Political Savvy: Systematic Approaches to Leadership Behind the Scenes

Customer Reviews

Through a series of case studies coupled with easy to understand explanations, DeLuca explains the ins and outs of office politics. DeLuca attributes names to types of people we may encounter such as Protector, Speculator, Advisor or Machiavellian. "Machs" are the bosses who rule by intimidation and believe life is a game to be won or lost at any cost.

The highlight of the book is the Organization Politics Map, which shows how you can evaluate folks within the organizations as supporters or non?supporters; in other words, you can figure out who's for you and who's against you. As DeLuca points out, many successful and insightful managers do this intuitively, the map simply makes the process accessible and explicit.

Dr, DeLuca also provides a handy summary at the close of the book about how to become a politically savvy. His two guiding principles are "Choose to be an active, ethical player" and "Work the human system." Good advice for anyone who cares about gaining influence the right way! I recommend this book highly.

But what I found here would have helped me immensely had I read it earlier. Very little in the book does not pass the common sense test, and much of it causes you to look at things in a way that not only removes the 'politics? Yuck' factor but makes you realize that organizational politics is really how things are done, so you better at least have a working knowledge of it.

I thought the organization of the book was among the best I have seen and thought the summary sections were excellent.

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