In this episode of The Secret Life of Great Leaders, Michael Bunting speaks with workplace politics expert Niven Postma about the uncomfortable truth most leaders avoid: politics isn't optional, and pretending otherwise is naive. Niven is the author of If You Don't Do Politics, Politics Will Do You, a contributor to Harvard Business Review, and a guest lecturer at Stanford, London Business School and Cambridge's Institute for Sustainability Leadership. She is currently completing a PhD examining how workplace politics play out differently for women.Together, they unpack the false choice between being a decent human being and playing the political game, and why the real distinction is between good politics and bad, not politics and none. Niven reframes reputation as trust at scale, explores how image management sits on a spectrum between narcissism and naive self-effacement, and explains why matching your political skill to your environment matters more than any single tactic. The conversation also moves into the gendered reality of workplace politics, including striking research on how careers shift when people transition gender, and closes with a warning on toxic environments: when the fear in a room stops being motivating and starts being corrosive, no amount of savvy will save you.If you have ever felt torn between staying above the fray and getting outmanoeuvred by people who aren't, this episode offers a grounded, ethical way to engage with the politics that already surround you, starting with one simple audit: who is actually in your personal boardroom?

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“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

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