Working in some office environments is similar to reality TV, where participants are pitted against each other for survival of the cunning.

If you work in an organizational culture where gossip and rumors run rampant, how can you navigate your way through it and thrive?

In one sense, gossip is a natural human endeavor because it plays into our desire to belong to a group with similar interests and share stories. That’s the good side…and it’s rarely—if ever—as simple as that.

The dark side of gossip involves the seductive power of negative news, especially tempting when it involves people we know. It’s like a train wreck: We’re unable to avert our eyes, knowing full well that we’ll be forever changed if we continue to stare at it.

We’re curious to know the gory details about others—an inclination that helps us discern friend versus foe in the workplace. But gossipers have personal agendas, and they rarely adhere to facts. Instead, they seek to influence us by delivering biased and often false messages.

Once their words are unleashed, it’s difficult to “un-ring the bell,” especially if you haven’t had time to confront the reality, facts or person. Meanwhile, an individual’s reputation has been tainted—perhaps permanently.

Unless you’re careful, you can turn into one five types of gossipers.

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• The Newbie
• The Stick-in-the-Mud
• The Sponge
• The Gossiper-in-Training
• The Neutralizer

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Office Gossip: How to Survive and Thrive

Some executives  are uncomfortable using power or office politics, viewing them as the dark side of workplace behavior. They believe morale and commitment erode when politics dominate the environment.

But research clearly shows that being politically savvy and building a power base pay off.

Sources of Influence

There are three sources of influence in an organization: positional, relational and personal:

1. Positional power: Your title and job status confer some level of formal authority.
2. Relationships: Informal power stems from the relationships and alliances you form with others. If you do a favor for someone, the law of reciprocity impacts your relationship.
3. Personal: Some people generate influence based on their knowledge, expertise, technical competencies and ability to articulate ideas or a vision that others will follow. Your communication skills, charisma and trustworthiness help determine your personal power.

Open to Influence

Executives and managers who are open to peers’ and subordinates’ input garner greater respect than those who resist others’ influence. An openness to influence demonstrates trust and respect, which become reciprocal and contagious.

You can offer goods and services to a potential ally in exchange for cooperation: technical assistance, information, lease of space or equipment, a plum assignment and the like. Understanding what others want or value is crucial.

Avoiding Power

Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and author of Power: Why Some People Have It—And Others Don’t, cites three barriers that cause executives to shy away from using power to extend their influence.

This article examines three ways people avoid power, why power is so important to success, persuasion tactics, and practical steps for leveraging office politics in an ethical manner.

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• Sources of Power
• Open to Influence
• Currencies of Exchange
• Power without Authority
• Avoiding Power
• Fair Play?
• Persuasion
• Office Politics

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Power, Politics, and Persuasion
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Even with a solid foundation of good moral values, no one is immune to making unethical choices.

Ethical slips and traps are rampant, from telling white lies that protect a friend, to ignoring a gut feeling and following orders when we know better.

Not a month goes by without some highly publicized ethical scandal. Be it tax evasion, executive pay excesses, sexual dalliances and outright fraud, many individuals are simply unable to resist temptation.

Does this make the perpetrators corrupt sociopaths?

Sometimes, but usually not.

They’re often leaders and pillars of the community, and their actions leave us shaking our heads and wondering what were they thinking.

The sad truth? No one is immune. Cheating isn’t limited to those in positions of power. While power is certainly fraught with opportunities and temptations, each of us faces daily choices that involve doing the right — or wrong — thing.

Only when a CEO, politician, celebrity or sports legend gets caught does the problem rise to front-page news. Just ask Tiger Woods.

But the same ethical traps lie in your path. Even the little guys transgress. Often, people feel an urge to cheat — a strange pull to try to get away with something. Sometimes it’s small; other times it’s scandalous. Sometimes it matters; other times it goes unnoticed.

What exactly happens inside our heads when we choose to violate our ethical standards? Do we lose sight of what’s right? Do we take the easy way out? Are we driven to win at any price? Are we attracted to our “dark side”?

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• Ethical Roots
• The Brain Science of Traps
• Four Basic Tribal Drives
• The Ethical Stage
  
• Root Causes of Traps
• Primary Traps
• A Study of Business Ethics
• 12  Questions for Examining the Ethics of a Business Decision

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We need a better way to evaluate our business leaders, assert James O’Toole and Warren Bennis in a recent Harvard Business Review article (“A Culture of Candor,” June 2009). It’s no longer prudent to judge American corporate leaders’ performance solely on the extent to which they create wealth for investors.

Moving forward, a new metric is proposed: the extent to which executives create organizations that are economically, ethically and socially sustainable.

The short-term thinking that Wall Street typically rewards no longer seems wise. Are these new ideals too much to strive for? Will they be forgotten once profits return?

Unless corporations extend their thinking and strategies beyond short-term profits, they will miss crucial opportunities and find themselves unable to survive a rapidly changing environment.

Wise leaders must recognize that increased transparency is a fundamental first step to accomplishing the tasks required for economic, ethic and social sustainability, Bennis and O’Toole conclude.

The standard business definition of transparency usually means full disclosure of financial information to investors. But such a narrow interpretation produces an unhealthy focus on legal compliance, which usually means over concern with “the letter of the law” to the exclusion of others’ needs.

Inside and Out

Broadly defined, transparency should mean the degree to which information flows freely within an organization, among managers and employees, and outward to stakeholders.

A company cannot be transparent to its shareholders without first being transparent to its workforce.

A January 2009 Harvard Business Review survey revealed that, over the last year, readers reported having 76% less trust in U.S. companies’ senior management and 51% less trust in non-U.S. companies. (Of the 1,000+ respondents, 60% were based outside the United States.)
That’s a significant drop in confidence levels.

Roughly half of all managers don’t trust their leaders. Exact figures and study results vary, but no data compiled over the last 7 years have shown more than 50% trust for company leaders.

Companies that foster a culture of transparency and trust clearly have a competitive advantage for sustainable success.

Companies cannot innovate or rapidly respond to new challenges unless all employees have access to relevant, timely and valid information.

Easier Said Than Done

The obvious question remains: Why wouldn’t companies promote openness and a free flow of information?

Several issues seem to arise:

• Can people communicate upward and do so honestly?
• Are teams capable of challenging their own assumptions?
• Can boards of directors communicate important messages to company leadership?

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Inside and Out
Easier Said Than Done
Knowledge Is Power
7 Steps to Transparency
1. Tell the Truth
2. Encourage People to Speak Truth to Power
3. Reward Contrarians
4. Practice Having Unpleasant Conversations
5. Diversify Information Sources
6. Admit Mistakes
7. Build Organizational Support for Transparency
Board Vigilance
Trust
Transparent Communications

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The fact that the phrase “going postal” has become common workplace jargon is
a significant commentary. While workplace murders and assaults are in the media,
far more frequent are incidents of bullying and intimidation.

Often it is accepted as poor management style: an overbearing boss or supervisor
yells out orders and makes snide remarks to belittle those who do not perform
quickly enough. More often it occurs between co-workers in subtle but malicious
forms of gossiping, back-stabbing, rumor-spreading, deviousness and work
sabotage.

Workplace bullying includes all types of interpersonal harassment and
discrimination. Some are blatantly illegal, as when there are sexual or racial
overtones, but most are not.

Incivility at work hurts a company’s bottom line. It is estimated that
aggression in the workplace caused some 500,000 workers to miss 1,751,000 work
days annually or 3.5 days per incident.This loss of working days equates to $55
million in lost wages.

Unfortunately, few workplaces can be called psychologically healthy.

Practicing respect in the workplace and eliminating bullying changes a whole
company. Production and efficiency goes up, morale improves and profits soar.

Important concepts covered in the full, 2,000-word article:

Top 10 Acts of Workplace Bullying
Bullies and the Bottom Line
Who Bullies and Who is a Typical Victim?
Facts about Workplace Violence
Suggested Steps for Dealing with Bullies
Resources on Bullying

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“Without work all life goes rotten- but when work is soulless, life stifles and dies.” – Albert Camus

Recently there has been discussion among consultants, business owners and CEOs
about the search for soul in the workplace. While most agree that religion is
not an appropriate topic to approach at work, leaders are examining the role of
true meaning and purpose in the corporation, both on an organizational and
individual level.

Tom Peters, Stephen Covey and Warren Bennis have joined the discussion. A search
of the literature and the Internet reveals new books on the subject of bringing
heart and soul to business. Stephen Covey says there is a “spiritual renaissance
taking place in the business world today.”

At the same time that corporate leaders are searching to discover ways to ignite
commitment and performance, people working at all levels are seeking to find
true meaning in what they do. There is a struggle to find what engages one at
work at the deepest level.

The nature of work is changing in our world today. Job security is gone. The
rapidly changing job environment causes many of us to ask ourselves questions
such as, “What is the true meaning or purpose in my work?”

A group of CEO’s of fast-growing technology companies were asked, “What will be
the greatest challenge facing your organization five years from now?” More than
half responded with something like, “We will be struggling with how to re-ignite
commitment and help people find meaning in their work.”

It is no longer sufficient to have a job; many people are seeking a fuller life
at work, one that is consistent with the larger focus of their lives. These
ideas are now seen as a vital component of workplace satisfaction, which in turn
affects performance and productivity.

Important concepts covered in the full, 2,000-word article:

How Life at Work is Like a Marriage
Fulfilling Essential Human Needs
The Language of Fulfillment and Meaning at Work
How You Can Awaken Your Sense of Meaning at Work
How the Organization Can Find True Meaning for Itself
Four Paths for Finding True Meaning at Work
A List of Resources about Meaning at Work

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Everyone knows that when people feel good, they work better, are more
creative and more productive. The ability to inspire positive feelings in others
is a key leadership quality. Good feelings are like lubrication to the brain -
mental efficiency goes up, memory is sharpened, people can understand directions
and make better decisions.

The challenge for leaders is obtaining a balance between worker’s feeling good,
having satisfying relationships, and keeping the focus on performance goals. The
ability of a leader to foster group enthusiasm can determine its success.
Conversely, emotional conflicts in a group take time, attention and energy away
from shared tasks and performance suffers.

Executive coaching can help a leader communicate feelings that are realistic and
authentic, maintain positive emotions in the face of stressful challenges, and
inspire energy and enthusiasm. Acquiring realistic optimism and improving one’s
Attributional Style can help a leader discover how to do this. Improving one’s
conscious awareness of Attributional Style and common attributional errors will
increase one’s ability to experience and sustain positive emotions.

Research shows that for every 1 percent improvement in the service climate,
there’s a 2 percent increase in revenue. According to Goleman, Boyatzis and
McKee in Primal Leadership (2002), how people feel about working at a company
can account for 20 to 30 percent of business performance.

Important concepts covered in the full 2,200 word article:

How Emotions are Contagious in the Workplace
People Work Better when Feeling Good
The Importance of Being Optimistic – and the Pitfalls
What is Attributional Style?
What are Attributional Errors?
The Power of Positive Psychology:
Authentic Happiness
A List of Resources on Positive Emotions

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