If you are constantly at the receiving end of office politics , its time you need to pay attention to some key facts that can help you unstuck from your career stagnation.

Step 1 : Define what is your challenge ?

and if it is something like this

Challenge: You may excel at your tasks but feel frustrated by how promotions, visibility, or recognition often seem to depend on office politics. This can leave you feeling stuck or overlooked.

Step 2 : having defined your present problem, you now need to take 2 steps back and

a– look inward at your own level of self awareness in regards to your behavior ,mindset and performance at work.

b– take an objective review of who holds the power at workspace( remember, it is not always your boss or bosses boss that’s calling the shots)

Step 3 : Recall the most recent incident or event that has you involved in it either in a very positive way or in not so pleasant way ( example; a conflict, a presentation gone wrong, a client feedback blown out of proportion or anything else)

Now,

that you have written down and completed all the 3 steps in a sequence.

Let me share an example of the same 3 steps, with its results of a client who goes by the name of Rita.

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Rita was wearing a thick emotional mask pretending as if everything was all fine , while her frustration knew no bound with two of her colleagues and a department head of a different function ,all of them who were with her in a common project. She was overlooked for the promotion the third time and was demotivated to the core.

Her self-analysis revealed the needy side of her, as a people pleaser who would go on appeasing people for no real need of it, her venting was known to all and therefore the feedback she had for her difficult colleague was well known to everyone in the office.

But as soon as she took effort to read the power distribution by being more mindful and investing in with other colleagues to understand the background and context of the “difficult colleagues”, the new awareness brought her lot of information and enough reasons to analyze the infinite “Why’s” she had in her head. And then review of a recent conflict with the same difficult colleague gave her more inputs about her perception and blind spots.

These 3 steps were completed in a span of 7-8 sessions spread across two months, and towards of the end of it, Rita has now transformed from frustrated needy employee to a confident leader, these three steps gave her a new dimension to think and act accordingly.

None of us are born politically savvy nor is it always easy to read the unspoken rules of power at office space, but when one finds oneself struggling through it, use these three steps which can pull you out to the surface to look at the same issue with a different dimension.

More power to you.

© Mehnaz Amjad 2017-2025

Mehnaz Amjad | Coach
Hyderabad, India