How to deal with office politics

Like them or not, office politics are present in every business. The day there's an office without them is the day people will see cats flying aeroplanes - in other words, it's not coming. But rather than resign themselves to being cheated and manipulated, EAs can learn to play the game without sacrificing their integrity. Here are couple of tips how.

Understand where power lies, formally and informally

Politics in the office are the same as politics in the real world - they are jostlings of people within power structures. It's quite likely that, in your office, your Executive sits at the top of the power pyramid. You, as their assistant, are likely near the pointy end too. As unfortunate as it may sound, that can sometimes put you in the crosshairs of those with less power than yourself. While trust in your co-workers is important, you can't ignore the realities of some people only looking out for themselves.

Understand who sits where in both the formal hierarchical structure (if there is one) as well as the informal influence network (which almost certainly exists and may not correlate with the former). Having this knowledge will be especially valuable for knowing who to approach to get things done, as well as who to be suspicious of.

Don't sink beneath your position

A well known saying argues you should never wrestle a pig in the mud, because you'll both get dirty but the pig will like it. This applies to office politics extremely well. Playing the game should never come at the expense of sacrificing your professionalism. Reputations are hard earned and easily lost - don't lose yours by getting sucked into petty games you don't need to.

Want to remember something better? Read it aloud

There's an important document your Executive wants you to read and then tell them what it contains - what's the best way to remember all the details? A new study suggests that reading it aloud may be a useful strategy.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo tested four methods for trying to remember information from a given text - reading silently, hearing someone else read aloud, listening to a recording of yourself reading aloud, and reading aloud in real time. Reading aloud in real time came out on top.

"This study confirms that learning and memory benefit from active involvement," said Colin MacLeod, one of the study's authors. "When we add an active measure or a production element to a word, that word becomes more distinct in long-term memory, and hence more memorable."

This is known as the 'production effect' - the boost in retention that comes as a result of the both reading aloud and hearing yourself do so. This is a strategy most people stumble upon when attempting to learn a presentation or speech. Reading it aloud and performing it etches the words into your brain in a way that reading or writing can't.

Want to be a master of self improvement? Seek critical feedback

Imagine a novice basketball player trying to shoot hoops blindfolded and earmuffed. Each time she took a shot, she had no idea whether or not the ball went in. It's not difficult to see that such a player would struggle to improve, no matter how many shots she threw. Why? Because she's been denied a crucial piece of feedback that tells her if she's doing the skill well - whether or not the ball goes through the hoop. Without that, she cannot tell whether minor variations in her technique are for the better or the worse.

The similar story can be told of EAs that don't receive any critical feedback. How are you supposed to know if you are doing things well if you're never told? But while feedback relies on other people telling you what they think of your performance, you yourself have to take responsibility for making them comfortable sharing that information with you. Here are a few tips on how.

Foster trust

You want the person giving you feedback to trust that they can be critical without you taking it personally. Often the reason criticism is withheld is simple politeness - nobody wants to hurt someone's feelings for no reason. Showing that you are willing to listen to whatever it is they have to say without judging them will take you a long way towards healthier working relationships.

Make it an accepted routine

Encourage others within your office to seek critical feedback as well. By making it something everyone does, the activity shifts from the personal to the professional - it's no longer just one person listening and all others speaking. Everyone will have feedback for everyone, which should make the process both more honest and legitimate.

How to set (and stick to) a New Year's resolution

The New Year is a great time to give yourself a fresh start. As the year drags on, things we wanted to do can fall by the wayside, and professional goals we had set for ourselves are left unfulfilled. The New Year's resolution is arbitrary for sure (the days in one year are the same as those in the next), but the advantage is it gives you a solid anchor in time on which to tie your resolution.

So, what makes a good resolution?

1. Define your resolution clearly

Define your resolution in a way that's it's clear and measurable. It doesn't necessarily need to be quantifiable, but you do need to be able to tell if you've reached your goal. "Be more successful" is, while a valuable goal, almost worthless if you don't define what that means. More money? Better performance reviews or feedback from your Executive? If you can't identify and measure whether you're making progress, your motivation is sure to diminish.

2. Ensure actionable steps

This follows on from the previous point. To make progress on a goal, you have to identify the steps you need to take to do so. If you can't do this, it's perhaps worth redefining your resolution to one where actionable steps are possible.

3. Consider using StikK

If you want to make sticking to your resolution even easier, you could use an app like StickK.

The process is simple. You sign up for an account and outline the goal you want to achieve. Then the motivational part comes in - you enter your credit card details and choose an amount to be charged if you fail to meet your goals. You can also choose the beneficiary of this amount, be it one of the charities they have listed or a political group that you'd feel guilty giving money too. The idea is to make the consequences of not 'sticking' to your goals concrete, which can greatly help when you feel your self-control slipping.

An efficient email experiment

Email is like the troll that you can never banish. Just when you think you're at inbox zero, something else pops in and ruins your clean slate. EAs are extremely susceptible to this, what with all the communicating and organising they have to do. A novel solution by a magazine editor, however, may be worth a try.

James Hamblin writes and edits for the American magazine 'The Atlantic'. He outlined what he saw as a way to tame the beast that is the ever-growing inbox.

1. Cut the greeting: forget "Hey", "hello" and "Good morning" - these are all hangovers from the days of written letters that can be lost.
2. Lose the signoff: As with hellos goes goodbyes - "Cheers", "Kind regards" et cetera can all be nixed in favour of blank space, or if that's too harsh, your name.
3. Three sentences maximum: A good email should require no more than three sentences to get to the point. Any more, and you should pick up the phone or go and talk in person.

Hamblin argues that while emails in this style may come off as rude, they're actually the opposite because they show that you respect your interlocutor's valuable time. Whether other people see it that way is a question you'll have to find the answer to yourself.

Overcoming the fear of failure

Nothing holds people back from their goals quite like the fear of not achieving them. As a busy EA in the modern world, you always need to be upskilling and improving yourself. But what are you to do if fear, anxiety and procrastination are holding you back from getting started?

Identify the cause

What is it exactly that you're afraid of? Is there a specific scenario you can see playing in your head? Or just a general feeling of dread that sweeps over you every time you think about doing the task? Like a monster under the bed, sometimes just looking for the thing you fear can make it disappear.

Confront reality

A useful question to ask yourself is "what's the worst that could happen?" Often the fear comes from a judgement that the potential consequences of failure are not worth the risk of trying. But is your estimation of those consequences and their likelihood correct? You may well find that, on closer inspection, the thing you thought would happen for sure is quite unlikely and the worst consequences are actually not that bad.

Accept failure as inevitable

Learning to walk is one of those things everyone masters eventually. But when we all first started, we failed miserably, over and over again. Imagine if a baby said to itself "I'm not even going to try walking because I'll just fall over and look stupid." That would be ridiculous. Failure is part of the journey towards skill mastery. Don't be ashamed of it - embracing it is the only way forward.