Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Are you cut out for office politics?

by Personnel Today 30 Jan 2001
by Personnel Today 30 Jan 2001

Do
you have what it takes to be a political success at work? Dr Brian Baxter,
senior partner, Kiddy and Partners offers you this chance to test yourself.
Give yourself one point for each question to which you can answer
"yes" then tot up the total and see our scoring guide below.

A
Ten indicators of a clear personal power-base

1.
Have you unique/specialist/obscure, but very important technical knowledge which other people need from you?

2.
Does everyone else in your team regard
you as a friend
in whom they can confide?

3.
Do you know something about your manager
that no-one else knows and s/he would rather it stayed that way?

4.
Have you got a letter of another job
offer
from a rival company, or regularly receive calls from head-hunters in
working hours – and your manager knows this?

5.
Are you known to be related (however
distantly) to the Chairman/Chief
Executive
of your organisation (and, even better, known to spend family
weekends together)?

6.
Do you have a more interesting
partner/house/car/social life/academic or career background than your manager –
and they know this?

7.
In meetings, can you demonstrate a specific range of well managed facial expressions while your managers or others are
talking – i.e. eager sycophancy/polite interest/wry amusement/laconic
resignation/deep boredom/incredulous astonishment/white anger? – If you can do
all these simultaneously you get a special bonus point.

8.
Do you adopt the moral high ground
and talk about people’s feelings and values when others are banging on about
facts and figures?

9.
Are you able to acquire more workspace/better plants/nicer chair/window
view/more powerful computer than your peers?

10.
Do the Directors/members of the Board know your name – or better still
actually stop and talk to you?

B
Ten indicators for effective power-through-knowledge-management skills

1.
Do you know who to speak to privately to get the low-down on the Board’s latest decisions?

2.
Can you get your hands on the senior
management’s monthly reports
on the business – and know how to use them
without actually acknowledging that you’ve seen them?

3.
Do you go outside to join the smokers/hang around vending machines/linger over
the photocopier to tap into the
grapevine
?

4.
Do you know the birthdays of
everyone around you?

5.
Are you on everyone’s “copy to” internal
e-mail lists?

6.
Do you operate a policy of selective,
even random, delivery of information
to your colleagues/boss (give too much
information all the time and you bore your colleagues; give no information and
you become dispensable; infrequent gems keeps them wanting more)?

7.
Do people come to you for inside information before they go to your boss
(or even after they’ve been to your boss)?

8.
Do you use (selectively) up to date management jargon and can reference two
or three important but obscure management gurus to name drop at key points in
meetings?

9.
Are you able to appear to talk knowledgeably yet discreetly about the
latest activities of your competitors/customers/suppliers?

10.
Do other teams/departments in your company invite you – and only you – to sit
in on their meetings to benefit them with your knowledge and wisdom?

SCORING

20
points: You are a Member of Parliament with a day job in business

15-19
points: Brilliant – you are a Machiavelli among the masses

10-14
points: Pretty good – you’ll survive

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

5-9
point: Are you spending too much time working?

Less
than 5 points: You probably have a personal hygiene problem.

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
NHS in crisis
next post
Brixton prison officers facing disciplinary proceedings

You may also like

Forward features list 2025 – submitting content to...

23 Nov 2024

Features list 2021 – submitting content to Personnel...

1 Sep 2020

Large firms have no plans to bring all...

26 Aug 2020

A typical work-from-home lunch: crisps

24 Aug 2020

Occupational health on the coronavirus frontline – ‘I...

21 Aug 2020

Occupational Health & Wellbeing research round-up: August 2020

7 Aug 2020

Acas: Redundancy related enquiries surge 160%

5 Aug 2020

Coronavirus: lockdown ‘phase two’ may bring added headaches...

17 Jul 2020

Unemployment to top 4 million as workers come...

15 Jul 2020

Over 1,000 UK redundancies expected at G4S Cash...

14 Jul 2020

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+