Dear Reader ,
You've most likely met a manager or colleague who says this " I don't do office politics" in fact this might just be you.
You're good at your job, maybe the best on your team. You come early, deliver clean work, don't gossip, you don't do anyhow. And when the conversation turns to office politics, you say it with a straight face and a little pride: "Me? I don't do politics. I just face my work."
It sounds like integrity. It feels like the high ground.
So why do you keep getting overlooked?
Year after year, you watch someone less capable get the promotion, land the visible project, sit in the meetings that matter, and you walk away with the same conclusion every time: the system is unfair, people are fake, hard work doesn't count in this place.
Here is the part nobody might have told you
"I don't do office politics" is not a moral position. It's a strategy, and it's a losing one.
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What Politics Actually Is...
When most of us hear "office politics," we picture the worst version of it. The eye-service. The oga's pet who does no real work but knows how to package. Godfatherism. The person who climbs on connection instead of competence. We've all seen it, and we're right to be disgusted by it.
But that is not politics. That's the corruption of politics.
Politics properly defined and stripped of the ugliness, is simply this: how decisions get made when human beings and limited resources meet.
This is the truth: Promotions are limited. Budget is limited. Headcount is limited. Your boss's time, trust and attention are limited. The org chart tells you who reports to whom. Politics is everything the org chart doesn't show: who is trusted, who is owed, who has influence, who has the room's ear before a word is even spoken.
That layer exists in every organisation on earth. You can refuse to engage it. You cannot make it disappear.
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That layer exists in every organisation on earth. You can choose not to engage it, but you cannot make it disappear.
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The Trap
Here's why the denial is so dangerous, especially once you become a manager.
When you were a regular employee, opting out of politics mostly cost you.. your growth, your pay, your progression. Painful, but personal.
The moment you lead a team, the maths changes. The chance to be part of the best projects, getting additional staff, securing a bigger budget, the protection when things go wrong, none of that is won by being good at your job or minding your business, like we often say.
It is won in the political layer, in rooms you have to earn your way into. If you refuse to engage it, you don't just shortchange yourself.
You shortchange your team. They get less. Less opportunity, less protection, less reward because their manager decided the game was beneath her.
That is not integrity. That is abandoning your people on principle.
What To Do Instead, Without Becoming Fake
The fear that drives people to avoid politics is real. Most people don't want to become one of them and quite frankly, they don't have to. There is a clean way to play, and it requires nothing you need to be ashamed of.
- Make your work visible. Not loud, visible. Doing excellent work in silence is not humility; it's withholding information that decision-makers need to make good decisions. Tell people what your team is doing and why it matters. That's not bragging. That's communication.
- Build relationships before you need them. Don't wait until you want something to start talking to people. Know your peers in other departments. Greet the people the org chart says don't matter. The relationship you build today is the goodwill you draw on tomorrow.
- Know who actually holds influence. Title and influence are not the same thing. Pay attention to the quiet senior everyone consults before a decision is made. The PA who controls access to oga. Map the real power, not the boxes on the chart. (If you've done our Stakeholder Mapping exercise, you already know where to start.)
- Manage up honestly. Keep your boss informed before they have to ask. Make their job easier. Advocate for your team in the rooms you're in. None of that is bootlicking, it's simply doing your job well, where it can be seen.
- Choose your battles. You will not win every fight, and you shouldn't try to. Spend your influence where it actually counts.
The Mindset Shift You Must Have
You don't have to become manipulative to get ahead. You just need to stop pretending the game isn't being played while everyone around you plays it.
There's a Yoruba proverb that says: Ọwọ́ ọmọdé kò tó pẹpẹ, ti àgbàlagbà kò wọ akèngbè , meaning, the child's hand cannot reach the high shelf, and the elder's hand cannot fit inside the gourd. Nobody, however gifted, rises entirely alone. We rise on relationships. That has never been corruption. It is simply how people work.
So the question should not be "Should I do office politics?"
It should be "Will I do it with my integrity intact or pretend I'm above it, and let my team pay the price?"
I sincerely hope you choose well.
Still learning
Eyitemi
Founder, The Management Lab
P.S. Becoming a manager is the job nobody trained you for. If you want the full playbook for your first three months, including how to map the people who matter before you need them ,The First 90 Days Playbook is right here.
