What if the leaders who claim they “don’t do politics” are the ones getting played the hardest? In this episode of The Secret Life of Great Leaders, host Michael Bunting sits down with workplace politics expert Niven Postma to challenge one of the most persistent myths in leadership: that you can either be a decent human being or a political operator, but never both.
Drawing on her research, her bestselling book “If You Don’t Do Politics, Politics Will Do You”, and two decades of executive experience across banking, government and non-profit sectors, Niven argues that office politics are neither good nor bad. They are simply the informal, unofficial exchanges of information, support and influence that happen in every organisation, and the only real question is whether you engage with them ethically or badly. Together, Michael and Niven examine why reputation is best understood as trust at scale, how to tell good politics from bad using a simple ethical litmus test, and why matching your political skill to the environment you are in matters more than any single tactic. They also explore the gendered reality of office politics, the danger of toxic environments where fear replaces motivation, and why awareness is always the first and hardest step.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why the idea that ethics and politics are mutually exclusive is one of the biggest myths in leadership
- How to distinguish good politics from bad using a simple, honest test
- Why reputation is best understood as trust at scale, not self-promotion
- How Aristotle’s virtue ethics apply to modern image management
- Why matching your political skill to your environment matters more than raw talent
- What toxic workplace politics actually look like, and why they cannot be fixed from the inside
- How workplace politics differ for women, including research on gender transition and career trajectories
- Why auditing your personal boardroom is the single best place to start
Niven Postma is a strategy, leadership and culture consultant and one of the world’s foremost experts in workplace politics. She is the author of If You Don’t Do Politics, Politics Will Do You, a contributor to Harvard Business Review, a guest lecturer at Stanford University and London Business School, and a tutor at Cambridge University’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership. She is currently completing a PhD examining how workplace politics differ for women.
Episode Highlights:
- [00:00] Intro
- [00:30] Niven’s Background and Career Journey
- [02:03] Redefining What Office Politics Actually Means
- [05:02] Good Politics vs Bad Politics
- [07:22] Image Management and the 30% Cost of Politics
- [10:12] Reputation as Trust at Scale
- [13:44] Finding Your Own Ethical Guidelines
- [16:19] Can You Trust “Can I Live With Myself?”
- [27:00] Matching Political Skill to Your Environment
- [31:10] Recognising and Escaping Toxic Environments
- [34:10] The Gendered Reality of Office Politics
- [36:42] Where to Start Tomorrow
- [41:38] Auditing Your Personal Boardroom
- [42:20] Closing Thoughts
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