Sociopaths at Work: Machiavellian Strategies to The

Rescue
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work-machiavellian-strategies-to-the-rescue

Political animals are:

Individuals who focus most of their energies on playing the political game and (much) less
on actual job performance.

We will also call them “powerseekers” for simplicity.

The most extreme powerseekers are obsessed with power and rarely reach true mastery at
their job.
But the best of them can be so effective at politics that their (below) average job
performance might not hinder their power climb.

Sometimes they are sociopaths, or at least present sociopathic traits.

We’re not going to worry ourselves with medical diagnosis though, but on behaviors and
strategies that are common to all political animals.

The “powerseeker” refers to the political animal’s tendency to training his sights on power
-and people with power- and looking for the shortest way possible to get there.

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Powerseekers look not at charts with market penetration, product roadmaps, or financial
projections.
They look at the org chart, and memorize who’s on top and who leads what department.
The ones below don’t matter.

How Powerseeker Operate: My Experience

The first time I have crossed paths with a powerseeker it was a mildly shocking
experience.

There I was, focusing on learning sales skills, improving my cold calls, enlarging my
industry network and, you know, company critical stuff like bringing in money.
I knew taking care of the revenues was the most important thing I could do to grow both
personally and career-wise.
The approach wasn’t wrong, but I definitely wasn’t doing as good of a job on the political
side of things.

I was working in one of the hottest ventures of the startup incubator when the political
animal joined. I was responsible for all the company’s revenue up until that point… And I
had never spoken to the incubator’s founder.
The powerseeker? She was on a first-name basis with the incubator’s founder within a
couple of weeks.

Industry conference with a powerseeker

Little later the powerseeker and I went to a conference together.

I had prepared in advance as many meetings as I could.

And, for the rest, I was working the conference up and down like a hound-dog.

What did she do, instead?

She sat down to watch a panel.
I couldn’t believe she was going to waste all that time sitting down.
But she was there for a reason.
Little later, she told me she was attending the panel to see how the CEOs in the industry
communicate.

See the difference?

She considered herself superior to “normal work”. She wanted instead learn -and acquire-
the traits and demeanor of the CEOs (the shortcut).

I came back from that conference with countless conversations and a few good leads.
She came back with a single good lead she had met at the event party.

BUT, picture this, she also made friends with the CEO of our biggest competitor.
I also stopped by to their booth to say hi, it’s always a good idea after all.
But while I just said hi, she kept talking to their CEO for an eternity.

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As I wondered why the f^*k she was wasting time with someone who could never be our
customer, she was adding a huge heavy hitter in her network -and a potential future
employer (good power move)-.
That guy would later mentor her when she started her business -but let’s not spoil the end
of this story just yet-.

I was astonished.

Assessing the competition

I knew I was in front of a powerhouse.

She was a driven, power-hungry alpha female, the type with high confidence and high
sexuality.

While before she joined I was the undisputed king on all things sales and account
management, my stronghold in the company was now under threat.
I knew she was going to give me a good run for my money.

Yet, I was glad about the learning experience.

We were different, and she was a master in her own “field of expertise”. There was much I
could learn from this.
Still, she was also my competitor. Back then I wasn’t yet sure how long I was going to stay
in the company, and she would gladly become the department head -or my manager-. I
didn’t want that, so I wanted to come out of this on top.

In terms of pure skills, we were probably matched: she was good at sales.
She was a bit better at coming across as high power, but I was better at calibration. And I
was better at turning skills into results.
She was the type of woman who’d go straight to the top dog and talk to him like she was
owning an even bigger business. But not the type of woman who would cold call 30 people
in a day, write 100 cold emails in a day, lunch with 5 different people a week, or meet 100
different people a day at a conference (all things I would do).

And I was much better in terms of industry knowledge.

We were offering financing to advertising technology companies.
I wasn’t a great expert on advertising technology, but coming from trading brokerage, she
was at zero. And she wasn’t going to learn quickly: powerseeker are too focused on power
dynamics and hobnobbing with people in power to learn the ins and outs of things.

So, overall, I was stronger on job performance.

Plus I had a super-strong track record.

But there was a huge risk for me.

The risk was that she’d leapfrog me not on results, but simply by getting closer to one of
the incubator’s founders or investors and selling herself on what we dubbed here
“executive skills” (leadership, confidence, high-power, risk taking, etc.).

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That was a real risk, I knew it.

The powerseeker makes a move on the founder

She pulled the move I was fearing far, far sooner than I’d expected.

One Friday we went out drinking with some colleagues after work.
Me not being too much into partying with colleagues, I went home relatively early.
She stayed.
Until the bitter end.
She stayed until it was just her and N., one of the early investors in our company, and the
interim CEO.

They ended up late at night to get food in a McDonald, where he told her “I know you
want me”. That’s how she told the story though.
I didn’t hear the sexual side of the story from his side, but what’s pretty much safe to
guess is that she was getting sexual with someone who could potentially promote her
quickly.

N. did say something about that night, though.

He had a blast, and he loved the powerseeker’s tough demeanor. Apparently, she had told
off a McDonald employee for being too slow, and N. loved it.
N. was one of those executives who believes that to go that top, you have to be aggressive.
And the powerseeker was showing plenty of aggression -both sexually, and with low-level
folks-.

The powerseeker might have failed to have sex with N., but she had gotten close.
She might have succeeded at the next outing. And she was building a reputation for being
the kind of woman who might offend a guy or two but who “gets shit done”.
Some colleagues were also saying the same.

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It was me who had done all the work, but she was getting an equally good reputation only
based on marketing and appearance.

This story, again, should warn you about the importance of self-promotion, politics, and
showing off those high-power executive skills.

Picking the wrong executive

Luckily for me, N. was a falling star on the way out.

The powerseeker lacked deeper analytical and critical thinking skills.

She didn’t have a reality-based power map, and she went for the big name instead of
considering N.’s trajectory.

N. was also very similar to the powerseeker: advancing more on political acumen and
“executive skills” rather than on true results.
It was a big fuck-up at work that had cost N. his position -and future- in the incubator. As
the interim CEO he OKed a customer for us without properly checking their finances. And
now, unknowingly, we were extending lifelines to a company on the verge of bankruptcy.
Then, he sought to shift the blame to the head of risk management, who wasn’t even in
the company when that customer was onboarded.
Typical mistake of powerseeker: get results quick, advance, and then hope that the mess
you leave behind will not drag you down.

I gave you this background to provide you with a snapshot of how purebred political
animals operate.
Now let’s go ahead with the story, and let’s see how you can tackle them.

Limitations of Powerseekers
If political animals can marry results and politics, they are lethal.

But that’s not often the case.

The political animal, which often has sociopath tendencies or is a full-fledged sociopath,
looks for the shortcut.
They try to seduce, charm, threaten and bedazzle their way to the top. Lots of smoke, but
little actual results.

Sometimes, if they hit it off particularly well with some high flyers, they can be successful
with that strategy and they will take the elevator while most others are on the stairs.

And if you were an enemy with the now more powerful powerseeker, chances are they will
want to exact revenge on you.

So, how do you defend -and beat- political animals?

Beating Political Animals

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This guide will be nasty.

The usual disclaimer here is: make sure you can’t make friends first.
It’s difficult to be real friends with political animals because they want power without
sharing.

But you might piggyback on part of the ride.

Also consider that as an option.

1. Get your hands dirty: get political

If you’re the type of person who doesn’t know the names of upper management and upper
management has no idea who you are, you should probably start there.

Use the previous lessons to determine who’s got the power in your organization, then start
working them.
Attend all company events, stay until late to make some chance encounters happen, and
self-promote. Oh, and make alliances and some brothers or sisters in arms. That’s power,
and political animals respect power.

2. Don’t buy the stories: stick to what you see

Political animals love telling stories.

Their achievements, their friendships with high-flyers and all their political power.

They understand that perceptions shape reality and that reputation

translates well into actual power.
By spreading the word of their successes and their close relationships with high flyers,
they increase their perceived political clout.

Be aware of that game and always discount what they say.

Lots of them are just lies and fabrications.

3. Show yourself a powerful player

Political animals respect power.

And they despise weakness.

Let them think you’re weak only if that’s strategic.

Don’t start a race with them, but show strength, resolve and connections of your own.

4. Keep your connections for yourself

Political animals long to suck you dry of your juiciest connections.

This is the time to be Machiavellian.

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Introduce them to friends and colleagues that they would meet anyway so that you seem
friendly and welcoming.
But keep your best connections for yourself. It’s safe to introduce your allies and brothers
in arms only as long as you are very tight with them. If not, the powerseeker might
actively try to undo your alliances.
In doubt, avoid.
Keep your alliances to yourself.

For example, the powerseeker of this story wanted to get to know my brother in arms,
whom by the time was working on his own business.
But I never made that intro.
Little later, she got my BiA phone number from someone else, but I had warned him
about her, and my BiA never picked up.

He said:

If she had called prospect as often as she tried to reach me, she would still have a job.

Great point.

5. Don’t teach them (& don’t fix their mistakes)

Political animals are power seekers par excellence.

They will not be grateful you taught them.

They will only resent you had power over them.

Instead, leverage their ignorance.

Animals who focus on the political shortcut often fall short of deep knowledge. Sometimes
even basic knowledge.

They often develop a superficial charm that hooks people in, but when the conversation
gets deeper their shallowness gives them away.
You want to make their shallowness as obvious as possible to the people with power.

Example: Letting the powerseeker shame herself

The powerseeker of the above example confused our debt financing with venture capital
financing -something very different, and very basic-.

But I never corrected her.

When we were sitting at lunch with one of the incubators’ investors and possible direct
investor in our venture, she mixed up the two in front of him, and she looked like an idiot.
Such a small detail, and yet such a huge win for me.
After such a blunder it’s fair to assume that if he was going to invest in our company, he
would have preferred me to advance.

6. Keep putting numbers on the board

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Your renewed focus on people and politics must not take away from your results.

As a matter of fact, double down on results: they will be your biggest leverage when the
chips fall.

And try to (secretly) nudge them towards delivering little.

The less the political animals deliver, the better off you are.

Pretend you’re not working that hard. Pretend to be interested in politics like they are and
talk little about, you know… Actual work.

7. Pitch them against your boss

Here’s is another trap political animals sometimes fall into.

If you have several layers above you, political animals can make the terrible mistake of
going for the upper layers while forgetting the one right above them.
We just had one person above us, but we had the incubators founders and lots of deep-
pocket people around.
That’s who the powerseeker was focusing on, and I was both worried about it, and very
happy about it.

Worried because she might have taken a lift up, and happy because she was snubbing our
boss.

You must (secretly) encourage the powerseeker to snub your boss.

Don’t expose yourself too much, but hint that HR rumors have it that “your boss might
not stay long”.
Throw off comments that hint at your boss having little power. They don’t have “balls” for
this job and they’re weak.

As they make more connections, political animals grow in hubris and feel superior to your
boss. That’s exactly what you want.
You want to encourage that idea by building them up and making your boss seem weaker.

That way, you set the two of them on a collision course.

Trust me, it’s not so difficult and unlikely because political animals naturally dislike those
who have power over them.

8. Leverage the power triangle

If you keep focusing on your job, growing your knowledge and putting numbers on the
board, the difference between you and the political animal will keep growing when it
comes to work.

Now you got growing resentment between the powerseeker and your boss while you are
actually producing real work.
That’s exactly the situation you want to be in.

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Your boss, one of the few with internal knowledge of your and her work, will more and
more be on your side, which the political animal will resent.

9. Deflect hatred towards your boss

Now you must be careful.

Your boss could explicitly say you’re doing better.

He might even say you are “more senior”, or the first in line for promotion, shares,
partner, or whatever you have it.
Worst of all, he might compare the two of you.

Your boss might consciously or unconsciously try to make it you VS the powerseeker.

Do NOT allow it to become a “you VS the powerseeker”.

You want to keep it a “powerseeker VS boss”.

Tell the powerseeker you’re not happy of the boss saying so because you’re a team.
Say he’s saying that to keep the heat off of himself and his performance. If you want to
overdo it, you might hint that the boss is trying to pass the blame onto the powerseeker.

You might hint the boss doesn’t see the political animal’s real value.
Maybe he’s jealous?
More narcissistic political animals will buy that hook, line and sinker.

10. Deliver your last push

Chances are that your boss is not blind.

He knows the powerseeker does not like him, he knows that the results between you tow
are not comparable, and he knows the powerseeker is going all0in on politics.

He might even fear the powerseeker is going to leapfrog him.

By now, he is thinking about firing the powerseeker.

If you did a good job and kept a good relationship with your boss, it’s possible he lets out
some complaints about the powerseeker.
It’s also possible he will come asking you for feedback (this happened to me), and this is
your chance of delivering a little push.

Don’t overdo it: the harder you shove, the less natural and honest you seem.
And if your boss is asking, chances are he doesn’t need any big push but is just looking for
confirmation.

Say instead something like this:

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 Boss: what do you think of the political animal?
You: Look boss, I want to win and I am here to do a great job. That’s my focus. I don’t do
much politics, I’m all about results.
Let’s build a great team where we can focus on work.

Boom.
Without saying anything you sold him on firing the political animal and positioned
yourself as a team player who’s there for the company.

Next promotion’s on you 😉

How Effective is This Technique

It might sound complex, but it aligns with the natural predisposition of political animals
and the natural power dynamics of the workplace.

And that’s why it’s simpler than it sounds and why it can be highly effective.

I have worked with two political animals and replayed this scenario, very similarly, with
both of them (the one from this story I’m pretty sure was a sociopath, the other one
probably “just” a power-hungry political animal).

What If It’s a High-Performing Powerseeker?

Political animals who are great at both politics and results are a rare breed.

But you will see them in much higher concentrations in top consultants such as McKinsey,
Bain, and BCG.
When they’re hired as external consultants they go after upper management like rabid
dogs.

And of course, they are also knowledgeable enough not to mix up debt and venture
financing.

They are also smart enough to deliver good work and sell it well, covering their gaps and
embellishing their results. As a matter of fact, the N.1 non-written rule of consultants is to
sound smarter and more knowledgeable than they actually are.

And that’s exactly the N.1 weakness you should exploit.

Coming from top grades at school, strong of their princes’ salaries, and used to the
luxuries of their top hotels, they start believing their own hype.
That leads them to an attitude of superiority, and that makes your job easier.

Your task is to keep fueling that attitude. This is the time to look dumber than your mark.

Remember: the easiest fight to win is the one where your opponent hasn’t even
risen his guard.

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One great option is to make your boss resent that air of superiority.
And you position yourself as the more gregarious, self-effacing -but equally effective- guy.
If you deliver nearly good results, chances are that your boss will prefer you.

Political Animals In Cahoots With Boss

The worst situation you can have is a political animal that is siding with your boss.
And your boss that is siding with the political animal.

That’s also the sign of a toxic workplace, by the way.

If you need that job, or if you want to stay there, you gotta do something there or not only
you won’t move up any time soon, but your job is on the line.

Your number one priority here is not becoming the enemy. It’s bad if they side one with
each other, but if they side against you, then you’re toast.

Your political colleague will not want you close to keep the boss for himself.
Don’t try to get close to your colleague: their entrenched interest against you is too strong.
You want to improve your relationship with the boss instead.

PRO tip: sit next to your boss

Pay attention to body language.
At meetings, don’t sit with them on one side of the table and you on the other.
Try to sit in between or next to your boss.

Show them for their pettiness

A (risky) move you can try is to shame them for their “too close for comfort” alliance.

If you can deliver a strong shameful punch, it’s possible that your boss will feel guilty and
will drop the political animal.

To do it, keep being a top professional and always friendly. And when the political animal
tries to frame you, deliver your self-righteous punch.
Here is a great example from Miranda in “Sex and the City”:

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Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/8aIYz6mia74

After Miranda’s delivery, the boss is likely to think that he has been dragged in a petty,
personal political warfare.
It’s possible he will distance himself from the political player and seek to make amends
with Miranda.

Don’t complain of political animals to your boss

Should you complain to your boss about political animals?

No, I recommend you wait for the last stages.

You better position yourself as the straight shooter who puts in great work. That gives you
more leverage later on.

Early complaints instead can make you come across as a political player yourself, more
motivated by power than by results.

And especially never complain to your boss if the political animal is trying to work your
boss.

Bosses, just like most normal people, love employees pandering to them.

When you complain that your colleague is being political this is what your boss hears:

Is this fucker telling me I don’t deserve admiration?

And maybe he doesn’t deserve admiration, BUT… You don’t want to be the one reminding
him.

Questions? Open A Topic & Ask Here!

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