Step Up or Step Back: Navigating Workplace Politics

Ashley W. Dugger

Prior to my transition into HR management, I spent a year running operations for a local animal shelter. Surprisingly, there are a lot of similarities between the world of animal rescue and the world of talent management and HR. Resource guarding? Check. Pairing different personalities for successful outcomes? Check. Limited resources with unlimited tasks and goals? Check and check. 

When we look at the dynamics of our work teams, there are so many competing personalities, communication styles, goals, and work ethics. Add to that the realities that everyone is being asked to do more with fewer resources, and office politics can easily move from the background to the foreground of our daily office lives, impacting our daily productivity, sense of employee satisfaction, engagement, creativity, and retention. 

HR professionals play a dual role: they not only have to be comfortable navigating workplace politics themselves, but also support other employees and leaders as they all navigate the workplace political landscape themselves. 

Many organizational cultures don’t want to acknowledge workplace politics because so often we seek to avoid conflict – but avoiding the topic doesn’t mean it isn’t a part of our day-to-day experience. At the root of workplace politics is that we are all humans with different emotions, communication and work preferences, and goals. 

Once we better understand the working political dynamics at our organizations, then we can more successfully navigate those structures to build trust with stakeholders, ensure we are seen as credible activists in our roles, and better understand when to step up or step back in tricky situations. Self-awareness, transparency, collaboration, trust, and rapport are all key tools needed for navigating workplace politics.

Have you ever brought in a “backup squad” of those with political clout at work to help move a project along, get support from other key stakeholders, or dedicate necessary resources? If so, you’ve positively used workplace politics! When politics become self-serving, toxic, one sided, harassing, or critical to the point of disengagement of employees – this all falls into the negative bucket and should be avoided. 

Knowing with whom and in which situations to “step up or step back” comes with time and confidence. As we grow into our roles and build our networks, we naturally tend to become more comfortable standing up or pushing back. We also tend to be more open to making mistakes, building resilience for when we don’t make the best decisions, and more engaged in contributing to the organizational culture. 

Not every situation is one you have to “win.” Part gut instinct, part lessons learned from prior experiences – you must judge each situation independently to know when to push a bit harder and when to let it go! Is the short- and long-term impact of stepping up to a situation involving workplace politics worth the potential hit you may take to your reputation, your stakeholder collaboration, or project productivity? Sometimes it is, and sometimes it can be a better decision to navigate workplace politics by letting some arguments slide. 

Who are the players involved? You must consider the other stakeholders in the conversation and decisions – how does it impact their team, their reputations, their resources? Do they have the backing from other key players in the workplace political scene? Are you more focused on winning the argument by stepping up, or is there a genuine business case you feel strongly about that impacts the employees and business outcomes and deserves to be fought for? 

You won’t always make the right decisions. Sometimes you might push harder on a situation where maybe the best choice would have been to step back. Knowing how to move on from those situations and move forward with lessons learned for next time is key. 

Above all—whether you decide to ultimately step up or step back in a situation—professional, respectful, confident communication is critical. Employees, leaders, teammates – they are all watching you as you step up or step back, and watching how you handle those interactions (and the aftermath!) as an HR professional. This also gives you both the formal and informal opportunity to make your workplace positive, transparent, open to debate, and eliminate those “untouchable” topics to get around barriers to success.

As we take the time to better understand existing workplace culture and relationships, we can engage in ways that build stronger relationships and higher levels of trust, and shift workplace politics from something with a negative connotation to something that we can utilize positively for successful outcomes and impact. 

Credible trust can only get us so far – when we also build emotional and relational trust through how we interact with and treat others, combined with being credible in our roles, this is where the ultimate armor to navigate workplace politics comes from! When others engaging in these situations with you know you are transparent, ethical, and respectful, you will find that most are more willing to meet in the middle in the stickier situations than if you have not taken the time to build those relationships that are so critical for navigating workplace politics for success.