How to win at office politics

The office is a unique and sometimes treacherous environment. Throwing different personality types into an enclosed space and asking them to play nice for 40 hours or more every week seems like a recipe for disaster. But there are ways to win at office politics, according to Executive Coach Rebecca Alexander from The Coaching Studio.

In an article for Management Today, Rebecca gave these top tips for avoiding difficult situations with your colleagues.

• Get to know the political structure in your organisation. What is the prevailing atmosphere and opinion? Keep up to date with the situation, but don’t let it influence your actions.
• Use your knowledge to figure out how you and the business can grow.
• Gain the support of your colleagues by sharing credit where it’s due, following through with what you say you’ll do and not talking about people behind their backs.
• Don’t complain about somebody to another colleague; go directly to the person you have a problem with an approach the situation in a professional manner.
• Show active interest in your co-workers by asking them about what’s happening in their lives; never burn your bridges.
• Stick to your guns when it comes to your values, but keep an open mind so you don’t seem inflexible to those around you.

Read the original article at bit.ly/1q3r9To