Secrets of Politically Savvy People

hi I'm Colin Dunn I served a career in the United States Army my last assignment was at the Eisenhower school where I was a professor of Behavioral Science and and I taught leadership when I got out of the army I decided to form a company that would help leaders build winning teams I hope this video helps you be all you can be for yourself and for the team today's subject is political Savvy when I was at my 25 year mark in government service I found myself in a field operating agency which had a single line item in the dod budget that meant I had to defend my budget in front of 10 Senior People hard those people whose job it was to take money away from me to make matters worse that particular year there was supposed to be a 10% budget cut for all agencies what to do I asked around and mingled and I found somebody who told me go see Bob maybe he can help you well I found Bob's office in the Pentagon he wasn't there but his assistant was I struck up a conversation with his assistant and got the valuable intelligence that Bob liked to eat at a certain snack bar in the Pentagon he lik the BR worst there when Bob showed up a little while later I invited him to lunch told him it was on me as it turns out Bob loved to take rookies like me under his wing and show them the budget process at the end of lunch he told me go visit these three committee members give them your proposal I did that a few weeks later we had the big meeting I walked in all nervous unsure of the outcome and before I could speak Bob interrupted and said you know I've already seen this proposal it makes a lot of sense two other committee members nodded and they dismissed me without me saying a word I found out a few days later that I got everything I asked for in my budget I didn't know it then but what I was demonstrating was political Savvy see what political Savvy is is it's not politics it's it's not back room scheming and and Intrigue it's simply knowing the culture knowing the landcape of your organization and every organization's a little different it's also paying attention to people and what's going on in your organization it's also enabling yourself to be all the best you can be and to serve your Public's the best way you can it's about being better at your job what I'm going to do today is take you through six secrets of political Savvy people now on the screen here you see a guy telling a secret to a young woman but truth be told they're not going to be Secrets because I'm going to lay them out for you right now the first one is practice situational awareness uh the second one is focus on relationships the the third is build a dynamic Network the fourth is partner with the boss and the boss's boss the fifth is regulate your impulse behavior and finally anticipate change let's start with practicing situational awareness what is that well first it's knowing the culture it's it's knowing the landscape it's it's knowing uh what behavior is acceptable and what is not acceptable it's knowing what your wiggle room is and making decisions it's also knowing what minefields to avoid what places that if you go there you do so at your own Peril how do you find that out go to the coffee pot ask questions listen to people talking and you'll pick it up secondly learn the key decision maker the people making the decisions aren't always the boss or the bosses sometimes they're people that influence the boss people on whom the boss or bosses rely on their Council know who those people are thirdly mingle strategically what do I mean by that well you have optional meetings that happen all the time you know celebrations birthday parties promotion parties Etc go to them meet the people there get to know the people behind the job descriptions that you work with or might or you think you might work with at some point in the future also mingle strategically in a formal setting just as I did when I tried to find out how to work the budget if I didn't mingle strategically and find out who Bob was and and and and meet with him offline I wouldn't have known that those three meetings with those committee members were the important three meetings I had to have before the big meeting meeting also Notice nonverbals start with yourself how do you come across at meetings if you're the kind of person that goes to a meeting and you like to get real comfortable and lean back in the chair and kind of look at the ceiling uh that's fine if that's how you're comfortable but what message are you sending if you do that could you possibly be sending the message that you don't care about the speaker or about the team as a whole very possibly let me give you a tip after an important meeting find someone you trust and and ask them how did I come across am I coming across as a team player am I coming across as interested you know am I looking at the speakers when they're talking what are your impressions you might learn something about yourself and might find a way to change your body language to leave a better impression at the next meeting the next secret is focus on relationships you know years ago in a presidential election one of the candidates had a sign made and he read every day when he got up in the morning and the sign said it's the economy stupid like right here on the screen to remind him that when he went to talk to people and gave his stump speeches to talk about the economy because that's what the American people cared about well in political Savvy the equivalent is it's the relationship silly it's all about the relationship the relationship is what holds is the glue that holds people together on a team their their relationship is how things get done let me give you a couple of tips one of them is treat everyone with respect don't get hung up on rank we've all heard the story about the guy who goes to visit a senior person and ignores the executive assistant only to find out later that the executive assistant is more than an executive assistant that person is a confidant of the senior person an action offer officer don't don't make that mistake give everybody the respect they deserve also show genuine appreciation for people if someone does a good job on your team even if you had nothing to do with that project show appreciation for that person if someone helps you or gives you some counsel that works out get back to that person and tell them how much you appreciate what they did for you also Show Your Boss Appreciation if your boss does something that you really appre that you like let that person know about it tell her you know a lot of times bosses don't get much feedback and and they appreciate it more than you realize the next thing we need to talk about is identifying outside stakeholders and prioritizing every organization has stakeholders people outside the team outside the organization even on whom they depend for their success who are those people and you can't take care of all of them equally so what's the priority what's the pecking order how do you find that out talk to the boss listen to the boss when the boss talks boss's priori priorities will direct your prioritization of those stakeholders also don't interact with people only when you need something from them those stakeholders we just identified the first time you meet them shouldn't be when you come in and you need something from them it it should be a time when you're just going by to see them and asking them about their interest in fact maybe even doing some homework and finding out what their interests are Zig Ziggler a famous motivational speaker said something I think that's very appropriate for us he said the only way to get what you want in life is to find enough people and give them what they want it's counterintuitive but it you know and I think in your heart that is a true statement let me give you a tip draw a relationship map of you and your organization now here I've got a map with myself at the center that's me Colin and I've got lines going to various people you use your own legend for example on this uh map I have a short line between me and Joe to show that I've got a good relationship with Joe but over here look how far away I am from Sue and yet Sue might be more integral to to what it is I do at work than Joe is so maybe I need to shorten that line with Sue if this line here between me and the stakeholder wasn't there maybe I needed to establish that the point is map it out draw it out on a piece of paper it'll help direct your time as you try to improve and enhance relationships on your team and outside your team the next secret is to build a dynamic Network now this picture shows people standing in circles with connected lines and it's not quite that quite that formal but you know it's very important the first tip I want to leave you with on this is go back to your relationship map go back to that map and ask yourself who on the map is the kind of person that gets things done who is who is known as the person to go to if you want something done now maybe that's the person you need to know better than you know them now find out how they operate why did that H did they get that reputation as the person that gets things done uh secondly who can be a mentor or an advocate now people know about mentors mentors are people you go to uh when you need advice people that you that guide you along your career path but you also need Advocates those are people who speak positively about you to others you need both maybe there's a mentor or an advocate on your relationship map the next bullet is build alliances and advisory boards who are do you have on your map that you could use as a teaming opportunity to prepare yourself for some upcoming project what alliances can you make to make that project go better also you need an Advisory Board well what's an Advisory Board that's that's just a group of people who are sounding boards that that might be somebody outside your organization it might be a neighbor it might be a spouse but somebody to get a second opinion uh uh from if you need it a warning never gossip never criticize anybody if you're at the coffee pot and you participate in criticizing someone or in gossiping about it understand this when you leave that group of people you've been gossiping with you're leaving them with the impression that you're capable of gossiping about them as well you're capable about criticizing them as well don't get involved in that that erodes trust it's not good for you it's not good for the team now on a side here I want to make is this what we've been talking about thus far and these secrets is a lot about you and you leaving a good impression about you and you building a network about you don't get me wrong it's not about you it's about making you the best person you can be for the organization it's about delivering the best service you can deliver here's a tip the way not to get a mentor is to walk into that person's office and ask them will you be my mentor a better strategy is to find somebody whose wisdom you admire in the organization go to that person and ask ask him for some genuine counsel that you need take that counsel come back to that person later and tell them how it went what you've told them is I'm willing to be your Protegé it's up to them whether or not they take you up on that and decide to be your Mentor that brings us to the next secret of uh politically Savvy people partnering with the boss or bosses now you want to do this even if your boss looks like the guy in this picture you know older guy white hair looking pretty Stern sometimes bosses come across like they don't want to be partner with trust me they all want you to partner with them first of all promote the boss's priorities that implies that you know what the boss's priorities are Be A Champion for the boss's priorities they will appreciate that more than you realize secondly Master the big big picture try to put the lenses on of your boss as you look at the organization and the projects going on and the things that are happening in your organization I I can remember one time when late in the day the boss called me in a team leader with other team leaders and he told us all there was one team that was struggling with a project and he wanted us if we could to help that bleer team with a project we were all very busy so most of the team leaders gave some excuses about being overloaded and left but I saw in the boss's eye that this was really important to him so I went back and I gave my best people up to that team that was in trouble as it turned out the project was a huge success and my team stock went up in the eyes of everybody in the organization didn't hurt my reputation either the next step is include the boss now we all I think know to include the boss on updates and and we'll probably do that regularly but are we also stopping in and telling the boss of little successes that we have they're interested in that they also want to know about problems if there's a potential problem coming around the corner even if you're not positive it's going to manifest itself it doesn't hurt to stop by and tell the boss what's coming at them boss appreciate weather warnings like this that they also appreciate it when you include the Boss on Little activities on your team for example if you're going to give an award to somebody or certificate to somebody or or have a little celebration invite the boss down to participate in those things bosses love that kind of contact with line staff and they don't always get it here's somebody who did get it who is it it's the fish and wildlife service on this slide on the right side you see the fish and Wildlife service goals now I took this a few years ago off the fish and wildlife website and they list their goals one two three four goals right well the way they show them on the website is they align their goals with their boss's goals which is the Department of the Interior isn't that interesting why would they do that well it isn't to kiss up it isn't to br knows is to show the boss that what they're going for and what they're trying to achieve will help the boss achieve what he or she is trying to achieve the other way that helps is if the fish and wildlife service needs any resources to help them with their goals when they go to their boss their senior headquarters there's a good chance they're going to get it because the senior headquarters understands if I give them these resources then indeed it will help me achieve what I want to achieve the next secret we're going to talk about is regulating impulse Behavior you see the picture on the screen here that young lady looks like she's going to either scratch herself or scream or both we want that to be your inside Behavior not what people see on the outside first tip don't always say what's on your mind now I know this is common sense but it happens all too often in the workplace I was out at a dinner one time one night and my boss came up to me after the dinner and she said Colin tell me how I should change my my leadership what should I do differently to be more effective for the organization well I knew at that moment enough about the boss to know that she had a little bit of thin skin So my answer was boss off the top of my head I I can't think of anything I'll tell you what if if I do think of something in the coming days I'll I'll I'll come talk to you about it she thanked me and let it go I found out that was the right answer later on a colleague of mine got asked the same question by the same boss he came up with a couple things she should change about her leadership and she never forgave him think about the implications before you respond to your environment or to what people are saying LA Zoo the ancient Chinese philosopher said it this way there's a difference between a reaction and a response a reaction is what you do instantaneously without much thought a response is what you do after you've considered the consequences or implications of that action or that speaking that you do try to make most of your responses responses not reactions also know your hot buttons you know on a pretty much on a regular basis what sets you into a place where you might display some emotions you wouldn't want to display you know the situations recognize those situations and prepare to respond differently and not react emotionally when you hit your hot buttons here's a tip use what I call the self-management twostep if you know that at we're at work or at home you find yourself in a situation on a regular basis it's not happened once it's not happen twice maybe three or four times where your button has been pushed and you respond unhelpfully to the relationships at home or the relationships at work identify those times that's the first step just sit down and identify those times when you respond unhelpfully secondly choose a strategy to try to do it differently the next time maybe it's taking a deep breath maybe it's taking a drink of water uh maybe it's Counting to 10 do what strategy works for you for those situations the next and last secret is anticipate change the only thing that's constant in our government life is that changes are going to be constant first read the tea leaves you you can kind of tell what's what's coming around the corner at you uh Powell used to say it this way he wanted to hire leaders who could see around corners and and kind of guess what was coming at him so he could prepare the environment to receive that now what you need to be is you need to be a future Scout bosses love future Scouts bosses love people that start the conversation at the meeting this way what will be the impact of filling the blank the new senior boss coming the impending budget cuts whatever you see coming around the corner how should we get ready for fill in the blank start by asking those questions not coming up at the meeting and and announcing that you know what's going to happen because we really don't know everything that's going to happen to us but the boss will appreciate somebody who's going to be a future Scout in this way before I leave you I want to remind you of these six secrets so that you can remember them and employ them in the way you operate at work remember to practice situational awareness at meetings and understanding what's going on focus on relationships relationships are the glue that holds everything together people are how it happens build that Dynamic Network and do that before you need the help partner with the boss reach out to the boss and and tell him you're his Champion for his priorities or her priorities uh regulate that impulse Behavior Keep that stuff that's damaging to to you and to the organization inside and anticipate change be that future Scout the boss needs political Savvy is not just about navigating the organization it's about helping you and your team deliver the best service it can for your constituents for your customers it's not hard it's not rocket science and it can start with you I want to leave you with a couple of books for further study Joel dec's book on political Savvy is the most comprehensive one I've seen I like William Gentry's pamphlet it's a short pamphlet published by the center for Creative leadership because it's short to the point it's the cliff notes version and then finally Joe Sweeney's book on network networking is a contact sport it's just a fun book to read There are my three favorite books on political Savvy if you're interested thanks for listening

Channel: Colin Dunn

Views: 29,021

Keywords: Political Savvy at Work, CKD2020, Political Savvy, Office Politics, Communicating at Work

Id: -SgZqQQ3rU0

Length: 22min 58sec (1378 seconds)

Published: Wed May 24 2017