Do these situations sound like yours?

You’re successful — and feeling squashed by the growing political pressure. You climbed that corporate ladder with dignity and a sense of humor, and the title on your business card continues to give you a flush of pride when you read it. But the higher you climb, the more the political pressures rise. You’re wondering how much more you can take before you give in or go crazy.

You were resigned to the fact that every organization has its share of sleazy, underhanded players. You like your job, and know that you work for a reasonably ethical, responsible organization. But now the political nonsense is affecting your bottom line. You’ve got to deal with the players — without sinking to their level.

Your boss keeps biting your head off. You’re just trying to get things done as efficiently as possible, but instead you keep getting trapped in other people’s disagreements and stupid political games. All those books on leadership and communication don’t seem to apply to your situation, and you’ve gone past frustration into helplessness. You keep your head down and your mouth shut — and spend your days dreaming about a job serving decaf skim-milk lattes.

You’ve recently been promoted, or just changed jobs to a new and more challenging position. You’re excited and pleased and enjoying the added responsibility — and the added cash in your paycheck! But at night you lie awake, obsessively replaying the day in your head, wondering what you missed that’s going to blindside you tomorrow.

Someone’s going to get promoted, and this time, it’s going to be you. You missed out on the last opportunity because you didn’t want to toot your own horn. After all, isn’t good work supposed to speak for itself? Well, you learned better than that, thank you, but what you still don’t know is how to be yourself and get the promotion you’ve earned. And you really hate that little voice in your head that wonders if it’s time to play the game.

The politics at work make you sick. You’ve tried avoiding them, but then you feel your career grinding to a halt. You want to get along with everyone — you spend too much time in the office to deal with discord. How can you remain neutral and unscathed — and still get ahead?

My clients and workshop participants are

Managers and executives — mid-level, senior staff, and C-level executives.

Individual contributors who have been in the working world for five years or more.

People in a career transition from another field, such as academia, science, or non-profits, into the corporate world.

They come from a range of industries and backgrounds:

Technology
Finance
Insurance and re-insurance
Academia
Pharmaceutical
Psychology and human response research
Journalism
Environmental research and testing
Small business owners

Will this work for you?

My clients share some of these values:

You’re unique, and you prize your uniqueness as a key part of what makes you successful — and part of what gets you in trouble.

You try to keep a sense of humor in everything you do (though sometimes it’s hard!).

Making a difference is important — one person at a time, one smile at a time, or on a larger scale. You have thoughts about leaving a legacy, about how you want to be remembered.

You want to believe it’s possible to navigate corporate and personal politics without damaging others or yourself.

Your family and friends are an important part of your world (even when you don’t have the time you’d like to have to spend with them).

You want to continue to learn, grow, and develop. You want to be a leader, whether you have the title or not.

You’re enthusiastic and love being passionate about things in your life, even to the extent of having a collection of “soapboxes” — things you enjoy getting excited about.

If this feels like you, take a look at how your definition of office politics is affecting your career and your life by signing up for my free workbook, “The Five Deadly Shoulds of Office Politics that Maul, Mangle, and Murder Careers (and what to do about them).”

Wondering how it all works? Take a look at how it works.