My dear friends, colleagues, clients and students:

CareerQuest (Don Sutaria) was interviewed recently by The New York Times (Hillary Chura) for an article on consulting, scheduled to appear in March, 2007. We will provide excerpts in a future issue.

Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, New Jersey) has invited Don Sutaria to be a dinner speaker on March 20, 2007, for their graduating seniors. The topic is: How to Make a Successful Transition from "Backpack" (academia) to "Briefcase" (world of work).

Ismat Mangla of MarketWatch.com (a Dow Jones website) interviewed CareerQuest (Don Sutaria) for an article concerning older workers. This article, Bouncing Back into the Job Market, by Marshall Loeb, can be found in the February 24, 2007 issue at www.marketwatch.com. Sutaria has been quoted in several places in this article. The article can be accessed here.

CareerQuest is now a member of The Gateway Regional Chamber of Commerce.

This issue has a thought-provoking essay on Office Politics: How to Survive and Thrive in Office Politics by Don Sutaria, as well as a capsule summary of the best seller: A Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren in Food For The Soul.

A warm welcome to many of you from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry who have recently requested the free subscription to our monthly e-newsletter and other career-related information. We appreciate your trust. Periodically, we plan to publish articles on industry-related topics which you will find informational. Please peruse our recently updated website at www.careerquestcentral.com. It also contains the Newsletter Archive and Twenty Tips on How to Choose a Career Counselor, Coach or Advisor.

Career Doctor Don Answers Your Questions appears as a regular feature in the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE) - New Jersey Chapter newsletters. The September/October 2006, the November/December 2006, and the January/February 2007 newsletters can be viewed here.

Many of you have asked us if we provide counseling over the telephone and through e-mail, besides face-to-face counseling. The answer is 'Yes' to both questions. Besides, the pre-payment methods with credit cards is very easy, with a simple click, as can be seen on our website, www.careerquestcentral.com. Keep your feedback coming. Please feel free to share these newsletters with your friends, remembering to give us the due credit.

We want to wish you a happy St. Patrick's Day, a meaningful Easter, and a glorious Spring!

Until we meet again through the magic of e-mail,

Peace! Love! Shalom!

Don Sutaria, MS, IE (Prof.), PE
Founder, President & Life-Work Coach
CareerQuest


How to Survive and Thrive in Office Politics

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by Don Sutaria Easier said than done!

Agreed!

Still that should not prevent us from trying to understand the anatomy of office politics!

I bet when you first saw the title of this essay, your mind was struggling with some or all of the above thoughts. That is natural, normal, healthy and human.

I am not a psychologist but simply an observer of human nature.

Some of us might wonder: Will office politics ever go away? The answer is NO! Now what part of NO don't you understand...N or O! To turn a deaf ear to it is not just to remove yourself from office politics but from the company. How else would you find out, except through this grapevine, what is going on within your company? Besides, if you don't know what is going on around you, no one is going to know you are around.

A few years ago, CBS-TV finally recaptured the top spot in the Nielsen ratings under the leadership of its president, John B. Backe. He was promptly fired by the chairman of the board. "On the basis of performance there seemed to be no reason to fire him," said Newsweek magazine. The backroom speculation was that a philosophical argument with the chairman led to Backe's dismissal.

Well, John Q. and Mary J.! Doing your own job extremely well may not get you promoted; in fact, just the opposite may happen. Like Donald Trump, your boss may say, "You're fired!"

Are you shocked? Backe's firing reflects a common fact of organizational life in this free economy. No one is totally immune at any level, from being fired for unexplained reasons unrelated to job performance. This is plain and simple office politics and personal chemistry factors. The legalism of "Employment at Will" does not make it any easier.

What should you then do? You need a psychopolitical strategy for your career in order to play this game. Politics as defined in most dictionaries has a broad and a narrow meaning. The broad definition covers "the art or science of government." The narrow one implies "artful and often dishonest practices."

Contrary to popular beliefs, political realism is not at odds with integrity. In fact, political realism and effective leadership are based on emotional maturity. Experiences of executives with integrity have shown that most issues of ethics can be resolved fairly by the mature leader without violating his/her conscience. The politically astute also understand that the real unstated goal of a typical company is survival—never to be spoken about.

Politics is simply the story of human relationships. When two or three people are gathered together at the water fountain or the coffee machine, there is a natural caucus. When four people ride in a car-pool, there goes another caucus. I personally believe in the power of positive politics. Try it sometime, because as we sow, so we reap. In vernacular, "what goes around, comes around!" It never fails over an extended period of time.

One of the cardinal sacred rules in office politics is gratitude. Become known as a person who pays back. Another principle is to control your own politics instead of letting politics control you. For example, give "gifts", which are sometimes even more difficult to part with than real money. Experts tell us that "legitimate bribery" with the eight gifts stated here, works wonders in visible and invisible "diplomacy," nay "office politics." These are:

• The Gift of Praise
• The Gift of Service
• The Gift of Attention
• The Gift of Inspiration
• The Gift of Concession
• The Gift of Consideration
• The Gift of Gratitude
• The Gift of Your Physical Presence

Playing positive politics is easier than you think. It benefits that individual and the people around that person. The four simple and elegant guidelines are:

1. Talk about your work in a positive, interesting and constructive way.
2. Say something appreciative about your supervisor, subordinates, peers and company.
3. Keep performing a high quality, high volume job.
4. Help people around you, socialize at work and form business friendships.

Try this formula for thirty days and literally astonish yourself! Over the years, people have been admonished to stay out of office politics or your head will be handed to you on a platter. It is negative politics or "gutter politics" which brings down group productivity and destroys personal relationships.

The late great Speaker of the House of Representatives and Irish-American "Tip" O'Neil once stated that "All politics are local". How true that is! Tip was a consummate politician who believed in what he did and practiced what he preached. He was a very successful leader who became popular among his constituents because he listened to them. He would walk in the streets and talk to the working person and listened to what they had to say and to what they needed. Then he turned around and made it his policy and very rarely alienated those people who elected him because he represented their voices.

However, many of us must have formed an opinion of what a "politician" is in public life or in a work setting based on the 1972 movie, The Candidate, with Robert Redford. You may recall that Bill McKay (Robert Redford) is an idealistic young lawyer and son of a famous governor who is pressured into running for the United States Senate against the popular incumbent, with the assurance that he will lose and not have to give up his integrity or ideals. However, as the campaign deepens, he finds himself giving in and allowing himself to be manipulated as the polls slowly change and swing in his favor. Soon his backers decide that they want him to win after all. By the time Election Day arrives, McKay has become the exact person that he used to speak so vehemently against.

It is a well-documented fact that more than 80% of people lose their jobs, not because they are technically incompetent, but because of their failure to recognize the pitfalls inherent in organizations. Also, if a person reaches the top, he/she is not going to tell you how they got there.

People who operate successfully are skilled politically. Political skills are essentially leadership skills which can be learned. The sad scenario is that good performers who lack political skills find their prestige declining and therefore they do the only logical thing they know: They work harder instead of smarter which hastens their decline, possibly even leading to the loss of their job. Political skills or interpersonal skills are like lubrication in an organization, leading it to function smoothly. Skilled managers have some wonderful political tools at their command and they know how to use them wisely and well—when to talk, when to listen, when to put it in writing.

"Leave Him With A Smile" is another popular admonition to be taken very seriously by employers and employees. If you are leaving your job for a better one, human nature tempts you to tell your old employer what you think of him and his company. Bite your lip; control your tongue! Don't do it! Leave him with a smile. It is a very difficult thing to do and understandably so. Don't burn the bridges behind you. You may need to come back to the old place. Be loyal to your firm even after you leave it. Always speak well of your old employer and your old firm. To speak of them in bitter terms is merely to condemn yourself, and to have people judge you meanly. To boost them is to boost yourself. The reciprocal responsibility also lies with the employer.

Robert Bell, author of You Can Win at Office Politics, sums up a few key Political Do's and Dont's:

• Look at the downside of linking up with powerful factions.
• Let friends offer advice about political problems.
• Speak up to your boss if it means keeping peer respect.
• Discern what your boss wants in return for a raise or promotion.
• Establish your walkaway point and stick to it.
• Admit your mistakes before the boss discovers them himself.

• Assume your boss always has your best interests at heart.
• Get involved in a showdown if you are pretty sure to lose.
• Try to imitate the social graces of a smooth rival.
• Accept blindly anyone's claim that he is the boss' friend.
• Talk about things you are not officially supposed to know.
• Respond in kind to smear campaigns because they can backfire.
• Be a corporate loner. You do need friends to get ahead.

Food For The Soul: A Purpose-Driven Life

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Book by Rick Warren, review by Don Sutaria

Ask yourself: What is the magic in this book? Why has this book flown off the shelves at all bookstores and gained the coveted place of honor as #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List?

This book has been written by a minister, The Rev. Rick Warren, the founding pastor of Saddlebrook Church in Lake Forest, California.

The subtitle of this book is What on Earth Am I Here For? It is a groundbreaking manifesto on the meaning of life. That pretty much says it all.

Warren makes it very clear from the start that we are not an "accident". Even before the universe was created, God had us in mind, and he planned us for his purposes. These purposes will extend far beyond the few years we will spend on this earth. We were made to last forever! We were made for a mission.

Perhaps there is a major difference between other self-help books and this one. The other books mostly suggest that we try to discover the meaning and purpose of our lives by looking within ourselves, but Rick Warren says that is the wrong place to start. Warren's hypothesis is that we must begin with God our creator, and his reasons for creating us. We were made by God and for God, and until we understand that, life will never make sense.

This book claims to help us understand why we are alive and God's amazing plan for us—both here and now and for eternity. The author tries to guide us through a personal 40-day spiritual journey that will transform our answers to life's most important question: What on earth am I here for? Knowing God's purpose for creating us will reduce our stresses, focus our energies, simplify our decisions, give meaning to our lives, and most importantly, prepare us for eternity.

The Purpose Driven Life is a blueprint for Christian living in the 21st century—a lifestyle based on God's eternal purposes, not cultural values. It challenges the conventional definitions of worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism. Warren offers distilled wisdom on the essence of what life is all about.

Many of you may recall the incident in March 2005, when this spiritual book helped a hostage mollify her captor. Ashley Smith, a Duluth, Georgia, woman was held hostage in her apartment by Brian Nichols, the man accused in the courthouse killings in Atlanta. Ms. Smith, during this ordeal, retrieved a copy of this book from her bedroom, and read parts of it to Mr. Nichols. She discussed with him the book's themes of finding God's purpose for oneself. Those discussions are credited for leading her captor to release her unharmed and to his later surrendering to the police. Isn't that a modern day miracle?

This is a book of hope and challenge that we will read and re-read, and perhaps become a treasured classic to be shared with family and friends. Although it is a Christian book, it obviously appeals to an audience broader than believers alone. Regardless of your religious inclinations, I dare you to read this book, even if you take it out of your local public library!

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Don Sutaria is Founder and President of CareerQuest (formerly New Life Career Counseling), located in New York and New Jersey. CareerQuest is also mentioned in "What Color is Your Parachute?" Sutaria is a consultant to individuals and various corporations, offering executive coaching and career management services. He has developed unique methods for capturing jobs in the new millennium. He appeared on a Phil Donahue TV special on unorthodox methods of job hunting. Known as "Career Doctor Don", he has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Star-Ledger, The Union Leader, WorkingSmart, SmartMoney, Fortune, and on WINS and WOR radio. He specializes in counseling of international professionals, Generation X (age 20-29), career changers, freelancers, consultants, mid-career executives and people over age 50. He really believes that your career is a pathway to your soul.

Mr. Sutaria has over forty years of diversified industrial and management experience, complemented by training in career development and hands-on experience in career advising. He is an international cross-cultural trainer. He has also served on committees of several organizations, and conducted courses, seminars and symposiums at Columbia University, New York University, Nyack College, Alliance Graduate School of Counseling, and Rutgers. He is a member of the Association of Career Professionals International, Career Counselors Consortium, and Society for Human Resource Management.

Don earned his MS degree in Management from Kansas State University, an IE (Professional) degree in International Management and Personnel Relations from Columbia University, and obtained New York University's postgraduate Certificate in Adult Career Planning and Development.

Don Sutaria, M.S., I.E. (Prof.), P.E.

don@careerquestcentral.com     www.careerquestcentral.com     http://careerquestcentral.blogspot.com
Phone: (908) 686-8400     Fax: (908) 686-8400 (on request)     Cell: (908) 377-9015
CareerQuest     2165 Morris Avenue; Suite 15     Union, NJ 07083     Satellite Office in New York, NY