So let's take a look at some general approaches to improving your job situation.
A key to having a satisfying job is gaining the recognition and support of the political powers that affect your job. It is therefore important that you understand your job's political environment and learn how to handle it effectively.
At the start I want to emphasize that this process is playing politics effectively and not in a vicious or self-promoting way. Company politics has all kinds of nasty connotations, mostly given it by people who don't understand it or who don't cope well with it. At one extreme is the knifer-in-back. He or she soon develops such an antagonism within the organization that it becomes self-defeating. And the other extreme is the avoider. This is the individual who carefully skirts becoming involved, usually to his or her own detriment. In the middle is the effective executive who knows how to read the political chemistry of an organization and how to handle him/herself to get the job done as well as possible within it. There is nothing wrong or immoral in this. The person is merely realistic and sensitive to how key people react in roles that greatly affect his or her work.
Knowing who has the power is a key. Part of these results from the formal organization (the organization chart) and part is from the informal organization (the actual relationships that exist because of the individuals involved). To understand the informal relationships you must be observant. What roles do people really play? Who has the power in what committees? Who eats lunch regularly with whom? Who is involved in outside activities (for example, socializes, plays golf, and so on) with whom? They result from a variety of different things such as key individuals' information pipelines, seniority, personality, personal relationships (old friends, relatives, and the like).
If you later choose to look for another job outside, you will find you have a crucial need for evaluating the political relationships in any new organization you're considering. Believe me, it is difficult to evaluate this structure within a company in the course of perhaps only three or four interviews for a new job. Thus, a key factor in your future success will be the improvement of your skill in identifying the political relationships in your work environment and improving your effectiveness in working with them.
In evaluating the politics of your work environment, here are some key questions for you: What kinds of people are my bosses? What are their backgrounds? What are their personal goals? How do they live? What are their biases? Religious, social, and ethnic backgrounds can be terribly important. If you are in a company of WASPS and you're not one, your chances of long-term success can be quite limited. Answers to some of these are easy to get but others come only through observing and listening.
After you've identified the power-holders and learned what kind of people they are, you have to ask yourself a key question. Can you reasonably expect their support? If you cannot as you are currently behaving, is it reasonable to expect you can change enough to win their support? If it is unreasonable, should you decide to look elsewhere, or accept your current situation and prospects? We have already seen that a key to your success is how your boss, say, Jack Barnes, feels about you.
So you must understand the role that Barnes plays. In this evaluation consider not only your boss, but (depending on the organization) the surrounding hierarchy (Barnes's boss, influential peers, and so on). But the primary focus will be on your boss. Answer carefully the following questions: What is expected of Barnes (for example, job requirements, the pressures to perform)? What are his personal goals?
What are his basic biases?
Answer these questions to yourself in writing.
Basic to Barnes's feelings about you are how you help him do what's expected of him and what he wants done. Understanding his job requirements, his personal goals, and his personal biases will en able you to better grasp why he behaves the way he does. It may be that you don't like or agree with some of the things you identify. That will probably be the case. These are things you'll have to accept if you want to develop a more satisfactory relationship with him. It is desirable to get this understanding before you evaluate how he rates your performance.
