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with you are best equipped to tell you how you’re doing. Do they perceive you as organizationally
savvy, politically aware and agile? Ask at least one person from each group you work with for
feedback. Give yourself some honest feedback too. What do you think is blocking you from getting
things done smoothly and effectively in the organization?

Want to learn more? Take a deep dive…

Brim, B. (2006, February 9). The best way to influence others. Gallup Business Journal.
Marcus, B. (2012, September 5). Hate politics? You still need to be political to advance your career.
Forbes.
Musselwhite, C. (2007, October 1). Self-awareness and the effective leader. Inc.

Job assignments
• Relaunch an existing product or service that’s not doing well. Investigate why it’s not successful.
Identify what is needed for it to be successful.
• Work on a team looking at a reorganization plan. Work on fully understanding where the organization is
headed. Do your homework on the organization, including any strategic planning or vision statements
to help inform the organizational structure.

• Conduct a postmortem on a failed project and present the findings to the people involved. Involve them
in discussions about how things will need to be approached differently next time.

• Write a proposal for a new policy, process, mission, charter, product, service, or system and sell it to
management. Anticipate the challenges and questions they will have and be prepared to handle these.

• Volunteer to find a way of bringing together and/or aligning processes, systems, or procedures from
across a range of business units.

Take time to reflect…
If you think formal channels are the only route to get things done…

…then ask whether the path less traveled can bring you to a more rewarding destination. Looking
behind the scenes can introduce you to information and ideas you didn’t even know existed.

If you’re baffled by the maze of organizational politics…
…then take a step back to see connections. To understand how things work and why they
sometimes don’t. Listen. Observe. Analyze. Learn.

If you don’t take time to understand what’s going on around you…

…then recognize that you could be making your job a lot harder for yourself. Knowing who’s who
and what’s what can help you make a far more valuable contribution to the organization.

© Korn Ferry 2014-2015. All rights reserved. WWW.KORNFERRY.COM

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