Office politics exist and you cannot run away from it.  From the first day of your career to the last day in your office before you retire, office politics will affect you. Your performance at work, your relationship with your peers and even the future of the company could be determined by office politics.

Employees will always have to deal with office politics since it will mold their career.  Running away from office politics may appear good but it will never make you stand out which is bad for your career. Office politics should be taken head on with the right strategy so that it can be used for career advancement.

Your ability to handle office politics will practically make or break your career. There are people who will experience pressure because of office politics. Some would crack at pressure which usually result in career-ending while others have been virtually flawless in handling pressure.

Aside from pressure, office politics can even make you a subject for discrimination – it is not race or belief but because you are on the “other side” which means you are a part of another group in the office. These are just simple scenarios that you should deal within office politics. You have to know how to deal with them just to survive.

Specific Actions in Handling Office Politics

• Speak Last – Office politics can be very nasty especially with the bickering. Hold your tongue until everyone has spoken. It is often very tempting to fight back with words but the sooner you react, the faster you lose.

Even if you tend to be on the right side, you have to listen to everyone to make sure you will be speaking the right words. You can show your leadership ability by being able to wrap things up and prevent another word war from brewing.

• Always Think Before You Act – You have to make sure that you are aware of your actions and you have thought about your actions before actually doing it. The key word here is “always” – that means you should never let anything slip.

Disaster in office politics will need only one slip. Everything that you have done to prevent this type of disaster from happening will just go down the drain. It is very challenging that you should be aware of your actions and make it right all the  time, this is the best way to deal with politics and emerge as a leader.

• Absolutely No Favorites – Even though one party is correct, you just cannot go to them and tell the other group that they are wrong and should be penalized. You have to stand in the middle and let them talk to each other.

A leader should only be standing in the middle as everyone will try to sort things out on their own. If you go with one side, you are alienating other key members of the company. Make it a point to listen to everyone and speak last.

Face office politics without hesitation and use it to show your leadership skills in such a way that you will be rewarded with promotion.