What do you think?
Rate this book
Political Savvy: Systematic Approaches to Leadership Behind the Scenes
While most people are wary or organization politics, politically savvy leaders know how to manage them. They take initiative, and they forge consensus. Ultimately, they help others maximize their impact, so the organization can continue to thrive in a highly competitive future.
Insprirational leadership without a firm grounding in organization politics risks becoming hollow rhetoric. Political Savvy discusses how successful leaders at all levels in the organization operate ethically behind-the-scenes to work the darker side of organizational life.
The book helps you analyze your own political style, (yes, everyone has one) and understand the strategies and tactics used by ethical leaders. Through quotes, grids, tools, a case study, mapping techniques and examples, the book provides a systematic, practical guide to navigating political minefields so you can increase your influence in the organization, coach others, and obtain the career success, satisfaction, and meaning you want from work.
250 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
21 people are currently reading
446 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 22, 2026
What a tremendously insightful book. I have seen other books approach this topic as "here are 500 rules/strategies to follow" or "if you only care about power, and don't mind being a dastardly person, follow these rules", but this is the first book I've found that accurately captures both the human aspect of being politically savvy as well as providing an excellent framework to understand it in. This book gives one a framework in which to understand others, understand political savvy as a skill, and principles to approach a situation with rather than a bunch of disparate rules or ideas.
In particular, the definition of political savvy given in this book is excellent. It is "Ethically building a critical mass of support for an idea you care about." Many times when I hear people talk about about political savvy, they think about backroom deals, backstabbing, or assuming that the ends justify the means. And the problem is that, that's just one type of actor executing some skills required to gain support for an idea. It doesn't cover everyone and it doesn't cover every skill. In particular, if a tool or skill can be used for bad, that doesn't it mean it doesn't have good uses as well. If you only view nuclear fission as something to be used to destroy, you miss out on all the opportunities to help people by generating relatively clean energy. Similarly, just because you see people using vicious methods to try to get their ideas to succeed, it doesn't mean that that's the only way to do things.
Anyhow, I think I've harped on the ethical side of things long enough, but I felt it was important, because the skills involved in being politically savvy are important. This book provides a nice framework to understand where on the spectrum of political savviness one may lie as well importantly allowing one to empathize with the reasons someone might lie on that part of the spectrum. The latter is important I think because I don't see people talking about it enough. To understand why someone has the views they hold, allows you to understand what they've seen so far as well as possibly clueing you into the type of atmosphere that pervades a business. And that's useful to know.
The book subsequently developing an ethical framework that helps one figure out how to go about building support for an idea. And then explains a few more aspects of the nitty gritties of political savviness and finally caps things off by giving principles to help one protect themselves against those truly Machiavellian types. Overall, an easy to understand book that respects your time and is filled with useful, applicable advice.
In particular, the definition of political savvy given in this book is excellent. It is "Ethically building a critical mass of support for an idea you care about." Many times when I hear people talk about about political savvy, they think about backroom deals, backstabbing, or assuming that the ends justify the means. And the problem is that, that's just one type of actor executing some skills required to gain support for an idea. It doesn't cover everyone and it doesn't cover every skill. In particular, if a tool or skill can be used for bad, that doesn't it mean it doesn't have good uses as well. If you only view nuclear fission as something to be used to destroy, you miss out on all the opportunities to help people by generating relatively clean energy. Similarly, just because you see people using vicious methods to try to get their ideas to succeed, it doesn't mean that that's the only way to do things.
Anyhow, I think I've harped on the ethical side of things long enough, but I felt it was important, because the skills involved in being politically savvy are important. This book provides a nice framework to understand where on the spectrum of political savviness one may lie as well importantly allowing one to empathize with the reasons someone might lie on that part of the spectrum. The latter is important I think because I don't see people talking about it enough. To understand why someone has the views they hold, allows you to understand what they've seen so far as well as possibly clueing you into the type of atmosphere that pervades a business. And that's useful to know.
The book subsequently developing an ethical framework that helps one figure out how to go about building support for an idea. And then explains a few more aspects of the nitty gritties of political savviness and finally caps things off by giving principles to help one protect themselves against those truly Machiavellian types. Overall, an easy to understand book that respects your time and is filled with useful, applicable advice.
January 31, 2022
The book is about navigating the political landscape at work between different leading styles. Viewing people as problems blocking organizational productivity makes it difficult to see them as solutions to gaining a competitive advantage. Political Savvy means ethically building a critical mass of support for an idea you care about. Savvy leaders are the ones who start with creativity, not compromise. They don't acquiesce, they act. By creating innovative ways to combine and satisfy apparently opposed interests, they break log jams and make things happen that wouldn't normally occur. Those who use the Leader style do compromise but as the court of last resort.
December 18, 2019
How to move a company forward while remaining ethical ?
Many of the concepts are common sense BUT common sense is not common practice.
Some of the behaviors that read as intuitive are actions that we don't take as frequently. If these behaviors are common sense, then profit from the reminder. If this is new, take the time to review it objectively and try some experiments on taking those actions!
Many of the concepts are common sense BUT common sense is not common practice.
Some of the behaviors that read as intuitive are actions that we don't take as frequently. If these behaviors are common sense, then profit from the reminder. If this is new, take the time to review it objectively and try some experiments on taking those actions!
February 3, 2020
Good tactics to deal with office politics. And a shift in attitude from viewing politics as bad games to essential leadership skill is definitely helpful. The moment you change your view on politics, you feel less stressful when you have to pick a battle. I felt better trained to be influential after digesting the book.
November 5, 2017
Read this years ago and felt it taught me a lot! The book describes the different types of political personalities that exist in organizations. It provides strategies for those looking for advice. Highly recommended for those that aren't politically inclined but want to learn.
May 5, 2012
As much as we'd like to think we can escape politics at work we can't. Its human nature. So what can you do? Well you can sit with your head in the sand and say you don't want to play, sit back and watch the game and be a commentator, jump into the fray and defeat your enemies any way possible or jump into the fray and do the best you can in the most ethical way possible.
If the last description is the one you are interested in doing then pick up this book. It describes the different styles of leaderships in companies, how to utilize influence to achieve your goal and do it in a way that doesn't throw someone else under the bus. It gives great insight into how to spot the most powerful players in your organization (you may be surprised that its not always the people at the top) and how to utilize that knowledge for the best of the company. Political savvy isn't about doing the best for you and only you its about doing the best for the company and hopefully you get rewarded along with it.
This is an easy to read and easy to understand book with some great ideas. I will be forever grateful that I had to read it for a graduate class on ethics.
If the last description is the one you are interested in doing then pick up this book. It describes the different styles of leaderships in companies, how to utilize influence to achieve your goal and do it in a way that doesn't throw someone else under the bus. It gives great insight into how to spot the most powerful players in your organization (you may be surprised that its not always the people at the top) and how to utilize that knowledge for the best of the company. Political savvy isn't about doing the best for you and only you its about doing the best for the company and hopefully you get rewarded along with it.
This is an easy to read and easy to understand book with some great ideas. I will be forever grateful that I had to read it for a graduate class on ethics.
November 27, 2010
an older book, but still extremely useful. i especially liked that all of the highlighted methods could be used in any office setting (including a library!) practical, easy to read and informative. we'll see how good i am at implementing:) i will probably purchase this book for future reference (got it through inter-library loan) i will be looking up other books by this author!
July 26, 2011
Read FEB 2001
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews