How much political capital do you have?

Being a good manager is not enough for you to run an organization or a department successfully. It is very important that you have what is known as political capital. Like money, political capital is a currency you spend, only this time its intangible and there fore is difficult o quantify and measure. Political capital comprises of two key components: relationship capability and reputation. The former has to do with your ability to have proper and rewarding work relations with everyone in your organization. It becomes more important when the productive process of your organization is taken into consideration. If you do not have proper work relations with the people in your organization they will do what they can to stifle your activity, reduce your progress and eventually damage your success!
Please note that we are not saying that everyone you work with has to like you! Far from it. Remember the out worn phrase: "you cant please everyone!"  But one thing you can do is earn their respect. Yes, you can earn everyone's respect if you know your job and you treat people right. You may not be able to treat everyone fairly in an overbearing organization where the company has a very strong hostile culture, but you can make an effort to do the right thing at least ninety per cent of the time.
When you are seen to do the right thing and you are treating people right as much as possible your account will be full in terms of political capital. Added to that is your reputation in the organization. What do people think about you. How do they see you? Perception is difficult to fake over a long period of time. You can pretend for some time but in periods of stress and extreme pressure your real person will manifest.
So pile up your political capital because a day of reckoning is coming when organizational or positional authority will not suffice to get things you urgently want. You will have to fall back on your capital, make a withdrawal and get the job done. That's why its so important.
During a change of guards at two public offices in Nigeria the responses of the officers to the CEO in each organization varied and was extremely different: In one organization, some of the staff protested audibly when they heard that their boss had been removed from his position. Reports say some of the members of staff actually broke down in tears and complained about their inability to get another boss like the one that was leaving. In another organization members of staff gloated and cheered, they couldn't wait for their boss who was a woman to leave the premises when it was announced. Can you spot the difference?