I heard an interview on the Today programme this morning with a young British / Libyan woman who is in Libya to help ordinary people caught up in the current conflict. Her passion and motivation rang out as she stated: “I don’t care about the politics, they can all go blow themselves up for all I care. I only care about the people – the children, women and old people who are suffering. I just want to help them.”

Interesting how politics can all too often seem divorced from real people and in this case be perceived to be causing direct harm. In the workplace most of us will at some time or another have experienced “office politics” and know how they can hinder the performance of a team.

The voluntary sector for all its positive associations, clarity of purpose and mission, vision and values suffers its own share of politics. When I speak to career changers wanting to move into the voluntary sector I urge them to remove their rose tinted glasses and realise that charities are made up of people and face the same challenges of motivation, communication and team working as other organisations.

The key challenge for trustees and managers is to ensure that the teams of staff, volunteers and trustees work together in harmony. Discord causes damage – financial, emotional and reputational. Time spent resolving disputes between disgruntled team members could be better used on achieving positive outcomes for the charity’s service users, planning the future, helping make a difference.

People who share a common purpose and respect each others’ differences will be better motivated and use their time more productively than those who are suspicious of each other or lack understanding of the perspective of their colleagues. Trust and confidence take time to build and can be destroyed and replaced by doubt, cynicism and negativity. Individuals who arrive full of energy, passion and optimism can be deflated and subdued in an environment of tension and gossip. The good guys may leave rather than submit to the politics…..

So, what to do about it?

First, be aware that it may be happening in your organisation and take steps to overcome.

The following tips are relevant whether you are managing a team of staff, or volunteers or trustees or, indeed, a whole organisation with a mixed workforce:

1. Keep alert to any signs of conflict and negativity. Don’t accept that this is inevitable. There are plenty of positive harmonious teams out there.
2. Communicate the mission, vision and values of the organisation and ensure that everyone understands and is in agreement.
3. Get your team together on a regular basis to help plan and review and encourage open and constructive airing of views.
4. Ensure that each team member is clear about their role in the overall scheme of things and that they have regular one-to-one meetings with their line manager to discuss performance and give / receive feedback.
5. Ensure through effective performance management that each team member is “pulling their weight” and that fair and consistent principles are applied across the team.
6. Emphasise the importance of diversity and respect for difference and create time and opportunities for people to get to know each other – try introducing an informal afternoon tea session once a month; or a social gathering once in a while; or a non work-related interest group in a lunch break.
7. If despite this focus and your best efforts to involve, communicate and manage something does go wrong and you find yourself faced with a grievance, or a dispute to resolve, then deal with it professionally and try to learn from the experience.

There will be politics wherever there are people – it’s how you deal with them that counts.