Career success or failure is often determined as much by how well one is able to "play the game" as by one’s performance on the job. Office politics are played out every single day from corporate boardrooms to small businesses around the world. It is the savvy employee who learns how to navigate this landscape and is able to get ahead.

Recently, Sodexo partnered with the Multicultural Foodservice & Hospitality Alliance (MFHA) to sponsor a workshop entitled "Navigating the Corporate Landscape: The Politics of Promotion," held at the Coca-Cola Company headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. MFHA is the premier diversity organization that strives to be the "straight talk" voice that educates, advocates and connects its members with opportunities to grow and achieve. During the workshop, participants were led through a series of exercises to identify political situations and to learn how to become better engaged in such situations at the workplace. Following the workshop, participants were able to walk away with offensive and defensive tactics to put into their career toolbox.

The workshop culminated with longtime Sodexo employee Gail Darlington-Delay participating in a panel discussion about the ups and downs she faced in her early career as a registered dietitian. In her words, she naively assumed that she could come to work and do her job very well and that she would be recognized for her achievement. When this did not happen, she began networking with more seasoned members of her department to try to determine what she needed to do to get ahead. She learned that there were other factors that came into play and could help position her within the organization, such as volunteering to work on stretch assignments or becoming visible in outside professional development meetings. When she coupled these newfound techniques with her continued hard work, within a year she was promoted into a new position with increasing responsibilities. Gail eventually moved on from dietetics and was able to use the techniques that she garnered very early in her career to carve out a completely different niche for herself as a Senior Business Technical Analyst with Sodexo.

Her testimony was proof positive to the participants of this very informative workshop that while "politics" may sometimes play a role in promotion, what is even more important to career success is participating in activities that give you exposure to other operating environments, as well as serve to stretch the boundaries of what you may have thought possible for your career.