Teaser - The Executive Trap, When Leadership Ends, Conspiracy Begins… corporate thriller.

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Power and Politics - In The New Technological Age

Power and politics are inescapable forces within any organization. They shape interactions, influence decisions, and define the dynamics of leadership and teamwork. Understanding their nature is critical, especially in today’s technology-driven world, where data, expertise, and influence intersect in unprecedented ways. Let’s explore how these elements manifest, their impact on organizational behavior, and why they matter more than ever in the age of new technology.

The Anatomy of Power and Politics

At its core, power is the ability to influence outcomes, while politics is the art of wielding that influence to achieve personal or collective goals. These dynamics are not inherently negative, but they can turn toxic when driven by insecurity, incompetence, or mistrust. I have seen a leader who joined a new company. Eager to establish authority but uncertain of his footing, he started viewing current employees with suspicion. What followed is a cascade of micromanagement, manipulation, dividing the team and the introduction of loyal—but sometimes less competent—new hires.

Such behavior stems from a leader’s inability to confidently define his/her role, leading to rely on divisive tactics rather than fostering trust and collaboration.

This scenario is all too common. Insecure leaders tend to "play power" excessively, using politics as a tool to secure their position rather than to advance the organization’s goals. But it’s not just leaders who engage in organizational politics—peers and team members can also contribute to the fray. Gossip, cliques, and subtle power plays emerge when individuals seek to protect their interests or gain an edge. Often, this begins with a leader’s own tactics, such as "divide and rule," which sows discord and erodes team cohesion.

The Sources of Power in a Digital Era

Power in organizations comes from multiple sources, and the rise of technology has amplified their complexity. Traditionally, power stems from position—your title or rank grants you authority. It can also arise from expertise, where specialized knowledge sets you apart. Another source is familiarity—knowing the organization, its people, and its unwritten rules can make someone a formidable player.

“In the new technological age, however, data has emerged as a game-changer. As the saying goes, "Data is the new oil." Those who control, interpret, or leverage data hold immense power. In a world where information flows faster than ever, understanding systems, networks, and analytics can elevate an individual’s influence far beyond their formal role. This shift has democratized power to some extent—technical experts, data analysts, and even savvy team members can challenge traditional hierarchies by wielding knowledge that others lack.

The Double-Edged Sword of Organizational Politics

Politics, when used constructively, can drive innovation and progress. A leader who navigates alliances skillfully might secure resources for a groundbreaking project. A team member who builds a strong network could advocate for meaningful change. Yet, the dark side of politics—manipulation, mistrust, and micromanagement—creates a toxic culture that stifles creativity and productivity.

Take the earlier example of the insecure leader. By enforcing his authority through control rather than competence, he alienate employees and breed resentment. The organization suffers as talent disengages or departs, and the leader’s reliance on loyal but underqualified allies weakens overall performance. In contrast, a confident leader who empowers his/her team, values expertise, and uses data to inform decisions can transform politics into a force for good.

Navigating Power and Politics in the Tech Age

In today’s landscape, where artificial intelligence, automation, and digital platforms dominate, the stakes of power and politics are higher. Leaders must adapt to a workforce that values transparency and autonomy, while also mastering the tools that define modern influence—be it data analytics, social networks, or technological fluency. The ability to balance authority with collaboration is key. Meanwhile, employees must recognize that power isn’t just top-down; it’s also lateral, rooted in skills and relationships.

To thrive, organizations need cultures that harness power and politics constructively. This means rewarding competence over loyalty, encouraging open communication, and ensuring that data and technology empower rather than divide. Leaders should focus on building trust, not just asserting dominance, while team members should leverage their expertise to contribute meaningfully rather than compete destructively.

Power and politics are timeless elements of human interaction, but the new technological age has reshaped how they play out. Data is king, expertise is currency, and influence is no longer confined to corner offices. Whether it’s a leader grappling with insecurity or a team navigating internal rivalries, the choices made in wielding power define an organization’s success or failure. In this era of rapid change, understanding and mastering these dynamics isn’t just important—it’s essential. By embracing transparency, competence, and collaboration, we can turn power and politics from sources of conflict into drivers of progress.

(Views are personal) 

Introducing Dev Mahajan – A Man on a Mission!

In the high-stakes world of corporate power, where loyalty is tested and ethics are often compromised, Dev Mahajan rises against the odds. From humble beginnings to the corridors of global influence, he is a leader who refuses to bow to manipulation, deceit, and corporate subversion. But as he fights for integrity and transformation, he soon realizes that the real battle isn’t just in the boardroom—it’s in the shadows where ambition and betrayal collide.

As Dev fights to reclaim his place, he uncovers shocking truths about the very system he once trusted. Will he outsmart his enemies, or will they succeed in destroying his career and reputation forever? This gripping corporate thriller takes you behind boardroom doors, revealing the dark side of power, the price of loyalty, and the ultimate battle between truth and deception. Can Dev outmaneuver the forces that seek to bring him down? Or will he become just another pawn in the ruthless corporate game?

A must-read novel (in Print) for anyone navigating the high-stakes world of leadership and corporate survival.

A gripping corporate thriller is coming soon. Stay tuned!

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(Originally published on LinkedIn)

Power

Power is related to strength. Power is the ability to achieve something beneficial. The power can be collective, power can be collaborative. Nowadays, everybody wishes to be powerful. People want power. King gets the power by position, Presidents, Prime Ministers and political leaders get the power through collective power. In democracy, the power of the people is valuable, however it is not always used for the benefits of their own matters. They are at the mercy of their elected members for the development. This is unfortunate but power is considered as an outcome instead of the media to do something good. Power means the ability to create the better conditions and reality where one can flourish and be happily productive no matter the conditions or where the person is presently living. 

Once the power is gained the position is used to coercion. Few leaders are known because of their position and they get the power because they are appointed by somebody higher. They may not have the ability to use the power positively but then they use the power for their advantage and for others disadvantage. Absolute power makes people blind, corrupt and inhuman. The world has witnessed infamous corporate scandals. There are many examples of political leaders and dictators who misused their power putting the world in danger. 

Power is relational. Everybody is hungry for the power and hence they do different things to get the power. Achieving higher positions, being knowledgeable and expert, nominating on different social, political or organizations committee positions, doing something extra and being visible by any means are few types of how people try to get into the power; I mean getting the sense of having power.   

There are different types of power humans can get.

Positional power or legitimate power: You get the power because of your position you hold. The government gets the power because they hold the key position. CEOs, MDs, CXOs get the power once they are appointed by the board. People follow them just because they have to follow those leaders. One can still stand out and can convert this positional power into influencing power by his/her own charisma, the personal traits or developing good interpersonal and leadership skills. However this is very difficult. The attitude determines which power the positional leader uses. Most of the time influence and charisma is just eyewash. Finally it is always a positional power people use. 

Power by charisma, also called referent power: It is a personal power. The person gained this power because of his positive personality traits. The leader gets this power because s/he truly demonstrates the leadership behaviours, strong interpersonal skills, empathy and s/he carries executive presence. Here presence itself is a power. People feel comfortable while interacting with such types of leaders. 

Expert Power: Knowledge is the king. Leader gets the power based on their ability to influence the people based on their expert domain knowledge. Their influence however may be limited. The knowledge, the expertise they have brings the value on the table and hence they are recognized. Scientist,  technicians, doctors etc. are good examples of expert power.   

Reward power: We  all know how some political parties are declaring freebees to the people to lure them. Giving freebees, gifts, and declaring incentives is common to get the power. The only agenda is to be popular among the people. This may be beneficial for the short term but you spoil the culture and mindset of the people. The habit of continuous reward creates the entitlement culture. It becomes very difficult to get out of that afterwards. So then people work only for rewards and not for larger organizational purposes. Voters who elect politicians based on freebies spoil the country and we have experienced this for long.   

Coercive Power: We all know such examples in the political world. You can force the people to do what they don’t want to do. The people who get the positional power may easily use the coercive power to influence the people. 

Power itself is not bad. It is about how you use the power. Sometimes, leaders, political, social or corporate have to influence others to make the impact. In the knowledge economy, knowledge and data is a King. You can definitely integrate the knowledge, expertise, and personality traits to influence the people to do something beneficial for them or the organization. Though there is  not a concrete formula of power used, misuse of the power by positional power or coercive way is always disturbing. If the person who gets the positional power is not matured, then there is a lot of room to have the negative impact on the sentiments. 

So which power do you believe in?

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Please respond the survey, I am conducting, as a part of my research by clicking on >> Leadership Competencies required for managers while handling crisis situations. 

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organizations, current or past) 

Author's books are available on Amazon, Flipkart, Pothi and BookGanga. You can buy the print copy of Vitality in Human Resources on amazon. Click >> Vitality in Human Resource: Adding human dimensions in HR processes    

Royalty from books is used for social cause. 

How to gain the Power…

You will not get the power by virtue of your position,
but by virtue of your ability to influence others. 

Majority of the people has the desire to be in power center. Those who don’t want to be in power center want to follow the power. They also want to be close to the power. In families, communities, societies, organizations, there are people who either want to project themselves powerful or like to communicate that they are close to the Power-station.  Low profile people also like to get the support of somebody who is powerful to get their work done.  

Power and politics is much discussed and debated topic.  I have given lot of references about the power in other articles on this blog. However, I also recognize that you can’t avoid the influence of the power.  The million dollar question is how to get the power, how to go close to the power stations to grab more power.

How to gain the power? Some hands on tips for you…..

Efforts required at individual level

v      Acquired the Knowledge and be knowledgeable.

v      Be expert in your own area.

v      Get the latest information about the happening in the organization.

v      Work on developing your personality. It includes your assertiveness, influencing skills, and your voice.  

v      Creating charisma is really difficult. But you have to work on creating your brand in the organization.

v      Check your reputation in the organization and work on improving the same.

v      Check how your bosses and your team members perceive your professional credibility.

v      You also need to get the support form your team and cross functional team members.

v      Improve interpersonal skills and work actually building the concrete relationship in the organization.  

Organizational level

v      Professional life and especially leadership role has lot of uncertainties. Your life can be miserable if you don’t handle the uncertainty smartly. The whole business world in uncertain and also the positions in the organizations. The success depends upon how you cope with this uncertainty. More you are flexible and tough, more you are successful.  

v      You can’t be rigid. Flexibility in relationship, in learning, in decisions making helps you to take the control of the situation. However it should be at right time and not as the rule. You should know how and when to be flexible.

You can gain the power form various aspects in your life.

v      Define your vision, your short term and log term goals, aligned your goals with your organizations goals.

v      Participate in decision making process. Support your bosses in getting the information required in decision making

v      Integrity is the best strategy to create your credibility and track record in the organization.  

v      Problem solving and fire fighting is the important trait of successful and influential leader.

v      Working in matrix organization is the fundamental need in corporations now days and you should learn to manage various seniors and their needs. It also needs to get the work done from different teams who are not reporting you.  

v      Know what your boss seeks, needs, likes, prefers, is weak about, is poor at and dislikes intensely.

v      Most important factor is to be sensitive to the issues of power and relationships.

 It is not necessary to be political to gain the power, but yes you need to diplomatic definitely.

Politics, power and game

“There is lot of politics in this organization.” During my initial periods, I use to hear this statement in every organization on my first day with those organizations. As you grow in your career, you come to know about politics and then nobody says it to you. You yourself try to understand the organization from your own perspective.

Power and politics are ever-present and necessary features of organizational life. Without them, much of what gets done in organizations could never be accomplished. However, power can also be abused, and personal or political goals can overshadow organizational ones.

It involves the pursuit of individual agendas and self-interest in an organization without regard to their effect on the organization's efforts to achieve its goals. Everybody has his own agenda. Most of the time insecurity plays important role in politics. In one of my earlier organizations, I had a senior person who was very political. He was working in the organization for almost 20 years. He used to call employees, mostly female employees on odd times for getting the information about colleagues. His way of working was extra-constitutional. In fact he was able to create the image of saviour in the organization, in reality he was not. He had created the network of moles and messengers in the organization. Off course all were cheerleaders. He tried to spoil the career of many talented people. This can be the extreme example how the politics should not be. I started to challenge him on his decisions.

Organizations are not rational systems. Rather, organizations are coalitions composed of varied individuals and interest groups that engage in on-going contests for control. Here one thing is sure that "objective facts," are interpreted by employees who view things from their own perspective.

However by this way of working, employees become manipulative and it affects the culture. Culture is created by such interpretations. You can call it dirty politics where an individual forces his own agenda and ignores organizational benefit. People suffers and he gains, everything power and position, but not for long time. The end is here only.

However politics is not a grubby word. Such people made it grubby. When we can not live without it, we should learn to live with it. Whenever I joined new organization, I learnt the different aspects of politics in organizations. Every human being is political. He is not strength forward. He knows where to act and where to react.

When the politics is for the benefit of the organization and masses, it can not be bad. After all you need to be diplomatic. However it is very difficult for others to make the judgment on political scale. It is very subjective and there is thin line between politics and diplomatic (or dirty politics and politics). It is purely the intention of the person in command. People sometimes get the power due to politics. Such people then play a major role in creating worst culture in the organizations. However when the harmful politics comes into the picture, it is the role of HR to kill it. Sometimes most of the HR professionals themselves are the part of politics.

Do we, HR professionals dare to challenge this dirty politics? Do we have courage to go to the top boss and tell him about this?