The Secret Handshake

Play or Get off the Field

Are you an up-and-comer within your organization? Are you on the fast track to the top? You may think that you are, thanks to your stellar accomplishments, hard work and executive qualities. But if you lack political acumen and savvy, you are going nowhere. All the diligent labor and talent in the world will not take you to the senior executive level if you fail to capitalize on the power of organizational politics.

Too few executive positions exist within companies to make room at the top for all the capable people who want to lead. Your organization’s most senior executives must make difficult choices about who will eventually replace them. Invariably, they will select capable, talented, hard-working individuals. However those chosen few will be the ones who have figured out how to promote themselves better than the rest. This is politics in action.

Many people take a negative and often hostile view of politics. They view it as uncouth and unnecessary. However, this hostility is misplaced. In any social organization, politics – which leads to power – is the grease that gets things done. Fortunately, you can teach yourself to become...