Raynier of lindaraynier.com guiding you

to a career and life you'll truly enjoy

and in today's video I'm going to share

with you four key strategies on how to

deal with difficult people at work and

office politics so that you can be

happier and more productive at work

without the drama

as a career strategist I've had the

honour of being able to help numerous

professionals land their dream job

offers and if this is something that

you're interested in working with me

one-on-one I can give you details about

that at the end of this video

as much as we don't want to believe that

office politics exists in many

workplaces unfortunately they do and it

comes with the territory of working in

most organizations so just to clarify

what our office politics now I'm sure

you have your own definition of what

office politics is but essentially the

apprentice is all about the idea of

using one's relationships one's

connections for their own personal game

meaning they there's a lot of schmoozing

happening there's a lot of side

conversations that are happening and

people are being able to get

opportunities are able to move ahead not

necessarily based on the quality of

their work but more so based on who they

know and who they've been able to

develop relationships with and so

there's a bit of favoring that happens

amongst the team's certain managers

prefer certain people over others and so

that creates drama and negativity and

gossip and so overall I would say that

that's what office politics most people

can agree with that's what it entails so

if you're someone who seems to be

struggling in an environment where

office politics seem to be rampant then

this video is for you

here are my four key strategies on how

to deal with office politics now before

I go into full detail into these

strategies the first thing I want you to

understand is the underlying message

behind all of them and that is in order

to truly navigate office politics

successfully you have to set yourself

apart setting yourself apart means

developing a strong personal brand and

when you can set yourself apart from

others in your organization and really

stand out from the crowd

what's going to happen is it's going to

give you an opportunity in space to

still continue to grow in your

organization and not get lost in the

drama strategy number one is to

demonstrate high value high quality work

daily a great way to stay away from

drama and conflict at the office is to

be a superstar at the work that you do

now why is that because

if you're known to be someone who

delivers consistently high quality work

then you'll be trusted by your managers

and senior managers to do your work

you'll be given more autonomy and

independence which means that you won't

be as closely intertwined and working

with those who like to stir up drama as

often because you're not going to be on

the same level as them essentially you

are physically setting yourself apart

from the rest of the crowd in a good way

so go ahead and start shining strategy

number two become the expert at your job

now this ties in to demonstrating high

quality work but part of navigating

office politics and making sure that

you're immune to it as much as possible

is to become someone who is

irreplaceable in your company ideally

what this means is that you want to

specialize in a certain area in your

company or organization that is crucial

to the business for example let's say

that you work in a large bank and you

happen to work in a specialized area

such as risk management compliance

social entrepreneurship or supply chain

management then you want to really know

the work that you do and you really want

to know that specialized area and become

the go-to expert or advisor or knowledge

champion in your company for this

specialization and this is all because

becoming the expert gives you immunity

from the drama

yet you still have opportunity to grow

in advance in your company because you

happen to be one of the very few key

employees in your organization who are

truly really needed because you're the

expert and so like I said you'll be

immune from the office politics immune

from the drama as much as you can be and

still be able to move up strategy number

three engage in important conflicts but

avoid the petty ones many people think

that avoiding office politics means you

have to avoid all types of conflict

entirely and just stay away from it but

actually I don't feel this is true if

you truly want to be someone who can

demonstrate your value your influence

your brand and your level of importance

in your organization then you can't go

into work every day covering your eyes

and ears there are two

types of conflicts professional ones and

personal ones I say that you should

engage in the professional conflicts

professional conflicts of course there

are a time and place for you to engage

in them but they're basically instances

where there are disagreements between

you and let's say your boss or someone

on your team on how certain processes

are being run if they're going to be

inefficient if they're costing the

company time and money if it hinders you

from being able to do your job in the

most effective way then those are the

types of professional conflicts that you

should stand up for you should politely

disagree with senior management if

they're making decisions that are

limiting you from being able to

successfully perform your job and that

have an overall negative impact on the

organization and its customers for

example let's just say that you work in

a bank and they are discussing a

potential new rule or policy that's

going to hinder you from really

successfully helping your customers in

an efficient way if that's the case then

feel free to raise your voice and make

your stance but don't make it sound as

though it's a complaint you have to have

a backed up evidence based solution on

what they can do differently and suggest

that so you're gonna politely disagree

but you're going to offer a solution as

well but you can see that these

professional conflicts are way different

from those petty personal conflicts that

a lot of people get into with their

co-workers you do not want to be around

those drama-filled employees stay away

from them and this leads me into

strategy number four which is stay away

from the stalkers but be friendly and

courteous so for example Suzy the office

gossiper even though you know that she

knows everything about everyone in the

office you don't necessarily have to

become enemies with her you could still

be friendly and courteous just don't get

too close to her or Joe the male version

of the female gossiper in the office he

likes to also talk a lot you can still

be friendly and courteous and polite but

just don't get too close to him either

the key here is that you still want to

be friendly courteous light and

to all your co-workers in your company

and if they decide that they want to

tell you things or ask you specific

types of questions want to try to find

out information just don't give it to

them just be very short and sweet with

your conversations and walk away so here

is an inspiring quote that I think wraps

up my message nicely you will never

influence the world by trying to be like

it so there you have it my four key

strategies on how to navigate office

politics and still get ahead in your

company without being tied to the drama

now if you're at a point in your career

where you're ready for a new move and

you've been trying to look but you

haven't landed many interviews or you

haven't landed the job offer you've been

wanting and you realize that you need

that one-on-one professional guidance

then feel free to reach out to me head

on over to lindaraynier.com/standoutgethired

read through my page fill

out the application form and if I think

that we're a match then either I or a

member of my team will reach out to you

directly if you like this video then

please give it a thumbs up subscribe

share it with your friends thank you so

much for watching and I will see you

next time