Almost every workplace has some form of office politics and organizational politics. They exist because of the human propensity for power, ego, influence and competition. Office politics can sometimes create healthy competitiveness (rather than competition) among employees. Taken positively, it is an opportunity for the stronger and more resilient employees to rise above themselves. “Survival of the fittest” has never been more relevant than in a place with office politics. Taken negatively, however, it could disrupt harmony and cohesion. If everyone works for themselves, then the organisation ultimately suffers from lack of a common goal. Office politics can also get brutal and life-threatening, for instance the impact of vicious rumours, back-stabbing, withholding crucial information to intentionally create failure. This course discusses the inevitability of office politics and offers tips to employees to better manage it with a leader mindset. When the going gets tough, the tough needs to get going.

Objective

Upon completing this training, participants will:

• Understand why office politics happen
• Manage office politics from a leadership perspective
• Avoid the negative effects of office politics
• Use office politics to one's advantage

Outline

Office politics is part of the workplace landscape
• Explain the human psyche behind office politics
• Reframe behaviours based on motivation (why?)

Interpretation of roles
• Understand politics situations from “roles” (KPI, job scope, etc.)
• Reframing one’s question, suggestion and directive from the receiving party’s perspective

Managing office politics from different axes of power
• Peers
• Subject matter experts
• Difficult (or clueless) stakeholders
• Subordinates
• Superiors and senior management

Who should attend

• Anyone who works with human beings

Methodology

Plenty of class exercises and practice after each lesson learnt. There will be many diverse situations and case studies to be discussed openly, from role playing to videos. Participants will be put through rigorous situations to manage and will be tested on words and phrases used as well as tone of voice. Participants will learn from their own mistakes throughout the training. Participants will also bring their own unique situations from their own workplace for discussion in class.

Joseph Wong's Profile

Corporate Storyteller

Joseph spent 36 years at Standard Chartered Bank managing traditional and innovative banking spanning Retail, Wholesale, Commercial banking, Marketing, Business Re-engineering, ISO9001 accreditation, Process Management, Sales Management, Communication, Micro-learning not just in Singapore but globally.

When he left his banking career in 2015, he was Director of the Wholesale Banking Proposal Management team that responded to Requests for Proposals (RFPs) in Cash Management, Trade Management and Securities Services businesses and developing training programmes in Digital Learning. He planned, designed and created bite-sized (micro) learning to complement classroom learning on sales effectiveness, business writing, storytelling, the art of asking why, and creating powerful presentations which are still being used by employees at Standard Chartered Bank globally.

Joseph is now a Communications and Leadership coach and is one of only a handful of Phonetics coaches in Singapore who has delivered close to 400 Phonetics training publicly since 1985. He also developed more exhaustive and far-reaching communications programmes such as Corporate Storytelling, Reasoning Skills for Children and is currently the anchor coach in a WSQ-certified Phonics and Phonetics course in Early Childhood Intervention for Pre-School teachers under Chelsea Academia. Joseph is also the author of two books - I’m So Ready For Life, that helps children hone their critical and creative thinking, and The Three Monsters that Destroy Your Career, a must-have set of qualities and expectations for graduates starting on their first job.

Today, his focus on leadership and business communication helps individuals and organisations improve their communication, selling and leadership skills. He co-developed a sales app called Delapitch and launched it at the 2022 Singapore Business Show in September 2022, under a selling philosophy FOSTER Method that he developed. He has delivered lectures and training programmes to local and regional participants, both work teams and executive levels since 2015. He is both ACTA and TESOL certified.