There are few things that make an engineer’s guts churn like corporate politics. Let’s face it, engineers are pretty rational people for the most part. We like decisions that are made by reason and facts, not emotion or politics. But the reality of all enterprise-scale organizations is that politics play a part in the decision-making process at least some of the time. And that of course, irks us. While we understand that we will never find a politics-free workplace, we strive to find and maintain one where the politics are minimal.

This aversion to politics makes engineers great at their jobs. However, there is a small and key aspect to this aversion that makes them suffer. I’m going to address that in this article. My goal is not to turn engineers into cunning political masterminds, but instead to provide enough insight into the political world to keep us and our awesome ideas from getting overlooked in the political landscape.

Have a killer idea that isn’t seeing the light of day? Ready for a promotion, but you are the only one that thinks so? See a risk in the organization that really needs attention? Here’s your formula for success:

1. Map the political terrain. Politics is all about power: who has it and how do they wield it. It’s easy to assume that power is all at the top, and all you have to do is follow the chain of command in your hierarchy. That is, however, not the reality. You can’t read an org chart to figure this one out. Every organization is different. Due to personalities, relationships, tenure, and many other factors, power can be all over the place on an org chart. Finding the key influencers for decision-making takes observation, savviness, and time. Talk to people in-the-know to help you map it out. You don’t need to be covert about this. Just ask for insight on how decisions are made and who are the key influencers. Ask a number of people, as there are always numerous angles to consider.
2. Build a coalition. Engineers often like to fly under the radar, but that doesn’t work for organizational politics. Success takes a team of allies. This is where networking inside an organization is required ground-work. See my previous blog article for everything you need to know about that. Get to know people and become known yourself. With your knowledge of the political terrain, befriend influential and like-minded people in your network.
3. Do favors. This one needs plenty of clarification. This isn’t quid pro quo, scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. I don’t recommend doing favors with the notion that you will ever “cash it in” because someone “owes you.” This is more of a pay-it-forward concept. Do favors for people in your coalition. Be generous. Be genuine. Help someone else get their idea off the ground before you ask anyone to help you. Contribute to someone else’s goal. This is serious stuff and its time consuming. If you are like most, you already have tons of deadlines and a mountainous inbox, so how can you find time to help someone else? Well, if you want to succeed politically, I highly recommend you make the time. It’s that important.
4. Work on your elevator speech. I’m sure most of you are familiar with the term, but in case you aren’t, you need to learn how to communicate your ideas clearly and quickly. Very quickly. You never know when you might be sharing an elevator ride with a key influencer that you’ve identified on your political map. That’s your opportunity and you have to be ready to speak. Talk casually and confidently in the vernacular of the listener. I can’t tell you how many elevator speech opportunities I’ve missed because I didn’t have my elevator speech ready, or my confidence up. Instead I just stood there and looked at my feet. A little preparation and confidence can make a big difference.
5. Make it someone else’s idea. Sometimes we like to come out of the chute explaining our solution. That’s not always effective because our target audience may not understand the problem like we do, and they certainly haven’t spent the time thinking about it like we have, so you need to bring them along on the journey. This is an especially important tactic when dealing with a potentially conflicting person. The goal of this activity is to completely avoid the us vs. them conflict. Instead, set it up so that you and the other party are both figuratively on the same side of the table looking at the problem on the other side of the table. Bring that person along on the problem-solving journey. If you do this correctly, your key influencer will come to the same conclusion you did, and they may even think it was their idea in the first place. While that may be humbling from a credit-standpoint, it’s actually great because the key influencer will more energetically champion the cause if they come up with it.
6. The meeting after the meeting. Have you ever been in a meeting where some crazy idea is discussed but no one challenges it during the meeting? You know what happens next. Everyone filters out into the hallway and starts yakking about how crazy and stupid the idea in meeting was. Don’t be the type of person that leads one of those meetings. How do you avoid that? Easy. Read the room and get people talking. As engineers we love our ideas so much, it’s like they are our children. They aren’t. They are just ideas. They might be bad ideas. Get some honest feedback during the meeting when you are present, so there doesn’t have to be a meeting after the meeting where you aren’t present.
7. The meeting before the meeting. This is an important preparatory step in the decision-making process. Let’s just say you’ve followed all of the above steps and it’s earned you a meeting with decision-makers to pitch your idea. You are nervous as heck. You didn’t sleep the night before, and your stomach is quivering. This is because the success or failure of your idea depends on how well you present. This is not a good tactic and can be avoided. Meet with the key influencers in the meeting one-on-one before the meeting. Don’t give them a formal presentation, but just a conversational overview of the main points. They will give you valuable feedback. Hopefully they will give you their support. The goal of these one-on-one meetings is to get key buy-in beforehand. This takes the pressure off for the big presentation and makes it more of a formality to codify the decision.

Those are my tips for navigating the political landscape. Don’t be overly political. No one likes that. Instead, be just political enough to gain influence and be proactive. Be yourself. Well, be a slightly more politically-astute version of yourself. Have thoughts or comments? Please post them below!

Want to read more? Some of what I learned came from Survival of the Savvy: High-Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success by Rick Brandon Ph.D. and Marty Seldman Ph.D.