when I cannot sleep? Do I have times when I am totally stressed out? Do I have times when I cannot eat (yes, I am one of those)? Yes absolutely!! BUT I decided that I did not want to live my life driven by fear. I wanted to live my life driven by opportunity and passion. So I let go of my ego – the ego associated with my profession and the “safety” and status that come with it and decided to go for it!

Along the path of embracing my fears, I started to realize a few things:
1. Fear definitely has its positive elements like keeping you motivated and focused.
2. It is far better to face and embrace your fears that to avoid them.
3. Getting knocked down does not make you a loser, choosing to stay down makes you one.
4. Life is full of constant challenges. There will be challenges that you choose and ones that are thrown at you. By choosing challenges to go after, you feel more empowered to handle the ones that come at you involuntarily.
5. Success is not a goal in and of itself, it is a path in life that you chose to walk.

Although the brilliant Nike slogan encourages us all to “Just Do It”, you do want to do some research and planning before doing it. In my experience, it takes many months to really think through what it is you really want to do and how do to manifest it in order to meet a market need. It takes research to understand the overall market conditions including competition and the implications of competitive offerings and business models to your business. How are you planning on making money and what size of business is your goal? Having the desire and passion are two of the most critical elements in starting up a business but neither replaces the foundation of research and planning.

Write a business plan. Do not be overwhelmed by the thought of it. Focus on a section at a time. As soon as you have figured out what you want to do and how you want to do it, get an early version of the product or service in front of potential customers as quickly as possible in order to get feedback.

Getting started is often the biggest hurdle. You may have a gentle embrace around your fear but work is busy or you need to do something else or family matters demand you attention. Carve out, initially, 15 minutes of your day for just this. Think, brainstorm, write down notes, write a few paragraphs, or sketch something. Start small and then you will build your own momentum.

My personal philosophy always makes me think of the Abominable Snowman in the “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” Christmas special — “Just put one foot in front of the other … and soon you’ll be walking cross the floor …”. Just put one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward.

Also seek out some inspiration sources for yourself. Alexis Martin Neely is an entrepreneur whose words I have found to be inspiring. She has several blogs and is active on twitter (twitter/AlexisNeely). Alexis has a saying that I love, “Be afraid and do it anyway.”

That is my advice to you “Be afraid and do it anyway”. Best of luck to you and best of luck to me!!

Warmly,
Karen