By Michelle Moss*, Director at Signium Africa - www.signium.co.za

Politics was once a dirty word in business. You did not play politics to get ahead. It was just not done. Rubbish! Corporate politics have always been played.

The challenge is to play without deceit and duplicity while boosting the business. Of course, smart political players boost themselves as well.Currently, a corporate politics rethink is underway overseas. International literature confirms it.

A similar reassessment is underway in South Africa.Local indicators include executive search feedback to job candidates that their ‘political’ skills need attention and growing demand in the executive coaching arena for assistance with this aspect of personal development.Stalled careers are a key driver.Long hours and impressive gains should have resulted in career recognition but haven’t.

The individual then asks, ‘What more can I do?’The answer is ‘Learn to play the game’, and that game is corporate politics.

Many newcomers to the game are shamefaced about it.They confuse politics with ‘brown-nosing’ and manipulation.

They believe good people do not network for self-advantage.However, a good executive coach will point out that access, visibility and credibility are essential for personal and corporate success.Good ideas are useless unless they’re shared with decision-makers.

ccess to senior ranks is therefore essential. Once access is gained, the ambitious manager has to be seen as a credible performer making a visible difference.Credibility is rarely an issue. The go-getter usually has the qualifications and experience, has put in the time and achieved success.The challenge relates to access and visibility, but first mindsets must change.This is no problem for those who are aware their career has stalled and change is overdue.

Good coaches also point out that personal values are not compromised by networking and relationship-building. Behaviour might change, ethics remain intact.Behavioural change helps put a name to developments that were previously anonymous.Bosses are swamped by data. Often, they don’t have time to ask ‘who worked on this project?’ or ‘who led that team?

By changing behaviour and creating favourable awareness, players make it easier for superiors to remember a face and name.Once the mindset has been adjusted, it is necessary to identify decision-makers and influencers; external as well as internal. Impress some clients or suppliers and the word may go all the way to the top of your own organisation.Once identities have been established, relationships can be developed. Often, this is through participation in various initiatives or at certain social occasions.Take an interest. Get on to the invitation list.This can be difficult for introverts. They need to become more outgoing. Extroverts face a different challenge. They can come across as pushy and egotistical.One way forward is to tell a story that subtly conveys the contribution of the ambitious manager without bombast. There may be a humorous pay-off line, but the story-teller is positioned as a key actor.These techniques involve no play-acting. Superiors are not being deceived.

They are being alerted to interesting developments and the impact of new role-players.Advancement from this base can be impressive. Stalled careers may go into overdrive.Stellar success like this is not built on a lie. You have to be the real deal to make real progress. Play the political game to win recognition. But remember; real winners always deliver results.

*Michelle Moss is a Director at Signium Africa (previously Talent Africa), a leading South African-based executive search and talent management company servicing sub-Saharan Africa. www.signium.co.za

By Michelle Moss, director at Signium Africa (Previously Talent Africa) www.talent-africa.co.za

The corporate world embraces diversity and inclusion. Countless mission statements say so. Building a diverse organisation is supposedly a strategic imperative. But the question remains: Are businesses making it happen or missing the mark?

One test is talent acquisition. If diversity is so important, you would expect it to be reflected in the selection of senior executives and skilled professionals.In the real world, a mixed picture emerges.Awareness of the advantages of diversity and inclusion is certainly growing.

The ‘2017 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends’ report says 69% of executives say diversity and inclusion are important, up from 59% in the previous survey.Furthermore, the number of executives who cited inclusion as top priority rose 32%.Diversity strategy has the CEO’s attention.CEOs are the primary sponsors of diversity initiatives, according to 38% of executives canvassed in this international survey.Finding the right skills, irrespective of gender or race, is crucial. It ranks third among the major concerns of business leaders, says the Deloitte report. It is ‘very important’ or ‘important’ to 83% of executives.Increasing pressure to comply with organisational hiring policies and quotas also drives growing focus on diversity and inclusion.There is an implicit prohibition of ‘cloning’ (hiring someone just like you) as it perpetuates the status quo and is bad for the business.

Failure to move forward could even kill the business, yet the practice remains prevalent.‘Cloning’ may not involve the same race, gender and religion, but the same skills, management approach, interests, likes and dislikes as the hiring manager and team.The pretext is often that the selection gives the best ‘culture fit’ and therefore seems perfectly acceptable.However, ‘cloning’ is toxic as it fosters group-think. Consensus and like-mindedness strangle collaboration, creativity, innovation and risk-taking.Industries and technologies change. Customer’s needs change. Therefore, a team’s ability to generate new ideas and embrace change is critical.

Here, experience shows it is easier to teach a multi-skilled team how to resolve conflict among themselves than it is to teach a homogenous group how to generate alternative solutions.We can espouse diversity in theory, but nullify it in practice simply by sticking with time-honoured recruitment practice that might be skewed toward recruitment in our own image.

This explains growing doubts about traditional interviewing.It seems our brains are hot-wired to make rapid assumptions (an asset when ancient man had to instantly assess danger). Research shows we take just 15 seconds in a rush to judgment. Essentially, we look for things that make us comfortable.Quickie judgments like this can flaw traditional interviews.Obtaining a diverse skills set may be vital. But how, if old-style interviews might not be up to the job?A mix of tools is increasingly adopted, including psychometric tests (often questionnaire-based), simulation exercises (to replicate challenging scenarios and scrutinise behaviour) and semi-structured or competency-based interviews.Is there any evidence South African business is racing to adopt these more objective assessment tools in its quest for greater representivity?Yes and no.Some employers are moving in this direction.

Others rely greatly (sometimes solely) on traditional interviews. Often, objective assessment techniques identify a high potential candidate who challenges traditional thinking, identifies novel opportunities and embraces risk, but is passed over by a hiring team who favour slow, cautious and conservative thinking.Again, the culture-fit rationale is trotted out.It seems everyone wants diversity, but ‘cloning’ is comfortable, ‘cloning’ is acceptable … but for how long?

The 3rd annual Future of HR Awards has announced its 2017 awards category finalists - and Mindful Revolution has been designated a finalist for the Best Health & Wellbeing Strategy Award. The Future of HR, in association with Careers24, is unique in recognising and promoting the leading lights in the Human Capital industry - every year, entrants raise the bar higher.  

The awards, and the accompanying Future of HR Summit, will once again draw together a host of Human Capital leaders from CEO’s to those pioneering HR technology, over two days of shared knowledge and recognition.  

This year’s Future of HR Award winners will be announced on 20 July 2017 at the highly anticipated awards ceremony to be held at the Birchwood Hotel, Johannesburg.

Sponsors on board include Arcelor Mittal, Alexander Forbes, Nissan, Sun International, Schneider-Electric and CEB for the Summit, and Public Sector Manager and Thomas International for the Awards. Association partners include, South African Institute of Management (SAIM), Employee Assistance Professionals Association of SA (EAPA-SA) and the South African Organisational Development Network (SAODN).  

Becoming a finalist is considered an achievement in itself, as the entries are judged by a community of influential judges from within the HR sphere.

Click here to see this year’s notable judges and full list of finalists.

About us:

Mindful Revolution is a human-focused company offering mindfulness training in the workplace. Mindfulness is the intrinsic capacity to approach all aspects of life with awareness. In a fast-paced world, people have lost their innate capacity to approach life with mindfulness. Through our science based experiential training, participants will be reminded to adopt mindfulness as a way of being.  We aim to increase attention and focus, enhance creativity, encourage innovative thinking and teach emotionally intelligent leadership skills.

To connect with Mindful Revolution, please contact Clinton Stebbing | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 076 657 4139