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Chief Change Officer™
#214 Outsmarting Office Politics with Jennifer Selby Long – Part Two
00:26:10
Wish you could escape office politics? Bad news: they’re everywhere. From quiet power struggles to that one coworker who’s always “strategically networking” (a.k.a. stealing credit), navigating workplace dynamics can feel like a full-time job. Leadership expert Jennifer Selby Long joins me in this two-part series to break down the unspoken rules of office life, why toxic workplaces keep sucking people in, and how to take control without selling your soul.
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- [00:13]
Vince Chen
Hi everyone. Welcome to our show. Chief Change Officer, I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change. Progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today's guest is an old friend of her show, Jennifer Selby Long. Jennifer was with us in season three, episode seven and eight. In the last 30 years, Jennifer has been helping tech leaders navigate the waves of tech evolution, leading and managing organizational change. But leaders can't successfully drive organizational change without being a master of their own personal transformation. So last time Jennifer and I look into the natural process of personal change, we also talked about how to manage self doubt and self sabotage. Jennifer, welcome back to Chief Change Officer. At the end of our last conversation we talked about something that really resonates with everybody. How some people, when making career moves, leave a toxic boss or a harmful culture or an environment that is so vested in office politics only to find themselves in a similar situation at the new job. It's like running away from one problem only to land in another. That led us into a bordered discussion on toxic cultures and even the role of office politics play in these dynamics. We also touched on how some leaders or managers might unknowingly struggle with their personality disorders which can contribute to these environments. Today we are honing in on office politics specifically. Specifically, let's be real. Who hasn't faced them? Whether it's subtle power struggles or outright maneuvering is something everyone has encountered. Yet when I type office politics into Google, I don't find as much as I expected. Maybe the term isn't as trendy as. But that doesn't mean the problem isn't real or common. People might call it power dynamics, workplace dynamics, but the underlying issue is universal. Do you think having a hybrid work model might actually help help manage office politics? Or does it make things worse? On the one hand, with less in person interaction, people aren't constantly grouped together, which might reduce some of the tension that can build in close quarters. It creates a bit of balance. You're not always in the office, so those dynamics don't dominate your entire day. But on the other hand, there's the behind the scenes factor. Those who want to curry favor with the boss could still do it privately in ways others might not even notice. Is a different kind of poly ticking that could still cause issues just less visibly. I imagine researchers are already looking into this shift and its impact on workplace dynamics. What's your take on how hybrid or remote work influences office politics? Does it shift the balance or do you think human nature finds a Way to keep the same patterns alive, just in new formats.
- [05:24]
Jennifer Selby Long
Yeah, I think it's a great question because it is very much our current situation for many businesses. And I wish the answer were super simple. It's not quite as simple as I wish it were because it dug and a little bit on your situation. So in the hybrid work model, are people going into the office to just work on their own work? If so, I'm not sure you're going to get a huge benefit out of that in terms of lessening politics or political alliances because they're not really interacting that much. Nor do I think you're going to get, you know, much, much of the benefit of obviously of working on very complex problems together if you're not really there to work together. The other particular challenge of Clay Event is most of the clients that we work with are distributed not throughout one metropolitan area, but across the globe. And so, sure, if your team is largely local and you can get together fairly regularly with intention, with the purpose of working on complex problems, right. Coming to very challenging agreements together, sure, you want to do that in person, you are going to get a better result. But if your team is distributed around the globe, I would question how much significant benefit there would be to going into an office. You would all just be in different room. So I think you really have to look at being incredibly purposeful for when you get together and to work on the talk stuff when you are together and not just simply trust that the fact that you, that you can have a lunchtime conversation in and of itself is going to be enough. In fact, one of my clients is working on what they call more a sense of belonging or connectedness across their very global organization. And they're experimenting with all kinds of things to help build more of that personal trust. I'll let you know how those experiments go across time because this is a significant challenge. People who are lonely at work and don't feel connected, it's a big problem. It's a big problem in a lot of places. It causes a lot of additional problems. And from my point of view, it feeds notions of politics because there are people who feel connected and people who built benefit. And if you feel more connected, you're going to be more of an insider, right? You're going to have a more of an understanding of the political dynamic and the needs of other people. So I think that this is one we need to keep observing, assessing and experimenting with across time. It's a super new way to work. When you look at how very many years People work together in person, and it's really only been the last few where the majority do not work together in person.
- [08:28]
Vince Chen
When I worked in corporate, I collaborated with people across different locations. Hong Kong, London, Singapore, New York, Australia. All over the place. Remote collaboration was the norm for me, even without smartphones at the time. While the systems were to move, politics was always present, whether locally or at the headquarters. Decisions made at headquarters, often driven by power dynamics, would ripple out and affect us. In Asia Pacific Regional office, you brought up the idea of some people being immune to politically charged environments. But I've also observed another type, those who thrive in them. And here's where it gets frustrating. In many organizations, it's not the most skilled or high performing employees who stay. Often it's those who navigate all this politics best. I've seen this firsthand. Imagine you have three people, A, B and C. A and B are top performers, far better at their jobs than C. But somehow it's C who sticks around, while A and B either leave for better opportunities or squeezed out. Sometimes bosses prefer it that way because they don't want to feel threatened. Leaders may say they want to hire people smarter than them to push the organization forward, but in reality, jealousy, ego and sense of insecurity often get in the way. A boss might think, why should I keep someone who doesn't follow my orders, even if they are brilliant? Even when colleagues or clients sing the praises of these high performers, it can backfire. A boss who feels overshadowed might quietly engineer a way to push them out. The result? Talented, hardworking people leave feeling disillusioned and disengaged, while less capable colleagues remain. It's no wonder we hear terms like burnt out or disengagement tossed around. But at its core, it comes down to a lack of respect and recognition for those who truly contribute. This cycle is what I have observed and even experienced myself. Those who stay aren't always the best performers. They are often just the best at playing the game. Jennifer, what's your perspective on this dynamic? How do we address this to create fairer and more effective workplaces?
- [12:12]
Jennifer Selby Long
Yeah, and if you notice this pattern consistently with your boss, I would say this is where you do have to really step back and navigate for yourself. Go out into the future 10 or 20 years and look back on the current situation and ask yourself truly in your heart, what is most important here? Because in that situation, maybe there's one employee who has two little kids to support and they go, what's most important is I keep my dog for the kid and so I'm just gonna. I'm gonna stay. Right. Even though it means I'm gonna have to carry some of the workload for others and someone else might be in a situation where they're going. No, the most important thing is for me to go find an environment where the leadership is not threatened by me and where I can really flourish. I would never, as a coach, tell someone which of those choices is the right choice, because it's whatever is the right choice for you and what you need to do. Looking at your situation and looking hard. Because if you find a consistent pattern where the boss is just simply easily threatened by the stronger performers, that is what it is. Right. There is not necessarily a lot that you can do to influence that. Not in a real significant way. Not from where you sit as an employee.
- [13:42]
Vince Chen
Exactly. Office politics, as its core, isn't inherently good or bad. It is simply a reflection of human nature. In group dynamics, when people come together to work towards the goal, there's always an underlying assumption that everyone is aligned. But in reality, goals often clash. When priorities conflict, tensions arise. People start using alternative methods to advance their own objectives and agenda at the expense of others. Sometimes this is when things like backstabbing, badmouthing, or other manipulative behaviors emerge. It's not the politics itself that's the issue, but how it manifests. Pursuing individual agendas can erode trust and create a toxic environment. It's a cycle. One person's actions trigger another's defense mechanism, and before you know it, the focus shifts from collaboration to competition. Understanding this dynamic is key to addressing it. The question becomes, how do we redirect these energies back towards shared goals and healthier workplace relationships?
- [15:30]
Jennifer Selby Long
Yeah, absolutely. It's one of the reasons that I think it is so important for leaders to not just somehow think we aligned on our goals and now we just march forward. Because goals are pretty dynamic, right? And the different pressures that businesses are under change as markets change, as the geopolitical environment changes. You need to stay well synced up and well aligned as a leadership team, or you're going to be giving differing direction to the people who work for you. And then those people will find themselves at loggerheads and starting to do some infighting with one another, in part because you did not stay aligned at that higher level. And really also, I would say, of great significance to. To learn how to raise and address conflict in a way that was healthy and effective. Yeah, we could probably eliminate a good chunk of politics by just improving the ability to raise and resolve conflict in A healthy way.
- [16:38]
Vince Chen
Could you elaborate on the last point you just made?
- [16:42]
Jennifer Selby Long
Sure. I think that often when people get together to have conversations about business, about business or whatever it is that they're accountable for within a business, they talk about the goal, the path, the things that seem very concrete and hard and in a plan. And then when one person believes that one thing is true and another believes the other is true, they just start talking at each other instead of stepping back to say, wait a minute, it seems like we're in conflict here. How many times have people done that in the business environment? Pretty rare to step back and say, it seems that we're in conflict with each other. Let's step back, let's put ourselves in one another's shoes. Let's ask some more questions. Let's make sure we understand the situation. And I've had a number of early clients say, oh, I don't have time to do that. How much time are you wasting now on the political battles? Because you didn't step back and try to put yourself in the shoes of all of these other people and understand where they're coming from. Check to make sure you actually understand where they're coming from and what's driving them, because you're probably making some false assumptions about what that is. I can just about guarantee it. Are you stepping back to listen the areas where you're in agreement? Probably not. Most people don't. As you start to work through these things, differing dialing is another one. Oh, my gosh. I've had teams that were leadership teams season were just starting to backbite one another and get into a little bit of gamesmanship. And when we analyze the different season styles on the team, and we were able to step back objectively and look at that and say, can you come to some agreements on your behaviors? Because you all have naturally different styles. You're all coming in with naturally different assumptions about what it means to be on a team, what it means to communicate, what it means to commit. You all have different assumptions about what that looks like. And so stepping back to look at the style and do you have conflict that is really exacerbated by these different styles and the fact that you haven't talked about it out loud, You've just frustrated one another. So as you start to work your way through this checklist of things, eventually what you come down to is the substance of what you don't agree on. And from there, then you can start to work through what that is. But it's often quite small compared to what it looks like because people are not taking the time to raise and deal with conflict, it's exacerbates the politics in the situation. Right, because it feeds that lack of trust. And where you have a lack of trust, of course you're going to have more politics. You're going to have much more of those power battles where you have more trust. You're going to have less of that just because of human nature, at the.
- [19:46]
Vince Chen
End of the day, is about knowing yourself and being intentional in choosing the workplace culture that fits your character and values. If you thrive in office politics and it energizes you, a politically charged environment might suit you. But if that's not who you are, staying in such an environment could lead to frustration, burnout, disengagement, and lower productivity. For those feeling stuck, reflect on whether you can adapt without compromising your values. Ask yourself, does this place, does this environment truly support who I am and how I work best? If the answer is no, it might be time to move on to a place that aligns better with your strengths and allows you to grow. Change isn't just about living. It's about finding the right fit to thrive.
- [21:04]
Jennifer Selby Long
Yeah, you need to find the environment that is the best fit for you and for what you enjoy. I love your example of the person who said, yeah, we, we could probably be a lot more effective or successful if we had left from the political animal thing. But the reality was that was what that organization was like as, and he saw it. And so maybe that was not the right path. But maybe for someone who enjoyed that culture, it would be a great fit and they'd be pretty happy there. I do think what you said reminded me of some advice that is actually, it's not my own. It was from Martin Luther King's personal attorney, Clarence Jones, and he was part of the core group of activists who worked very closely with Dr. King. And I was super fortunate to hear him speak a number of years ago. Imagine your situation. They have figured out that their movement is never going to get what it needs if they do not get a powerful white man from the south to align and to become an advocate. And that's gotta be something that was pretty painful for them to realize. But the realization was there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. So what are your interests? What are theirs? In this case, they figured out that they needed a stakeholder who was a powerful white feather net. In your case, you might find that your personal interest and the personal interests of a firm that has that more intensely Competitive political culture are aligned or are not aligned, Right. What are your interests? What are their interests? When assessing the environment that you're in and the ones you're considering, get really clear on your own interests or values that are fundamentally unchanging and core your deep interests. Right? The deep things that are who you are, not the more superficial current interests, like I need to make this much money to, I don't know, pay my mortgage. The second thing he said is you will not prevail unless the powerful majority sees that what you want is also in their interest. And I do think sometimes what looks like intense politics is actually just misaligned interest. The powerful majority and your interests are not. They don't go together, Right. Looking at who stands to lose if you win, if it's a whole lot of people, that's going to be a highly political environment, right? But if you can help those people to not lose money, to not lose face, to not lose. If, if you prevail, if you can find a way that it could make it a win or a benefit to, to at least some degree for everyone involved, particularly if you're in a leadership role that could give you a wonderful outcome where you don't have to make a dramatic change. What can you offer to these upcoming folks? How can you align what you want with their interests and vice versa? And I will say sometimes the best outcome involves someone getting what they want, even if they don't deserve it, if it still gives you the outcome that you want. And to use sort of your painful example, if you leave because your boss was particularly unfair to you, they might get what they want and they don't deserve it, but they get the headcount reduction that you would say they don't deserve. But just try to let it go if it gets you the outcome that you want. If you, what you really want is to move on to somewhere else and identify, you absolutely must identify the strongest ally from the powerful majority and make him or her a leader. And whatever your cause is, if you're going to stay because you don't want to stay and be constantly feeling like you're swimming upstream and can't win, you've got to find your strongest ally and get that person a leader in what it is that you want there. You actually can read my summary of Parents Jones's talk on our website. If you just go to selbygroot.com and you search for politics. Really, I thought one of the most interesting and powerful speakers I've ever heard in terms of connecting that deep personal passion and desire with just that practical reality of politics.
- [25:40]
Vince Chen
Thank you so much for joining us today. If you like what you heard, don't forget, subscribe to our show. Leave us top rated reviews. Check out our website and follow me on social media. I'm this Chen, your ambitious human host. Until next time, take care.