The political change

Today, I am going to reflect on the outcome of the mini questionnaire on which thought frame is my personal weakness. I have found out that I am weak at the political frame, due to my strength in being very symbolic. So I thought to myself, how am I going to improve my political frame, at work.

Over the last 6 months, I have had three different direct reports. All have less qualifications but more experience than I do. The transparency of the appointments by my executive manager has been nil, as there is no formal process of applications and interviews, it is just emailed announcements of the changes. So I thought, “ how am I going to become a team leader, if there is no formal process to go through?” Then the answer became clear, I have to work on my political frame at the office.

At the moment my executive manager works on a different floor than where I work. Which has always been my assumption, that she doesn’t see or hear what I do. The communication from my director is one way, down from her to us. The only way to talk back up to her is to go through our line manager, which will be filtered to his/her agenda. So how am I going to build a more fluid communication relationship with the director?

The first article I found was the “Three Ways Women Can Make Office Politics Work for Them” by Jill Flynn, Kathryn Heath, and Mary Davis Holt.