Leaders Letter 206 - The 8 Actionable Ways To Improve Your Political Intelligence

How Knowing Who Is Playing The Game & When They Are Playing Against You Will Help You To Excel

Dear leaders, you will have noticed I reference playing the game or what I call PQ (Political Intelligence) several times throughout the 205 leaders letters. 

PQ Is Everywhere

PQ comes up in meetings, always in mentoring sessions, it is always a talking point over coffee with industry peers and is frequently discussed when I am coaching, whether that's CEOs, founders, COOs, Marketing and Product leaders, we are all impacted. 

Almost everyone hates the fact you have to play the game and those who opt out often lose. 

There were 3 moments in my career where game-playing made a lasting impact 

1. In the earlier days of my career in my first week at a new role, a senior leader sent an email to the whole of the company, calling me out and criticising my slowness to react, I was gobsmacked and went straight into his office and addressed his approach.
   The second order effort as he took over the budget from me on a campaign and burnt a whole month’s spend in 6 hours… - let’s call that a draw

2. In the middle of my career - One of the founders of a company I worked at was trying to remove one of the other co-founders and demanded I support them in their efforts or I’d loss my role. It was a ruthless battle and took months to play through and there wasn’t a winner - another draw

3. I was told verbally I would be gaining a promotion and it was used against me by the person in the role and it rippled through the senior leadership team. The person who told me verbally backed off and suggested I was making a move which wasn’t the case - ultimately a win for the person suggesting I was being promoted, not so much for me and my former colleague.

Danny “Wise Up”

At a turning point over a decade ago, my former mentor told me it was time to wise up

“Being an executive is hard work, it is constant work, it takes smarts and getting used to conflicts, it is, however, executive work”. 

This is one of many reasons why I love coaching and consulting with companies, the chance to help and address imbalances is something that gives me energy. 

The Game Plays With Or Without You 

You can always decide to opt out but you have to remember the game keeps playing even when you declare you are out and often you declare it will be fodder. 

This week is a dedicated post on understanding the 8 simple steps to take to be more politically savvy and know the game(s) you are playing and not always leading to hating the other players.  

1. Start Small - start by creating an overview, map out how decisions are made and see who holds the official & unofficial power. Who influences how things get moving? Create a simple 5-step plan to understand how official power holders make decisions, what they are driven by and how you connect into the system. Then tackle unofficial power holders and influencers  

2. Build Strong C-Suite Relationships - Your peers can be your best friends or can feel like your biggest enemies. Your peers will semi-support you or criticise you (you have likely experienced this publically in leadership meetings or away from your ears behind your back, on Slack and in 1-2-1s), build these relationships and help your team(s) leads to do the same.
   A big hint; the CFO or FD is often the person who ultimately says yes or no, so definitely make a real effort to build a relationship with them  

3. Understand The Leadership Landscape - understand who makes the decisions, who influences them (is it the COO, CFO, CPO, HR etc), what drives their choices and decisions, what causes celebration (targets hit, staying within budget, becoming internally or externally famous etc) and what creates fear and chaos in the business. By understanding the dynamics of the C-Suite and the real role of HR, “get” the leadership landscape and you can start to positively influence it 

4. Understand What Wins The Internal Battles - is it passion? Is it departmental performance? Is it who is willing to step up? Who battles hardest? Who doesn’t step back from the battle? Who battles the smartest? Or is it who’s trusted by the CEO/founder? Get under the hood and work this out to play well with others and sway battles towards success   

5. Create Communication Flow - On many C-Suites and leadership teams it can feel disorganised, the most organised or the most operationally savvy tend to lead the communication flow and actions for others. If you can be savvy and improve communications and the actions of others it’s an easy way and a long-term victory 

6. Always Connect To The MIM & Company Goals - you have to demonstrate whether you are a Product leader, Marketing leader or Tech leader how the work you are working on ladders up into the company goals and the MIM (the most important metric). You must do this to show you are a driver of success and you will struggle to have considerable influence or have any sway with your peers or on the company. If you are struggling to make an impact consider how you collaborate to improve these goals or how you make that big step change into showing your department is the force in your business. 

7. Money Follows Attention, Then Performance - if you are not grabbing the right attention, investment into your budget will not follow. When you are asking for more budget without the right attention budgets won’t be unlocked, performance is the carrot you have to dangle, however, often attention is the big unbreakable stick that wins first and wins out budget battles. Be better at grabbing the right attention and buy-in from colleagues and ensuring performance is there to back it up. 

8. Remember: Large Teams + “Poor Performance" = Distrust & Becomes An Easy Target - When you are seen to have a large team (this is especially true for Marketing leaders) you are often told you have a large team/department and then an easy target while peers question where the performance is? By connecting back to the goals, and celebrating cross-functional wins you are building more trust and becoming less of a target. Product leaders and Marketing leaders are often reminded of their cost centres and will be first when performance drops or slows to cut headcount and prove their value. 

I have spoken to headteachers/principals, soldiers, professional athletes, entrepreneurs and successful company leaders and although all rank and file roles, they all agree you have to play the game to be more successful…

There are no short-term hacks, and no TLDR for being more politically savvy but being more informed and understanding who is playing, when and how will set you up for more success and often will enable you to identify how your peers and your team members often will create a target on your back and go for said target. 

Will you start playing the game now? Or will you play more effectively? 

Thanks and have a good weekend, 

Danny Denhard