303 Secrets of Workplace Politics

Are you Skip to the Details:
How To Orderhaving your butt handed to you in workplace politics? Is every other day a tense, anxious, angry misery as you watch people around you, who couldn't even think their way through a game of Jacks, win at workplace politics and steal the credit and glory for just about everyone's best work including yours?

In my own experience, and in working with clients in my consulting and coaching practices, I've learned a lot about the tactics and strategies of workplace politics. I've packed the best and most useful of it into 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics, in a compact, accessible format that reads easily and clearly.

This tip book lays out the common ploys people use in workplace politics. It tells you what to watch out for, and how to deal with it. You can read it straight through, every once in a while, or use it as a reference.

Originally published in August 2005 as 101 Secrets of Workplace Politics, this ebook has just been revised and expanded from 5100 words to more than 28,000 words, to include many more insights, secrets, tips and ideas. It is now 124% bigger than Who Moved My Cheese.

Some sample tips

Here's a sample:

"Rick Brenner's 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics offers bite-sized yet profound insight into the motivations behind people's behaviors at work and how to work with what's really going on. It's a great pick-me-up after a hard day at work or even right in the middle when things are hard and you need a new idea about how to approach it all. Thanks, Rick, for all of the work you do in this world. It makes a difference." — Sam T.Credit theft is lowbrow

Credit theft is the trademark of the unsophisticated (and greedy) operator. He or she might look powerful, but it's probably an illusion.

Embrace Change

Change creates turbulence, and turbulence creates opportunities. Stability is for those who want to play a defensive game, and in today's environment, defense is not where you want to be.

Be funny when you want to be

Humor can make the difference between confrontation and collaboration. If you aren't funny, you can learn; if you're already funny, take care to use your talent sparingly and at the right times.

Know that workplace politics isn't a game

Sometimes we talk about "playing the game," but thinking of politics that way is self-destructive. Workplace politics isn't a game.

Skill in managing organizational politics is helpful to managers who must compete with others for resources, but it's also helpful to project managers. For instance, anyone who wants to resume or restart a paused project will quickly recognize that political skill is critical success factor.

Table of contents

Here's a chapter-by-chapter summary of what you'll find in this book.

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Comments from readers

From Sam T.:

Rick Brenner's 303 Secrets of Workplace Politics offers bite-sized yet profound insight into the motivations behind people's behaviors at work and how to work with what's really going on. It's a great pick-me-up after a hard day at work or even right in the middle when things are hard and you need a new idea about how to approach it all. Thanks, Rick, for all of the work you do in this world. It makes a difference.

An anonymous reader:

Very well written and easily digested. Be prepared for an eye-opening revelation which is what you call your work experience. The different facets of the material is a tremendous reality check to gauge where you are…and where you are going in the organization. The author comes highly recommended and he bears some serious credentials. Another extremely helpful tool in your toolbox for positively and constructively navigating the turbulent sea known as organizational politics.

Carol Elliott

Rick's insights offer an unusual combination of an engineer's mind and a psychologist's intuition. Rick has helped me zero in on my own true and others' possible motivations in the workplace and keep me focused on who I really am and what I aspire to be.

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