Navigating Organizational Politics as a Senior Leader

Course details

Navigating organizational politics may seem like a distraction from your job, but if you’re in a senior leadership position, politics largely is your job. In this course, organizational politics expert Niven Postma teaches you how to successfully navigate organizational politics at the senior leadership level. You'll learn about the 6Ps of political intelligence, how to make decisions about political trade-offs, deliver performance outcomes to increase your political capital, prioritize and nurture strategic partnership, and boost social influence to get things done. Plus, Niven details the role reputation plays in developing political capital, and explains how you should choose your political battles.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Navigate organizational politics

1. Political Intelligence for the Modern Workplace

02 - The 6 Ps of political intelligence

2. Performance and Political Leverage

03 - Strong performance increases political clout
04 - Case study - An executive who changed her definition of performance and, in the process, improved her political clout

3. Partnerships and Political Leverage

05 - Developing effective partnerships
06 - Human-centered political savvy
07 - Case study - How prioritizing strategic relationships allowed this executive to build a wide political network

4. Power, Influence, and Political Leverage

08 - Power and getting things done
09 - Social influence and political capital
10 - Case study - Making a serious power mistake

5. Perception Management and Political Leverage

11 - Actively manage your reputation
12 - Case study - How building, and then losing, his reputation doesn t bode well for this leader

6. Picking Your Political Battles

13 - Navigating difficult political situations
14 - Case study - Not knowing which political battles are worth fighting

7. Making Decisions about Political Trade-Offs

15 - Making political trade-offs
16 - Case study - Making values-driven political trade-offs

Conclusion - Continuing to Build Your Political Will and Skill

17 - Become the politically savvy senior leader you want to be - and that your team needs you to be