earnings Using political intelligence to develop effective workplace relationships and improve performance levels Political intelligence training educates employees in the positive application of organisational politics

Many organisations invest heavily in their ‘talent pool’ by developing their EQ and IQ to assist in their rapid rise up the corporate ladder. They however, fail to acknowledge the need for PI (political intelligence), which gives them a far greater chance of survival when they get there. Intelligent Behaviour is almost useless unless you understand the political territory you are entering.

Organisational politics gets a bad rap. So much has been said against it that even those who believe in its merits talk in hushed voices. While political intelligence has done its rounds, it no longer remains a go-go area in most organisations. Speak of emotional intelligence, competitive intelligence, even artificial and digital intelligence; these receive far more attention from the human resources academia than political intelligence.

The Definition

The best definition of political intelligence calls it “the art of managing politics and developing an understanding of what politics is and what type of political ‘animals’ exist in today’s workplace, together with strategies on how to manage.” This intelligence is also about gathering information about people you work with, and using it to work effectively with even those people one perhaps dislikes.

In Favour of Political Intelligence

It is both official and down in writing that “political behaviour can be used to make things happen, unlock barriers to change, create greater buy-in to key projects, produce organisational cohesion and speed up decision making”.

Moreover, sufficient anecdotal evidence ranks the ability to manage politics as one of the top skills needed by managers today. This nonetheless has failed to elevate political intelligence to its full glory. Not surprising perhaps, as most managers have nothing nice to say about organisational politics. Unfortunately, their opinion is a product of their ‘political’ experiences.

A study conducted by Roffey Park Institute revealed that nearly 70 percent of managers complain of bearing the brunt of organisational politics. Such negative experiences adversely affect the trust between employees at nearly all organisational levels making the organisation a seedbed of ineffective working relationships.

Worse is when such relationships affect overall organisational performance. While the percentage of complainants is rather high, the good news is that this has more to do with the bad reputation that precedes organisational politics; a reputation based solely on misguided perceptions.

The Other Side of the Coin

Most managers have heard only the bad ‘political’ stories. The reality is that the negative application of political intelligence is what prevents both individuals and organisations from maintaining productive relationships and achieving business objectives in turn.

Since this is the case, managers need to see the positive side of organisational politics. This includes creating organisation-wide awareness of the merits of organisational politics, developing an understanding of how it can be used effectively and educating managers in the skills and practices to enable them to adjust their behaviours.

All this can be done by waving the training wand! 3D Training and Development, an enterprise committed to improving organisational performance conducts ‘positive organisational politics’ workshops to provide manages with an insight to what political intelligence is and can do. What follows is an outline of components of these workshops. This could serve as a guideline for organisations interested in the positive application of political intelligence.

Training Sets it Right

The workshop begins with a series of diagnostic tests to identify the levels of politics that goes on within the organisation. Asimple question such as, “What causes politics?” leaves maagers in no doubt that politics is an integral part of organisational functioning and that it does affect workplace behaviour either to a large or lesser extent.

This diagnostic is followed by a ‘political perceptions questionnaire’ where individuals are asked select options from a series of paired statements that cover the positive and negative aspects of organisational politics. With each negative alternative comes an explanation of how adversely it affects workplace relationships and performance.

Seeing is Believing

The objective of such diagnostics is to make individuals aware that what they choose to see is basically what they want to see! This self-created smokescreen colours how they perceive what a co-worker or colleague is doing and what is motivating them. In most cases these individuals end up misinterpreting the behaviour of others and politics takes the blame!

The main cause for ‘dirty’ politics in most organisations is when individuals spot the negatives more easily than the positives. It also is common for employees to view one person’s manoeuvring as conniving manipulation. Additionally some organisations unwittingly stimulate negative politics by creating processes that fuel internal conflicts. For instance, a race to get bigger budget allocations, awards and recognition. Such aspects that make politics negative come to surface during the diagnostic tests.

Goal

The entire emphasis of these workshops is to get managers to apply political intelligence to redefine the way they see others and interpret behaviour. Behavioural experts believe that by viewing others differently employees can change their beliefs about them. Better still, this will help them alter their own behaviours and gain self understanding and self acceptance of the different political ‘animals’ that exist in their organisation.

Last lap

The final set of diagnostics measures an individuals’ political quotient. An individual with higher political intelligence succeeds in aligning his goals with those of the organisation. That is because he understands what constitutes political behaviour, manoeuvres his way around it and therefore encounters lesser conflicts and divergent interests.

One with low political intelligence focuses primarily on self goals thereby limiting the range of development choices that he can explore. This interferes with his performance, which in turn affects his workplace relationships.

With these measurements in place the workshop then aims to improve the levels of political intelligence. Individuals go through a series of courses that cover key areas such as communication, networking and influence and are equipped with skills: tips to develop high levels of political intelligence.

The Merits of Political Intelligence Training

Conducting political intelligence workshops helps employees:

Identify personal preferences regarding political behaviour and assess their level of political intelligence Determine the extent to which their goals can be aligned with those of the organisation Understand the strengths and weaknesses of different political behaviours and formulate appropriate responses for each Consider the changes they need to make to improve their levels of political intelligence Create productive and meaningful workplace relationships Share a common language while interacting with other on organisational politics Get things done inspite of prevalence of organisational politics Work well with even those they dislike

Happy organisational politicking!

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