Skill in organizational politics is a function of social skills. The more you have of one, the more you have of the other. Computer nerds are reputed to have a distaste for organizational politics. The word 'nerd' is often used as if the word itself meant 'someone who lacks social skills'.
It takes, however, an exceptionally analytical and logical mind to become a good programmer. In other words, you have to be rather smart to be a good programmer. So how come that smartness seem to flounder in the face of organizational politics?
Some may say that the smartness that nerds possess is of a different sort from the smartness required to engage in politics. Perhaps. There are indeed different kinds of smarts. But I'm more convinced that their smartness is just not focused on politics.
Nerds simply detest politics. Such an attitude comes out of the pureness of heart mixed with a little naiveté. They see politics as an unnecessary evil played by people who need to cover up for their incompetence, or by people who see it as a tool to feed their greed. One of the early definitions of politics that roamed the internet was a play on the word itself ("poli" - many, "tics" - blood sucking parasites).
Besides the attitude toward politics, nerds are also unprepared to manage things that fight back. They deal extremely well with computers and software, which respond with a deterministic response to stimulus. In other word, computers act the same way each time. Any difference in reaction triggers deeper analysis and debugging to understand why the unexpected variation happened, and what needs to be done to remove that variation.
Politics is about managing people. And people are deterministically unpredictable. The same request to the same person will receive a different response each time. People tend to not want to be managed and tend to want to manage. The nerd is afraid that the engaged person may attempt a coup and end up managing the nerd. Such do not happen in a nerd cum machine interaction.
The pervasive view that politics is only for the incompetent is unfortunate because it gives the viewer an unnecessary disability.
Politics is a part of organizational life. It is an essential part which cannot be removed. Anytime two or more people get together, there is going to be politics. Even if these two people happen to be the most considerate of sweethearts so madly in love with each other. She will do what she needs to do to make sure his eyes do not flit to another. In other words, she will attempt to control his behaviour. She will attempt to manage.
Politics is so pervasive that it is just unavoidable. It's like air. No matter where you sit in the totem pole you are within its reach. The lowliest messenger has to conform to politics. If you're not in the totem pole, you are not in any organization. You are either unemployed, or a Warren Buffet.
While politics exist at the bottom and the middle, at the top it is even more acute, and the stakes higher. The politics at the top is even more pervasive. Even the highest officer in the land has to contend with politics. The US president may have the most powerful military on earth, but his power over it is limited. Even he has to play games of give and take with senators and congressmen. He also has to engage the same games with countries ranging from the big ones like Russia and China, to small ones like Venezuela, and even with close allies such as Japan, Australia, and the UK.
Politics is as unavoidable and as necessary as grooming. Unfortunately, many nerds also tend to dislike grooming -- some cats have better grooming skills.
If you cannot avoid it, join it.
The first step is to embrace a new attitude toward politics. Politics is like the Marvel comics character ‘Galactus’. It is a "force of nature." Politics is neither immoral nor moral. It is to be likened to grooming, manners, eating from plates instead of cans, and common courtesy -- society expects them and woe to those who do not conform.
There is no free lunch. There is no getting ahead without politics.
