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Avoid Making Decisions Political

Every organization has internal politics. To deny that would be foolish. Yet, using political motivations to make decisions often turns out badly as well. Politics usually implies conflict between various groups in an organization or a community. Political motivations are always recognizable. The information is different from what you have gathered from other objective sources; recommendations are not consistent with the organization’s overall objective, and would not serve one group more than another without any significant gain to the organization.

Allowing these inputs into your process can result in biased decision making. These decisions tend not to be as good as they could be, and, worse, are often recognized by others who are just as biased, which damages your credibility.

Thus, allowing politics to play a role in your decision-making process is allowing one faction to gain advantage over another, and not necessarily for good or right reasons. So avoid political reasons and arguments in your decision making if you can. Again, focus on the greatest gain for the greatest number.

As a side note, of course, we can’t always avoid politics. Sometimes people will attempt to influence you in your decision making not based on rational information or an honest focus on a positive outcome, but on personal gain or political (organizational) gain. When this happens, recognize it, acknowledge it, and weigh it carefully before allowing that influence to have too much weight in your end result.