Ruthless and immoral players give the game of office politics a bad name.

Because people driven solely by personal gain or other

selfish motives are seldom successful in the long run, winning the political game
requires that you consider the ethical implications of your decisions. Given that
most of us work for pay, ethical issues on the job often come down to the
question of what we are willing to do for money. Only a tiny minority of people
would agree to kill or harm someone for cash. But, would you lie?

Falsify records? Fail to report violations of law? Tolerate unsafe working

conditions? Your automatic response is likely to be, No, of course not! Think
about it another way, though: imagine youll be fired if you refuse to falsify a
report. Now, would you do it? In the realm of ethics, only actions
count. Your moral code is communicated not by what you say you believe, but by
what your behavior actually demonstrates. During the course of a career, almost
everyone will encounter Ethical Momentssituations that force us to decide
whether or not to live up to our personal standards. One of my Ethical Moments
occurred when I was responsible for internal communications in a large
corporation. When a highlevel manager suggested sending out false information
to employees, I realized that lying to people who relied on me for accuracy was
not something I could live with. But I did not leap to my feet and cry, You liar!
How could you ask me to do such a thing? Instead, I
simply explained that if we were caught in an obvious lie, our future credibility
would be ruined. Fortunately, this pragmatic reasoning was accepted by the
executive, whose value system did not exactly highlight honesty. I was relieved
not to have to lay my career on the line for this issue, but I did realize that I
would resign before sending out information that was blatantly untrue. Such
decisions are easier when you have clearly defined your moral parameters.

Political Intelligence requires a thorough understanding of the dynamics of

leverage, which simply means your ability to get others to do what you want. If
this conjures up visions of people jumping to obey at the crack of a whip, youve
got the wrong view of leverage. Those who try to control others through abusive
power and authority usually fail in the long runor someone stabs them in the
back at the first opportunity. When you increase your leverage in more
appropriate ways, though, you can be a Winner in the game of office politics
and in other areas of life as well.