Power politics isn’t just for world leaders. Discover how loud voices dominate power politics in the workplace, and how to shut them up.

Power politics are back on the global stage. Look at Russia, China, and the United States.

But wait, what exactly is power politics, and how does it apply to my life as an entrepreneur?

Power politics is a strategic approach to governance and international relations in which states or individuals prioritize power and influence over ideology, morality, or cooperation.

Beautiful. It’s not the state that wields power politics; it’s individuals. The same is true for corporations; they are made up of individuals, too.

Let’s look into some examples.

Politics

Let’s leave the great powers for a second and look at Switzerland, a tranquil small state and my home country.

When we hold elections, candidates tour the country and talk to everyone. Ahead of the recent election of a new defense minister, I had the chance to speak to both candidates at a gathering organized by the Swiss Officers’ Association — that’s the beauty of the Swiss active reserve system, under which I serve as an active reserve officer in the Swiss Armed Forces.

One of the candidates was an executive politician, well-rounded and conciliatory. Besides the usual small talk, I had a discussion with him on military topics and received an immediate and reflective answer to my points.

The other candidate was a classic power politician, interrupting people to make sure he shook all the hands he wanted to shake. While the first candidate put the subject matter of defence into the center of the discussion, the second candidate put himself at the center of the stage.

Corporations

Some 10 years ago, I left a well-paid and prestigious corporate job because of corporate politics. As the Head of eOperations at Swiss International Air Lines, corporate politics existed both within Swiss International Air Lines and the Lufthansa Group, to which Swiss International Air Lines belongs. Therefore, in all matters, you were upsetting one or the other party: Either you tried to push through group policies and met resistance from your own company. Or you defended your company’s interests and met with fierce opposition at the group level.

Just like in politics, corporate politics are not shaped by the organization, but by a few individuals who put their egos and personal interests over the interests of the organization.

Customer Relations

In my almost 10 years as the Founder & CEO of Yonder, I have seen individuals from customer organizations accusing my team of lying, altering our RFP answers in their favor, or holding back payments due to problems caused by other suppliers.

I’m sure you have the odd individual in your customer base who screams “urgent, urgent!” all the time — even if an issue is not urgent, or if the issue was caused by the customer’s internal IT.

When confronted with such situations, always remember it’s usually not the customer organization that is to blame, but those very few individuals who scream the loudest.

What Can You Do?

If we want to withstand power politics in our troubled times, we need to restrict the space for those very few loud individuals to make room for the cause.

That’s less sexy than putting yourself at the center of the stage, but more purposeful for whatever activities you are involved in.