Handling Office Politics

Fighting The Good Fight: How To Advocate For The Office, Create Value, And Get The Things You Want, And Even Get A Raise!

A White Paper for a Professional Development Course by Dana Harris

Course Overview

All workplaces have their unwritten rules, informal networks, and tangled human relationships. Instead of running from those truths, this course helps you leverage both office politics, integrity and savvy. You'll figure out how to create real professional relationships, navigate the dynamics of any Organisation, and save your career, while staying true to yourself.

This isn't about manipulation or gaming, it's about building the emotional intelligence and strategic thinking that it takes to succeed in any workplace. If you are experiencing challenging co-workers, and would like to inject your voice in the room, or if you want to advance your career, ethically and honestly, then this course offers you practical tools to succeed.

Curriculum Based Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

Scrutinise the organisational power lines, and go identify the informal key influencers and decision makers apart from the formal pyramid's structure

Build genuine business connections based on values and goals

Use well known techniques to resolve conflicts in the workplace with dignity

Show how you are able to pull forward, and push upward, the bureaucracy of a large corporate environment (eg. polite argument, presenting ideas, etc.)

Apply protective measures against poisonous political climates, documentation and escalation steps included

Read nonverbal communication and the work environment to develop situational awareness

Develop individual plans of action to implement for establishing support networks in their work environments

What You Will Learn

Module 1: Exploring your workplace terrain

Find out how to recognise the true decision makers and influencers in your Organisation. See how to read the unwritten rules of culture, the dynamics of power, and the informal networks that shape workplace decisions.

Module 2: Creating an Authentic Professional Network

Learn this craft of authentic networking that provides worthy returns on both ends. Learn how to best relate to all these layers of an Organisation without feeling inauthentic or like you're trying to take advantage of a situation.

Module 3: Working With Workplace Drama and Challenging Personalities

Again, learn to avoid the common drama and rumours and people that make things hard whilst remaining professional. Get tips for setting boundaries and defending your name in tough situations.

Module 4: Mastering Upward Management

Discover how to effectively handle your relationship with managers, from learning to disagree respectfully, to getting buy in for your ideas. Earn credibility and trust with the upper echelon.

Module 5: What the Blurb Doesn't Say

Develop your capacity to read between the lines by learning to read unspoken messages in workplace interactions. Develop a gut feel for sensing subterranean animosities and unwritten bylaws.

Module 6: How to Protect Yourself in Toxic Environments

Identify when office politics turn toxic, and how to protect yourself. Learn documentation skills, escalation protocol, and how to take care of yourself within a difficult workplace culture.

Module 7, How to develop your #1 device: Your Personal Navigation System!

Create your own custom workplace politics strategy based on your values and professional desires. Learn how to make authentic connections and look out for your own career.

Course Delivery Methods

This ambulatory care provider education programme integrates hands on workshops, actual case studies, role playing opportunities, and peer discussions. Participants conduct hands on work such as Organisation mapping and personal strategic planning exercises.

You are assessed:, through group projects,, office survey projects,, and an individual strategic action plan assignment that can be taken back to work immediately.

Summary

This very class orients office politics as no longer a source of stress, but the set of professional skills. You will learn tangible tools for building career advancing relationships, how to navigate workplace challenges, and how to achieve your goals with integrity.

The series is designed to give you the confidence to be who you really are, whilst strategically navigating the professional landscape. You'll walk away with actionable tactics to translate your political knowledge into professional success with a focus on doing great work whilst building a career you can be proud of.

And most importantly, you'll see that mastering office politics isn't about selling out, it's about being prepared to succeed in the social complexity of the workplace. Now you can focus on what really counts achieving great results and enjoying your professional career.

To enhance your understanding of workplace relationships and develop these critical professional skills, this comprehensive training programme provides you with the tools needed to navigate any organisational environment successfully.