Positive politics: playing corporate games with personal integrity

The desire for power is personal. Competence and political intelligence are the prerequisites for handling power in a healthy manner. Politics is not a nasty word or a set of behaviors that inevitably turns you into a shady character of whom your mother would be ashamed. You need never divorce your own morality from the situation. The choice to improve your political functioning is yours. You always retain the right to play, and you retain the right to decide when to play. But you are a better manager, a better professional, and a more educated person if you can identify what others are doing and how their behavior will impact you. It is not just for success, it is for survival--success and survival on your own terms.