Womenlines takes pleasure to share about Payal Nanjiani, a US-based globally acclaimed inspirational speaker, leadership and success coach, as an Influencer for ‘Corporate Success Tips’ on Womenlines panel. Payal is sharing exclusive content with Womenlines which can help women working in the corporate sector to develop leadership skills and success mindset. Payal will look forward to replying to queries from Womenlines readers too! Feel free to drop your questions in the comment section. This month read about various ways how you can deal with workplace and corporate politics-
One day Buddha walked through a village. A very angry and rude young man came up and began insulting him.
“You have no right teaching others” he shouted. “You are as stupid as everyone else. You are nothing but a fake.”
Buddha was not upset by these insults. Instead, he smiled. This confused the mane and he asked Buddha how he continues to smile even after being insulted. To this Buddha asked the young man “Tell me, if you buy a gift for someone and that person does not take it, to whom does the gift belong?”
The man was surprised to be asked such a strange question and answered: “It would belong to me because I bought the gift.”
The Buddha smiled and said “That is correct. And it is exactly the same as your anger. If you become angry with me and I do not get insulted than the anger falls back on you. You are the only one who becomes unhappy, not me. All you have done is hurt yourself.”
Office politics are similar. Each of us faces its brunt. Friction at workplace, deceit, gossip, rivalry, power plays is a part of the corporate and business world. You’ve got to stay in the system, navigate through all of this and succeed. When someone is rude with you, bad mouths you or in some way tries to put you down it is nothing but a brick thrown on you. What matters most is what you do with these bricks. You have two options here. You either take the brick and carry it on your head each day to work getting yourself all worked up and angry planning on how to throw a brick back. Or, you stay clam and use that same brick as a stepping stone. Would you rather expend all your energy on putting the other person down or invest that energy in upgrading yourself.
When faced with politics at work, take a step back and be a visionary. A visionary is a person who thinks about or plans the future with wisdom. So be a visionary and begin to think of what your next best response should be and what would be the other person’s response to your response. Be aware of what happens around you, built great workplace relationships at all levels and keep your focus on your outcomes. Never let the bricks rob you of your energy and focus.
Navigating through workplace politics is an art and when played with wisdom, you do not compromise your values, you play honestly and come out clean. So the next time when a brick is thrown at you, let it be a stepping stone for your success.
A video on this topic is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mBC1cC5TgA
–Payal Nanjiani
Reach out to Payal at success@payalnanjiani.com or connect with her on LinkedIn or Facebook page. Women leaders and entrepreneurs can now subscribe to the iSucceed-an inspirational podcast for women.
Discover Incredible work done by Payal Nanjiani at https://www.payalnanjiani.com/
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