Great at Work: The Hidden Habits of Top Performers

by Morten T. Hansen

STOP PLAYING POLITICS Office politics can undermine unity: People scuttle team decisions if those decisions conflict with their own selfish agendas. But as our study found, participants who scored high on “she/he goes to great lengths to eliminate politics that would prevent a decision from being implemented” performed much better (the correlation was 0.61). To stop playing politics and forge unity, try the following: • Don’t second-guess team decisions that go against your personal interests (avoid that hallway chatter, “I’m not sure we should be doing that . . .”). • Don’t appeal a team decision that conflicts with your personal agenda to higher-ups. Accept it and move on. • Clarify with your boss any conflict that may exist between your individual goals and a team goal (“I can’t spend 100 percent of my time selling insurance when the new team goal requires me to help sell mortgages, too . . .”) • Send an email declaring your support to the team. “I am on board.” • Do one thing—fast—that shows you’re implementing the decision, even if it goes against your interests (“I’ve already set up the meeting with the supplier . . .”) • Confront a colleague who’s playing politics: “We made the decision, stop second-guessing . . . let’s go and do it!”