Politics and Performance

Photo credit © Javier A. Bedrina – www.bedrina.com

Any time a collective (economic or otherwise) grows beyond a few people, politics becomes a reality.

And inevitably, politics ends up influencing roles, positions and careers. Because politics is about managing perceptions, one way or another. And perceptions influence how you consider an individual, their capabilities and their potential.

But only, I believe, in the short term.

The thing about politics is that, for the related perceptions that it influences to hold, there has to be some material 'content-driven' basis. I can influence you (or our boss) to believe something about me vis-a-vis you or someone else, but I can only do it for so long before my actual capabilities either prove the merit of those perceptions or belie them.

So politics does end up playing a role but only in the short run. Much like the idea of long term efficient capital markets, people tend to gravitate to where they belong. It may or may not occur within the life span of the individual's career within a given organization, but it certainly will over their career span.

My point is, that the truth will out. Don't become concerned by the 'fallibility of the system'. At the end of the day, if you have a message and you're committed to delivering value (however you define that), you'll be fine.