Over the course of my career, I have seen how toxic office politics affects people. A colleague told me he broke out in hives on Sundays in anticipation of what Monday mornings would bring. I was thinking about people like him when I started my coaching practice. I wanted to help people like him deal with office tension. I could give them coping strategies but that would merely be a stop-gap measure. If one individual was suffering in a toxic work culture I imagine others were also. Dealing with one person at a time is like being a triage doctor going from one ailing patient to another. While I still work with individuals, my ideal clients are leaders (bosses) and Human Resources Departments.
As I mentioned in previous posts, leaders are in much better positions to change the organizational culture than individuals with less authority. However, bosses have blind spots, and they can be the targets of toxic office politics. New bosses are the most vulnerable especially if they inherit employees who were allowed to cut corners or worse. Sometimes new leaders get the most resistance when they work to change an organization for the better. Human Resource departments can assist leaders and subordinates in co-creating a new organizational culture based on the organization’s mission, goals, policies, procedures, and rules of engagement. Human resource managers consult with top executives on strategic planning and serve as a link between an organization’s management and employees.
Human Resources is a staff department. It makes it easier for line departments to spend more time focusing on the organizations’ core business. As a staff department, it assists line departments with recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, training, and appraising employee performance
Every organization has its brand of office politics. Colleagues compete to gain favor with the boss, acquire resources, or prestigious assignments to name a few. If left unchecked those covetous behaviors can become destructive. As a Certified Life Coach, I contribute to an organization’s success by helping leaders create or enhance work relationships and increase productivity. I start by helping them address the counterproductive behaviors mentioned above.
Individual employees are Intelligent, skilled, driven, and charismatic, but operations go so much better when employees have a collective win-win mindset. My ultimate goal is to help leaders become the bosses others want to work for. As an independent contractor, I work with Human Resource Departments and/or organization leaders to make that happen. If leaders are employees are willing to work, I’m ready to work with them. “Work relationships work for those who work on them.”
To learn more about my coaching practice visit www.ProDestinyCoaching.com