Organizational Savvy (OS) is a concept you will encounter in discussions about important career skills. Rarely is it clearly defined and therefore it can be hard to distinguish from “street smarts”, emotional intelligence, social IQ, political savvy, or navigating corporate dynamics.
Of course, I can’t provide THE definition of Org Savvy but today I want to describe an Org Savvy model that I’ve used for the past 25 years. This is a robust model that includes guidance about career advancement, influence and persuasion as well as protecting your company’s resources and reputation.
My goals are to describe the core values and competencies that comprise OS and explain why it is such a crucial skill set for leadership effectiveness and going as far as you deserve in your career. The model came together for me when I read Kelly Reineke’s research on power and communication and connected it to patterns I was seeing in my executive coaching engagements. Later Rick Brandon and I expanded it with seminars, assessments and books.
1. Definition – A set of skills and strategies that combine personal integrity with an astuteness about corporate politics and human nature.
2. Core Applications
Supporting Meritocracy Folks
Even if you never heard this word growing up, the people around you who encouraged you to work hard, educate yourself and develop skills, believed in “Meritocracy.” Rewards, recognition, and power should be vested in people with ability and results. Advancement should be based on measured achievements. Your ideas and effort should matter, not your ethnicity, accent, gender, skin color, gender identity, or percentage of body fat. Embracing this set of values is rewarded in most companies and early in their careers Meritocracy folks do well. Often, after they advance to a certain level, their blind-spots about politics and in particular overly political people, create significant disadvantages and vulnerabilities. The Savvy Model is designed to equip them with an essential awareness and key skills to add to the Meritocracy value set; to move their careers forward and get their best ideas implemented.
Blocking Overly Political People
The material and psychological rewards of success in corporate life are high so it’s not surprising that it can attract ambitious, competitive people. So we should expect reasonable displays of self-interest and “biased social accounting” from our colleagues. Overly political people (OPP) go way beyond this “normal” range of behavior. They are defined by 2 characteristics.
A. Extreme Self-Interest – Their interests are “numero uno.” OPP will not only put their interest over the team’s goals, they may prioritize them over the company’s objectives and reputation, and sometimes over the interests of consumers.
B. “What Can I Get Away With?” – They don’t view situations in terms of what is right, fair or earned. They scan their environment through the lens of “what can I get away with?” So if they can take credit, assign blame, make excuses, hide or distort information, sabotage, marginalize, intimidate, tarnish reputations, flatter/ “manage up”, etc. with little risk or consequence they will do it. Therefore, OPP pose substantial risks to you, and the company’s resources and reputation. They often drive leaders with good values out of the organization. Please don’t underestimate your OP colleagues. Their behavior may be obvious to you but if they disguise it with people in power they can stay around long enough to do a lot of harm. Of course, there are degrees of OPP but in general the more power they get and the longer they stay, the more damage they will do to the organization. The Organizational Savvy Model is designed to expose this behavior and equip people with the right values, competencies, and intentions to deal with OPP effectively.
3. Key Skills/Practices/Competencies
Early in my coaching career I encountered a steady stream of people with good values, skills, and even results. They often came to coaching after they had been passed over, underestimated in the organization, or undermined by a colleague. When we would discuss some of the realities of what happened I would hear comments like:
“I hate politics”
“What goes around comes around”
“If that’s what it takes to get ahead, count me out”
“Marty, if you are going to teach me to be political this is not going to work”
This is what propelled me to develop the OS Model. Then I was able to reply: “I’m not going to coach you to be like political people but I am going to teach you to be as astute as they are about power, perception deception, etc. And I promise you that all the savvy skills and strategies can be done with integrity.”
So while I can’t discuss all the competencies in depth in a short article, I do want to give you a clear answer to “what does an organizationally savvy leader do at work that a pure “meritocracy” person might not do?”
So, to wrap things up, I hope the advantages of becoming savvy are now clear, and also that these skills and strategies can be coupled with fairness and good intentions. The ultimate goal of a savvy leader is to actually move the culture to be less political and more of a meritocracy where people with the right values and competencies are recognized and rewarded.
Books
Brandon, R., & Seldman, M. (2004): Survival of the Savvy: High Integrity Political Tactics for Career and Company Success. New York, NY: Free Press
Bauer, M., Seldman, M., Santilli, P., & Thomas-Williams, J. (2022): A Woman’s Guide to Power, Presence and Protection: 12 Rules for Gaining the Credit, Respect, and Responsibility You Deserve. Pembroke Pines, FL: Optimum Press
Articles found at www.optimumassociates.com/thought-leadership/
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