Management level politics are very different from individual contributor politics. As an individual contributor, you can generally stay clear of office politics altogether if you wish. You can just keep your head down and do your work. Politics at the individual contributor level tend to be mostly related to:
- Who gets the best office (or cube)
- Who learns the newest technology
- Who gets the best projects
- Who doesn’t get their sales region cut
Simply said, individual contributor politics are about you and your stuff.
Moving from being an individual contributor to a manager is like moving from being single to being married. Now it’s not all about just you. Yes, it’s still a little about you. But now, it’s also about your spouse or your team. As a manager, your ability to play the political game not only affects you, but it also affects the people in your department.
Your politics are still primarily with your peers, but now your peers are the other managers. You will find that your manager peer group is much better at office politics than the individual contributors you used to compete with. You will also find that you will still be fighting for some of the same things, like office space, projects, sales territory and the like, but they will be at the department level, rather than on an individual basis. There will also now, however, be new manager-level politics in areas such as:
- Who works on which company-wide initiatives
- How next year’s budget dollars are divided across departments
- Which department gets to hire additional people
- Whose team member gets recognition for outstanding work at the annual company picnic
- Who becomes be the new manager when two groups are merged
You may also find that some politics go away. For example, within the business analysis group, politics at the individual contributor level, revolve around who gets the best projects. As the department manager, by default, you get all the projects. The politicking regarding specific project-related work is now under you. It’s now your staff who will be politicking you to get the assignments they most desire.
Many people think of office politics as always being negative, and something to be avoided. Well, sometimes they are, or at a minimum, expend unneeded energy that could be better spent on company initiatives. Sometimes, however, manager-level politics are actually good for you and/or your department and you should seek to participate. Like it or not, manager-level politics can help you get:
- The resources your team needs to maximize productivity
- Exciting new projects, recognition, promotions, salary raises, and/or bonuses for members of your team
- Permission to hire additional staff so your current team members won’t be overworked
- Personal recognition, promotion, salary raises, and/or bonuses
