Bringing politics back to work
Jul 17th
Is it right to bring politics into the workplace? it brings a backdrop of uncertainty and has implications of the different party policies for our businesses. What your people need now is clear communication about priorities.
By Virginia Merritt, Management Today Entrepreneur Weekly
With elections being discussed in the office less these days, bosses may be missing a trick in scenario planning…
It’s dominating the daily headlines, and is all we hear ever about on our news channels. Media owners love nothing better than chewing over the ins and outs and ifs and maybes in pre-election fever. But I am always struck that it’s not really a dominant topic of conversation in the workplace. You would hardly know that an election is happening from what people are talking about.
And yet it is providing a backdrop of added uncertainty, which is unsettling just as we are trying to pull people out of that ‘survival mentality’ and focus again on looking to the future. As leaders we need to communicate clearly and simply what the priorities are and what we are focused on, and be specific if there are any areas that are ‘on hold’ until we know the outcome of the election and the potential impact on our businesses.
But it also prompts the question – is it right to bring politics into the workplace? Does it exert undue influence or pressure given the theoretical wide array of choices that will face us on the polling slips? The other question is whether we should think about having open debates on the implications of the different party policies for our businesses…
This article is filed under: leadership, strategic communication