Do Politics Belong in the Workplace?
Politics in the workplace. This is a topic I’d often rather avoid. I’ve intentionally built Leadr to be as apolitical as possible to not distract our team from our mission of developing 1m leaders. However, my recent conversation on The LeadrPulse Podcast with Patrick Lencioni challenged my thinking on this.
The truth is, employees bring their full selves to work every day. This includes the things they’re passionate about and issues that weigh on them, including politics. In an election year, I find it irresponsible to completely avoid addressing politics at work. To me, it’s asking people to leave behind critical parts of who they are.
Saying nothing actually does more harm than saying something.
Your team will be wondering: “Does our leadership team have their head in the sand?”
This doesn’t mean I share my own beliefs or even encourage others to open political dialogue. Instead, I want to create a workplace where everyone feels like they belong. Learning to toe the line is critical as a leader if you want to create a safe and productive workplace.
Recently, I was convicted to address the events that occurred on July 13 with former President Trump. This was an event that would impact every team member regardless of their beliefs, and as a leader, I wanted my team to feel safe bringing their experiences with them.
Instead of ignoring the uncomfortable, I knew it was a topic that needed to be faced head on.
So I opened up our weekly All Hands Meeting recognizing our typical stance as an apolitical organization while acknowledging that a national event this alarming is unignorable. My stance to the team was this:
1. Leadr is a safe space for you. However you’re coming to work today is welcomed.
2. I encourage you all to focus on what unites us, not what divides us. And what unites us is that we all share one mission at Leadr: developing 1 million leaders.
3. If you need support or an outlet to process, your manager, your manager’s upline, and our People Team are here for you.
This approach felt like the best path forward after considering my conversation with Pat Lencioni, where he shares practical insights on how to address politics in the workplace. His thoughts greatly influenced how I managed the scenario mentioned above with our team at Leadr. We launched the conversation with Pat on The LeadrPulse Podcast. You can hear it in more detail here, but here are my 3 main takeaways.
1. Diverse viewpoints should be tolerated. Election years, and politics in general, will spark divisive feelings. Lower the temperature of these conversations by recognizing that every person’s viewpoint should be respected, even if you agree to disagree.
2. People bring their whole selves to the workplace. If they feel that they can’t engage in conversations they feel strongly about, it only raises the temperature. But there’s a caveat. The boundary begins when personal opinions begin to defy your organizations core values or behavioral norms.
One of my main goals at Leadr is for every team member to love Mondays as much as they love Fridays. That means every person is respected, welcomed, and valued, no matter their beliefs.
When political conversations ostracize or offend a team member, a line is drawn.
3. Bring it back to your organization’s values. Ultimately, each workplace has a mission. Unless your mission is related to politics, you don’t need the political viewpoints of your team to align. Instead, encourage your team to stay united around your mission. If point 1 and 2 are done well, then having a team of diverse viewpoints is actually a benefit. True diversity of thought is where great solutions can be born.
Navigating politics in the workplace is tough. It’s not a leader's job to become the spokesperson for every topic. It’s the leader's job to create an environment where every person is welcome, feels safe to bring their full self to work, and is laser-focused on your mission.
Thanks for reading,
MT