Murray Robinson & Donna Spencer let me join their No Nonsense Leadership podcast for an extended discussion of corporate organizations, politics, how executives think/behave, servant leadership, and making change by *showing* rather than telling.
Part of this was finding the gray space between extremes: e.g. not all companies have toxic cultures or unsupportive execs (but some do!), so important to identify what's happening locally. And some C-level leaders thoughtfully support their directs/teams (but some clearly don’t!), so is important in our individual career planning.
And we talked about how calling things "politics" usually conveys a lot of distaste, rather than recognition that real organizations are run by real people – none of whom are purely logical or disinterested in their own position. If we want to understand and improve our organization, we need to engage hearts, incentives, and divergent viewpoints as well as (apparently) cold facts and analysis.
Give a listen. (49 minutes)