The Essential Leadership Skill - Managing Office Politics

One of the skills that successful leaders need to master is a bit of a dirty word these days. It's not the sort of thing they offer leadership training courses on, but it lies at the heart of most business relationships. When we call someone 'A political animal', we're often not being complimentary. We tend to mean that they're manipulative and untrustworthy, maybe even immoral or dishonest. A person who's good at politics, in our eyes, is someone who likes to score points over others, who try to scramble to the top of the heap over his or her colleagues.