At the end of Part 1 of this two-part column on office politics, I noted that this was a BIG topic, thus the need for Part 2 to address several additional important topics. If you missed Part 1, here’s the link.
Our starting point in Part 1, summing up quickly, is that developing political skills is essential to your career. Quoting the title of a Harvard Business Review article by an expert on this topic, Niven Postma, “You Can’t Sit Out Politics.” Political skills are learned. You get better with practice, and you can do internal politics well for the good of all—and yourself. And you can do this ethically. Authentically. The article focused on core political skills to develop over the course of your career and negative political behaviors to avoid.
In this second part, I will share the insights gleaned from my panel of experts on two additional questions. The first question addressed learning the politics of a new organization (or team or function) that you have just joined. The second is how to ensure you don’t make political mistakes when you join a new company as a result of relying solely on your existing political skills.
For both Parts 1 and 2, I had my original panel of super experts: two CAEs, a Big 4 IT audit partner, a CISO, two IT audit directors, a top financial services regulator, and a technology executive in the AI space. Joining the group for Part 2 are a Big 4 senior manager, an IT audit manager and a senior data analyst. All of them have provided perspectives from their experiences working at a multiplicity of companies and clients across a broad swath of industries.
Let’s dive into the first question with the advice summarized and a few key quotes.
Question 1: As an experienced professional, when you are joining a new organization, what do you do to learn the political culture and style?
- Take notes. Do that for a minimum of three months or more, depending on your level.
- Pay attention to what is said in meetings; in email; in Slack messages. What is left unsaid? Read between the lines.
- Ask questions. In the early days, there are typically no “stupid” questions. Later on, people will just expect you to know!
- Determine what’s important to your boss and to your boss’ boss.
- Study the organizational chart to understand the basis of formal relationships, hierarchies, and potential allies, competitors, and adversaries to you, to your boss, to your team.
- Read the press releases your company puts out. They contain overt and subtle messages about vision, strategy, wins, and problems—all of which can inform you as to how stakeholders may respond to you or your work, and the strategies you’ll want to use to drive success for your initiatives.
- Figure out who are your customers—internal and external. And, who are your vendors—internal and external.
- Network across the organization.
- Find mentors or trusted advisors higher up who can fill you in.
- Be proactive about getting to know key people by setting up actual meetings. Face-to-face is the most effective way to do this.
- Demonstrate your curiosity and genuine interest in learning about what people in other areas do.
- Even in companies that say they aren’t hierarchical (often start-ups and tech sector companies), there is usually an inherent pecking order. Determine that early on. This is especially important in situations where you find you have multiple bosses. You need to know who you really have to satisfy.
Cool quotes:
“Read the room! That’s part of being observant and knowing when, and even better, when NOT, to contribute something because the audience may not be receptive. I’ve seen audit closing meetings where someone is fighting for their job, a cornered animal comes with their claws out. If the vibe of the room seems difficult, it’s time to take a break, table things, stall. You do that because you’ve read the room.” –Global IT audit director
“Early on in a new job, I focus on learning the concerns and priorities of my boss – and of my boss’ boss. I internalize that and use it as a compass for my work. I also use that information to paint a picture of the culture and style of my team and function. Once I have that picture, I work on understanding the formal structure of the organization.” –Big 4 senior manager
“Networking is huge to learning the culture. Cast your seeds broadly and water them from time to time. Even 10-15 minutes of face time helps you grow those relationships. I often say ‘Hey, I am really curious about what you do here so I can be better at my job.’ With that as an ice-breaker you are making buddies and contacts that will help in the long-run.” –IT audit director
“When I moved from Big 4 Advisory to industry, I had no insight into how they did things or what had been done previously, it was all new. Some fake it until you make it, but I advise against that. Pretending or faking it will come off inauthentic and pretentious. Instead, observe, ask questions, and focus on delivering quality insights and deliverables to better establish credibility. Look at old work papers. Understand people and relationships. And if you can, find someone trustworthy who can fill you in on the past relationships and things to be careful about.” –IT audit manager
When your company is acquired… it’s like joining a new company
This point was made by one of the panelists, and it’s a really good one to bear in mind. She noted that when her US company was bought by a large Asian company, the style of internal politics shifted, reflecting the culture of the acquiring company. There was the obvious change in tone at the top. It also became clear that the senior leaders from the new parent company expected communication upward through the chain of command. This took conscious adjustment given that communication had been more free-flowing and less hierarchical before the acquisition.
For internal audit, another change was the amount of pushback coming from teams that were largely populated by folks from the acquiring company, where the leaders of those teams were from the acquired company. It took a lot of dialog and political skill on the part of the audit leaders to get the assistance they needed from those stakeholders. The panelist noted that an important part of her political skill set in this tough integration scenario was influencing through consistent messaging and focusing on “we are all one company, we are working towards the same goals.”
Question 2: How do you avoid staying wedded to your old political style? How do you shift your mindset so you can learn and adapt to the political style of your new company (team or function)?
Humans are creatures of habit. Once we learn and get comfortable with a particular way of doing things, changing that can be a challenge. At work, political style is typically intrinsic to the work culture, and if we are successful in learning it, it becomes part of our toolset, and to some extent, even a part of our “work identity.” It’s very hard to stop using a tool or to put it on hold; even harder to put aside a part of what had become our style or identity in our past role.
The key pieces of advice from the panel were:
- Avoid saying “At my old company we did it this way.”
- Keep yourself flexible and in the learner mindset.
- Ask lots of questions.
- Update and adapt your political playbook as you learn.
Cool quotes:
“I had a lot to learn coming from Big 4 into industry. Things are constantly in flux. You have to keep adapting to your new environment. And not only when you change companies because companies frequently change strategy and technology is ever evolving. You have to be agile and able to switch whether its internal politics, market changes, new technology—like AI, or new risks.” –IT audit manager
“First, going to a new place, be humble—no matter what your role. Forget about showboating. Approach the situation with curiosity instead of putting your head down and applying what you know from your old organization. I tell myself, ‘Even though you think you know what is going on, before you start breaking these things, take your time and understand what’s going on with the organization, how was this original thing created?’ That takes time.” –Big 4 senior manager
“You have to call out to yourself: New environment, new rules. You have to learn again. If you think you are not the person who goes out for drinks after work, maybe you need to. Or maybe the happy hour was your ace in the hole, and you realize that your new company doesn’t operate like that. You have to figure out what they DO do and how those informal channels work.” –Senior tech exec, AI
“My early career was in the military. Working through the chain of command was a given. So was doing your job properly because that could be a life-or-death matter. During my four years of service, that style of professional conduct was thoroughly ingrained. After I finished my undergrad degree, I joined a tech start up as a data analyst. I quickly learned that following chain of command was not the prescribed way of doing things. I struggled with what I viewed as people not doing their assigned jobs. I was creating data analyses and dashboards, and there were loads of missing or wrongly entered data. The folks responsible for inputting the data didn’t see this new task as part of their jobs. Given the culture, it wasn’t really possible to escalate up the chain of command. Initially this was frustrating. It took stepping back and resetting, realizing how things actually work at the company. And it required a lot of learning how to influence people and socialize the new processes and technology to get the teams responsible for data entry invested as stakeholders—their bosses too. In a word, I had to develop political skills that were very new for me.” –Senior data analyst
A valuable add-on: global dexterity
For digital trust professionals, working with diverse teams is practically a given. Many companies are decentralized regionally, nationally and globally. Most companies have vendors and co-source teams that reside in other countries. Projects might take one to another part of the world where very different cultural and internal political norms apply. And, even if one is not physically traveling, working successfully with stakeholders, customers and vendors requires cultural sensitivity and understanding.
Dr. Andy Molinksy, a professor of Organizational Behavior and International Management at Brandeis University, writes in his 2013 Harvard Business Review article, “It’s not only the differences that most people need to understand to be effective in foreign cultural interactions: It’s global dexterity, the ability to adapt or shift behavior in light of these cultural differences. And that’s something that’s often easier said than done.”
Bottom line: The diverse and international nature of digital trust work calls out the absolute necessity of being adept at observing, learning and applying all the political skills that we’ve been discussing in this two-part Career Corner column.
2024 is just around the corner. These skills, together with the entire suite of soft skills that make digital trust professionals successful, are worth prioritizing as you plan your career development and training for the year ahead! Be sure to check out this excellent article from @ISACA on soft skills, “Five Ways for Digital Trust Professionals to Improve Soft Skills.”
Signing off for now!
First, a sincere thank you to my fantastic panel of experts for your time and valuable input in service of the ISACA global community. You all know who you are!
Secondly, announcing that I am stepping away from writing a monthly Career Corner column. My career coaching work is ramping up another step and I am making time for that while seeking a to harmonize my work and life—something I have written about in this column!
Huge thanks to YOU, the readers in the global ISACA community, for your contributions, feedback, and engagement with the Career Corner. It has been such a great adventure and a privilege to bring these columns to you.
Many thanks to Jay Schwab, Senior Communications Manager for Content, ISACA, for his ever-energized and wise editorial guidance.
It’s the end of the year, and a time when the world needs inspiration and compassion from all of us. I’d like to leave you with a column from November 2022 about the power of generosity. May it be yours to share and receive all through the coming year!