Email Heather About This Post

THE POLITICAL PROCESS is antithetical to real, beneficial progress, and yet the same issues that cause problems in government"selfishness, greed, bickering, lust for power"can creep into your culture and interfere with productivity. You must keep a sharp eye out for such political problems in your people and in yourself. What’s the cure for the politically driven"or politically hampered"organization? No fail-safe cure exists, because human beings will always be, well, human. But your best bet is to become a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Organization"a culture in which politics can’t take hold and thrive. VEOs are comprised of people who feel that elusive sense of ownership that drives them to innovate constantly, execute relentlessly, and work with passion to stay ahead of the competition. Before you can become a VEO, you need to recognize the warning signs of an overly political organization. Nine Symptoms Here are nine symptoms to look for, along with some remedies: 1. Gridlock. Your company is at a standstill because no one can agree on what to do. Remedy: Get the top leaders to agree on the common goals and hold people accountable to following guidelines during discussion and decision-making. This include: providing each person a chance to contribute and to describe why they feel strongly about an idea, listening to others’ opinions before responding, and trying to find common elements among the ideas. Leaders can also try and test some ideas for long-term use. 2. Bureaucracy. People are bogged down in paperwork, red tape, and stifling rules that hinder their progress. Remedy: Clarify those decisions that individuals can make on their own, those that they need to get input on, and those that they need to defer to others. You might also formulate task teams to streamline processes. Often people just go through the motions without considering the option of changing a process or procedure. 3. Grandstanding (Brown-nosing). People pay lip service to leaders’ ideas to flatter and curry favor, but have no real commitment to implementing them. Remedy: Hold people accountable for following through on assigned actions. Insist on a detailed action plan with hard due dates and specific people charged with getting specific things done following each planning and update meeting. Action plans help to capture commitments and serve as an accountability record for meetings . When people are held accountable for getting things done"and reporting on progress"they are more committed to follow through. 4. The two-faced twostep. People talk out of both sides of their mouths, saying what they think the people they’re talking to at the moment want to hear. Remedy: Leaders set the stage for employees to be upfront and honest. Encourage employees to share bad news as well as good news. If they give you a compliment, ask them what you can do differently. If they describe the good points of a plan, ask them what could go wrong. And don’t kill the messenger" make sure you aren’t punishing people for bringing up bad news or offering constructive criticism. Encourage open, honest feedback and thank people for their opinions. 5. Passing the buck. No one takes responsibility for anything; people are always shifting blame to someone else. Remedy: Realize that chronic blameshifting is often a signal that employees operate in silos. Consider jobshadowing or an orientation to expose people to other parts of the business. For example, marketing reps can ride with salespeople on their calls. Make every manager answer customer service calls at least once a month. Help people connect the dots"to understand how their job affects others. Ask people in different departments to share their goals and what they need from each other. 6. Laziness, clockwatching, and low work ethic. People have a sense of entitlement; they’re just “putting in face time” until they can go home. Remedy: Find out about employees’ likes, dislikes, interests, talents, hopes, and dreams. Take a personal interest in them as people and share your enthusiasm and vision with them. Set realistic but challenging goals related to their areas of interest and skills. And coach them"provide ongoing feedback on what they do well and ask them for ideas on how things could be done better. Build in small rewards for goal attainment, change, and innovation. 7. Indirect communication. Instead of talking to coworkers directly when they have a problem, employees complain to supervisors and talk about people behind their backs. Remedy: Become transparent. Encourage individuals to ask questions and challenge the status quo. Gossip, rumors, and backbiting thrive in a closed-door environment. When there are no secrets or off-limit conversations, the rumor mill dissipates. Communicate your intolerance for gossip and rumors. Participate in open forums, and emphasize that you’re always accessible. 8. Pork-barreling. Influential employees push through expensive projects that serve only one small part of the company. Remedy: Leaders must communicate the vision and goals, and provide criteria for budget allotments and selection of projects: for example, contribution to goals, support for the vision and values, and estimated ROI. When everyone is clear on what the company is working toward, pork-barreling is curtailed. 9. Corruption. People are embezzling, fudging reports, and engaging in other unethical or illegal behavior. Remedy: Upholding ethical standards is a “must-do.” Leaders state the ethical code and hold people accountable to it. Leaders also model behaviors that they want to see in others. Provide a forum for “whistle-blowers” to report unethical behavior without repercussions. Punish ethics violations and promote a zero-tolerance culture. When you address these problems, your culture begins to shift because the steps you take to defuse the political environment are the same ones that make your company more successful.