You stab my back, and I'll stab yours

In business, there has always been an epic conflict between Sales and Service. To hear Service talk about it, Sales is the girl who can't say no (think Rizzo from "Grease"): they'll promise everything, to everybody, ever time. They don't think the down side, they never play devil's advocate, and they don't worry about setting realistic expectations.

Of course, Sales thinks that Service is the buttoned-up good girl (think Sandy from "Grease"): they're no fun, they're unwilling to bend the rules or shake things up, and they don't worry about making the customers happy.

There's probably a grain of truth (or more) to both of these characterizations, but they're small potatoes compared to the smaller-scale battles that many of us fight every day. That's right, kids: I'm talking about office politics. It's bad enough that we have to "fight"  with our competition; it's worse that we have to fight the sales/service conflict; let's find a way to make things really hard on ourselves - and our employees - by fighting each other, too. Because no day is complete unless you walk out of the office feeling as though you've been beaten up by  people who are supposed to be on the same team as you.

And of course, because the computer gods are fickle, the rest of my post got lost when my TypePad connection fizzled at 4:30 this morning. Don't you love it when that happens?

Rather than attempt to recreate the genius that was my original set of thoughts (not really), I'll just give you a few tips to survive an ugly political landscape:

1. Be true to yourself. If playing the game has you so stressed out that you're sucking down antacids like candy, then you might be in too deep. Perhaps it's time to reconsider your position - or your employer.
2. Sometimes, politics can work to your advantage without killing your soul in the process. Don't automatically equate office politics to evil.
3. Bottom line, remember that it's not your life, and it's not a reflection of your value as a human being. It's just a job, not matter how much you love it. Your family, your friends, and your self-esteem will always matter more - so don't sell your soul for empty success.

Tomorrow, we'll talk about growth as a strategic driver of business.