Secrets to Winning at Office Politics: How to Achieve Your Goals and Increase Your Influence at Work

by Marie G. McIntyre

A survival manual for the corporate jungle Office politics are a fact of corporate life. From new hire to experienced executive, everyone needs to learn how to effec-tively play the game to win. From sizing up the political climate in the office, to building positive relationships to increasing political power, Secrets to Winning at Office Politics is the handbook for achieving on-the-job success. Marie McIntyre, organizational psychologist and corporate coach, reveals proven strategies to: -Turn adversaries into allies -Counter colleagues' powerplays -Develop an influence strategy -Cope with quirky bosses and annoying coworkers -Achieve personal and professional goals.

Genres: Business, Psychology, Management, Leadership, Nonfiction, Self Help, Politics

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2005

Reviews

[Jeann (Happy Indulgence) · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the world of office politics has ever confused or befuddled you, then this is the book that will put everything on the table. Wish we all got handed a copy of this as a graduation present so we'd be readily equipped for the office environment. I found it containing logical explanations and practical advice and hopefully will be better equipped in the future. Everyone can benefit from this, whether you use it in your personal or professional life.

My blog is at: http://happyindulgence.wordpress.com, check it out for more reviews!

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and highly pragmatic book. Terrible title though - the author probably lost a massive chunk of possible readers because of that.

The book definitely helped me notice more political dynamics at work. Also, identified some people patterns to avoid. For example, people who view themselves as victims/martyrs (key phrase: "it's not fair"), or people who live only in their days of old glory (happens to some senior engineers or scientists).

[Karen Micallef · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely a quintessential book to read on office politics. It is straight forward and to the point. It takes some time to digest and to implement where needed, and helps to realign the thought process. Highly recommend to all!

[Zander]

Marie needs to learn about unions

[Misty · Rating 3 out of 5]

In all my jobs I've held the belief that if I put my head down and worked hard, it would be recognized. And it has never quite worked out that way. I'm not an extrovert so it's not comfortable for me to seek visibility -- I've been left feeling powerless and less than satisfied. I didn't want that to happen again so I picked up this book. This book gave me a useful construct for thinking about office politics, and it also made me realize I'm in a better position than I realized. Even though I'm not someone who shines in the limelight, I've found other ways to build leverage in my organization. Along with making me feel less discouraged, it gave me some useful strategies for making the system work for me.

While the book helps you work the system, it doesn't offer useful strategies on how to challenge the system. The author's point of view seems to be, if you can't work the system, leave and find a better fit. I understand this pragmatic point of view to an extent, but too often the suggests you accept the power dynamic point blank.

In that way, it takes the politics out of office politics. For example, I would've expected the section on managing up to share ideas about expanding your influence with a superior. Instead, it suggests you kow tow to your boss's needs and expectations, with the idea that you will advance accordingly and then have the influence you seek. This doesn't match reality and offers a far too conservative perspective on making change, both for yourself and the organization.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for a book club thing at work, given a free copy to do so. While there were some helpful exercises and templates for interaction in this book, these were overshadowed by a sense of "those with power always win" with a sort of token warning that you should do something else in abusive situations. Often the advice for truly abusive (and some possibly illegal) situations at work was to just leave... and let the person in power continue to abuse people. That really put me off of this book. That is a dangerous mindset to be in and a worse one to encourage! Perhaps in the past year or so, sensibilities have changed dramatically and people who have power are no longer just allowed to keep getting away with things. Also the ableist "dimwit" language was incredibly disturbing.

I did find a few helpful ideas in this book, but I would not recommend it. Hopefully there are better books written more recently.

[Aspen Nielsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t judge a book by its title - this book is solid gold! I wouldn’t normally pick this book up based on its title alone, but it came highly recommended, and holy cow. It’s a game changer.

I still don’t love the term “office politics” or the idea of “winning” in the sense that it implies that it requires someone else to lose, but I don’t think that’s what this book is *really* about. It’s about workplace psychology and being an empathetic colleague. It’s not about setting “traps” or manipulating (although it does discuss tactics to avoid such traps if others set them).

Its about becoming a strong professional who does good work, but is also excellent to work with. Kind of a “high tides rise all ships” concept.

I’m glad I found this early in my career, because I think that what I’ve learned from this book will likely be helpful in building meaningful working relationships for decades to come.

[Jacob O'connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many role playing games will start you off by letting you decide what kind of player you will be. For instance, you could be a strong barbarian, a wise wizard, or a fleet- footed archer. You're given a certain amount of attribute points, and you put them in the category for the type of character you want.

 With all these books I'm reading, I've been trying to build up my interpersonal and political attributes.

If you've ever been undermined in the office, you must read this book.

If you've ever been passed over for promotion, you must read this book.

If you're struggling with your boss, you must read this book.

If you are in the workforce at all, you must read this book.

This might be the most helpful book of its kind I've read. The best part is, it gives you permission to be a good person. Too many of these have yucky Machiavellian undertones. Not here. This is not a Christian book, but it may as well have been.

I couldn't recommend this book more

[Juan Jacobo Bernal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hate to say this, but I really cannot put it in any other way: Oh, how I wish I had read this when I was 22 and staring my professional career. McIntyre lays out a precise and simple to understand outlook of what it means to navigate the professional landscape. Her psychological insights are simply invaluable. This is my second time reading this book, and I know there are more iterations down the road.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just Politics

I bought this book years ago as a new manager to become more savvy about office politics. I like this book because it takes away the stigma of “Politics” and clearly breaks it down into human relationships and interactions.

It also has tools and self-assessments for improvement. Highly recommend this book

[Corrie Engelbrecht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrible title, but everything in this book is true. it's more about software skills than anything else, and I've recommended it to all of my team members.

[ReadingBear · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author is a psychologist who really understands what’s behind office politics and explains them really well.

[Ugur · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good one. Mostly when I´m reading self-development / business-related books, I got bored very easily, but with this one, it was a smooth read for me.

There were some sections that I do not agree with completely. Also, some examples are too much focused on US culture but overall the topics are very relevant in professional life.

In summary, this book is showing cases of different kinds of challenges working in a company. There are different actions to overcome different challenges. What I was thinking while reading the book is, especially new professionals can benefit a lot from this book. Most of the time new professionals fall into some of the pitfalls very easily, some recover quickly but with some, it takes a lot of their time and energy to recover.

[Prateek Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone working should read this. The title may be inapt but majority of the things you can find in your office environment

[Dominique · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt this was a really good book on understanding office politics. It is well known that people define office politics along the lines of others “backstabbing,” destroying, and manipulating other co-workers for personal gain in competitive work environments. On page 3 the author believes that “the process itself is neither good nor bad but simply a fact of life—and the morality of the outcome is determined entirely by the motives and goals of the players…” The author looks at office politics from a different perspective by suggesting that this actually could be by becoming a successful employee, called the Winner. Some of the things that a Winner could do to maintain a successful career include: developing relationships among other employees by creating and maintaining friends, professional and collaborative (colleague) contacts for a variety of reasons. That Winner employees should also maintain relationships with those who are managers and supervisors which does not mean that they are “sucking up” to them but to actually be noticed and build positive relationships with them.

The book discusses various issues and has tips and activities at the end of most chapters for how to deal with those issues such as: difficult employees, recognizing those in power positions, types of political games (discussed using transactional analysis. You do not need to read about transactional analysis it to understand what is being discussed but I would recommend it.), using persuasion effectively and appropriately among other topics.

I like the authors ethical approach such as mentioning that when those who are interested in seeking a promotion, that they should do so not out of self-interest but out of interest of the company. Separately, I liked her emphasis on the golden political rule: “Never advance your own interests by harming the business or hurting other people.” Her approach on the topic has influenced me to shift my perception and somewhat change my biased definition on what office politics are. I know that this book will be a valuable reference tool in the future. I still think office politics are bad words but I have come away from the book a bit more informed on the subject matter.
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Dictionary/Reference Word Count: 3
Grammatical Error Count: 2

[Jeff Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised at how much I liked this book and resonated with the advice it gave. Marie did well to contribute a counterbalance to the traditional negative connotation to the word “politics” as it pertains to navigating the complex web of work relationships around you. Her example stories were relatable, believable, and illustrative of the particular points she was making. The sections that focused on actions you should take were approachable and memorable.

My main drawback is that I felt she often left the reader with only one option in the face of political difficulty at work: to leave the company and find work elsewhere. Certainly, that is the best option in many of those situations she highlighted. However, I feel it wasn’t necessarily the only option available in other situations she highlighted. Regardless, I’m sure politically savvy folks will more accurately calculate leverage potential and make a good choice for themselves—especially after reading this book.

My main takeaways of the book mostly come from Part 1: focusing on leverage rather than fairness, accepting the “organizational facts of life,” and increasing results, knowledge, attitude, empathy, networks, inclusion, and detachment to increase your political leverage.

[Tony Rinella · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4 rounded down/ There is a lot to like in this book. She speaks at length about political intelligence, leverage and types of influence - all relevant to all tiers of the corporate hierarchy. Many of her feedback loops and strategies are worthy of consideration. However, I struggled because her goals were a bit too broad. She is leaning toward low-to-mid level managers with ambition to climb the ladder. She spends too much time reveling in the power of CEOs and subtle warnings about political suicide. While all topics were relevant to her premise, I only identified with perhaps 1/3 of the book. In any case, I did learn quite a bit in chapters that were focused on higher level management.

[Frida Rodelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tesis del libro: las organizaciones no son democracias; las organizaciones son injustas. Al navegar por la organización, la justicia importa poco, porque es subjetiva (lo que es justo para X, es injusto para Y). Lo verdaderamente importante desde esta perspectiva es tener ventajas situacionales (leverage), entender la política al interior de la organización y hacer política respetando ciertos principios de integridad. El abordaje es dinámico: el poder no es algo fijo, sino, como lo dije, dependiente de ventajas. Personas con diferente personalidad y estilos directivos van a interactuar y muchas veces seguir patrones comunes, muchas veces perniciosos, que todas conocemos. Los ejemplos son amplios, frecuentes e ilustrativos. Excelente libro.

[chsmiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book on office politics. I especially appreciated the discussion of leverage and power and how people with different work types might clash. A lot of the advice in the book is to either go with the flow or leave and get another position. There's not a lot on how to fight or change things if you're not in a position of power (and even if you are). I'd recommend this book if you want some insight into power dynamics within the office and things you can do to improve how you're perceived at work, get promotions, and work your way through the system. I wouldn't recommend if you're hoping to shake things up.

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

The topics covered in this book largely fall into two categories. First are invaluable perspectives that can completely alter the way you think about workplace dynamics and revolutionize your career. The second are common sense topics that aren't expanded on other than "in this example this employee is comically terrible at workplace relationships, don't be like them."

While the latter are unfortunately more frequent than I'd like the perspectives gained from the former are so valuable this book deserves a read for those alone. Be prepared there are some sections and topics that are largely worth skimming on rereads but the ones that are valuable are supremely valuable.

[Marcelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read

I enjoyed reading this book as Lord knows I have had my fair share of political issues. This book is truly an eye opener to how the politics in the corporate world works. We don't like it but the only way to win is to play the game for keeps. This book shows you how. Thanks to the Author for writing such a wonderful book. A shortcut to learning what to do which will save painful years of experience

[Vera Sim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love love this book. Recommended to me by a mentor at the workplace. It contains a ton of wisdom useful for budding professionals starting out in their careers. Being the naive and lowkey political idiot that I was (still am, a little bit), this was enlightening, especially because it came at a time when I felt lost and disheartened. Many examples were littered throughout the book which made for an engaging read.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of great practical advice for navigating office politics. Ultimately, I think it boils down to basics like don’t gossip or let negative emotions sabotage your goals. And be useful and dependable. Also try to think empathically and see things from the perspectives of others. For example, what goals they are trying to accomplish.

[Liu Peng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a great book to read if you want to have a happier and more successful work life

I’ve been having office life for a long time and figured that I still got some fundamental points wrong. This book is so helpful.

[Mohamad El Khatib · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book provides exactly as much as you expect it to provide, techniques to assess your situation, a framework to follow in order be a winner.

Just I can’t give it 5 stars as it did not impact me as much as 5 star books.
Yet it is crucial to be read.

[Krishna kamal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Playing Politics isn't dirty, it's necessary as it's everywhere even if you wish it or not. This book helps you deal all of it in a professional manner. I listened to this audiobook in audible. I recommend this to all professionals.

[HamizulHazrin Bin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bermanfaat

Kandungan buku ini sangat bagus dan memberi gambaran tentang dunia politik pejabat. Saya sebelum ni berasa politik pejabat ni suatu perkara yang negatif, tetapi buku ini telah merubah cara saya melihatnya. Kandungan yang praktikal, tidak teoritikal semata.

[Omar M. Khateeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as it was written with fantastic models and frameworks that you can apply to work to better assess your political power and address your areas needing improvement.

[Gabriel Perlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting perspective on the subject of Organizational Behavior.

[Binoy Chacko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish someone had given me this book earlier.