Every big corporation has politics but people at Nike have a unique way of backstabbing and gaslighting. The amount of insecure passive aggressive senior directors and VPs that exist here is mind blowing. I know leaving is always an option but there are also some good folks out here who know how to navigate this place really well! What is the best tip to navigate Nike politics that helps the good guy win for a change?
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Keep your head down and don't tackle any bulls head on.
Play jerks against jerks "Yes I understand your unreasonable demand. But Jamie over in X says their dog and pony show is a higher priority. Can you reach out to them and let me know what I should focus on?"
Always appear to be helpful. Even when you're having someone take a metaphorical hike on their way to being told "No!"
Years of sh-t HR policies has created a battle royale where your next promotion is based on your allegience and contribution to the old boys fraternity or the old girls sorority.
Believe no one, trust no one and execute your agenda. Play both sides.
Retail is more old girls territory while wholesale is mostly controlled by the old boys. The current holy swoosh emperor is a member of the old boys and that should give you some clarity.
If you are in supporting functions territories, especially in tech than you should aim to get out and join the marketplace battleground. there are adjacent terriortories within supporting function territories so your first move should be anchoring to that. Dont do something stupid like I did and get canned into a terriorty like supply chain tech. Always aim to get closer to P&L since your ki-l and prestige points will scale better on that tajectory. You will hit diminishing returns faster in supporting functions.
Try to understand what ails your incompetent leader and try to adress that problem. These people hold on to lot of legendary questlines involving multiple steps so you might need to grind some reputation with them first before the questlines open up for you.
Ignore their incompetence, that is not your concern. Everyone in N ike is incompetent and that includes you and me. What the fu-k you are you doing here if you have the competency while you can have a better life elsewhere?
Now we are here to fix that!
Grinding on the questline will give you a new perspective. That nothing matters, 90% of all the work is already duplicated somewhere else and there is no accountability as long as you are a part of the two major factions. Play both sides.
Once you are done with you quesline and has given your useless liege some material for them to chase their next promotion, these is a good chance that you can make it to the next rank based on the fireworks you have created. Focus on the story while ignoring deliverables.
In you next rank you will probably feel insecure because you lied and cheated your way to this new position rather than doing good work. You will have a team reporting to you know looking up for leadership for innocent eyes.
Guess what? They will actually ask you to support them with their career journey and personal development. They dont know that they need to lie and cheat their way to the next promotion.... yet. HR will give you no support and you will burn yourself out if you actually want to lead. No one gives a single cr-p on how you lead. Once again what is important is the fireworks you create and enabling you new leader a chance at their next promotion.
You will essentially repeat the same process while ignoring the demands from your team. You will need to deliver the bare minimum while focusing on the factions wars and you will understand that dimishing returns are higher in this level and you need minions and sacrificial pawns.
You also have a team under you now, what a coincidence!
There will be some good people doing good work. Gaslight them and make them believe that you are there for them. The more motivated they are, the more ideas they will share with you. Steal them. Dont allow these good people to move out, they are essential work horses to deliver your bare minimum deliverables to the business.
What you need to do is to identify some snakes and douchebags amongs your team with ambition. People who you can trust enough to hand out a quest that ties to the objectives of your overlords. Empower the snakes to lie and cheat to bring you what you need. Once you get your next promotion their wellbeing is no longer your concern. They are your fellow snakes but sometimes there are some minions there where you can carry along in your journey.
As you gain more ranks HR will give you new unlocks in your faction tree that enables you to carry your minions with you as you level up with each promotion. You need your own team of snakes. Sometimes they not be reporting to you but this is exactly what you need. You need your snakes to infiltrate the castles of your competitors. Their loyalty to you will always be dubious so you really need to perfect your manipulation, fear and gaslighting skills.
Ignore honest and hard working people. They will try to generate shareholder revenue and will try to drag you down with notions of "doing the right thing" and "team-work"
As you climb higher, the more snakes you will need to unlock to create your fireworks for you. Once you have access to more budget and vendor opportunities that is where the real fun starts. Now you can engage with external suppliers and have access to more snakes. They can be leveraged to line your own pockets. Progressing further will unlock you new opportunities to get board positions in exchange of purchasing useless cr-p from them for your business unit.
As long as you polish your dark triad skills more and more levels will unlock in your tree and after a certain point the amount of snakes working for you will catapult you to the C-level due to scaling.
Than you will open this website on a thursday and scroll through the bitter minions and will search how many times you initials pop up here. You will smile and take a sip from your expensive wine as you cross names over in your org chart while you are working on the next reorg. HR is under your thumb now and will place your minions to wherever you want them to be by any means necessary.
Dont forget to ask one of your minions to pen you a strong leadership message that you will read from the telepromter in you next all-hands meeting. Make sure that you are talking about the hustle, culture, and how important it is to win as a team and how much you believe in our inclusive hiring process and how important it is to work on your IDP with your manager and set your goals. Give a huge shoutout to the tremendous work that HR has done with workday especially on training modules.
There is nothing wrong from your new perspective now, things are working exactly as intended.
Former employee here. Left Nike this year. All my insecurities and mental health issues resolved. Years of walking around worried about who was gonna stab me in the back, trying to make sure I was perfect all the time turned me into a terrible person.
You can have a better life at another company. My new one treats me like a human, no micro managing, respects work life balance, people aren’t gunning all around for their next promotion.
@sip
“"Winning" is collecting your paycheck, there isn't some fanciful version where you do crafty things and life magically improves.”
Real advice and a good reminder to focus my energy on things that matter rather than BS office politics.
All good points. Fist of all, you need to assume all your managers / leaders are politician even though there might be few decent ones (less than 5% in my opinion). Secondly, do the exact opposite what your leader tells you. For example, if your boss tells you I am here for you and please feel comfortable to speak up your concerns. DON'T do it, it's the greatest scam at Nike.
Don't participate in politics. Unless your title is Nike Politician, if you're engaged in politics you are a part of the problem. If you're trying to participate, you're trying to be a part of the problem. Pay attention to those who hinge their career on politics. Know that they are a part of the problem. For as long as those people are here (they win most of the Maxims right now), nothing get's better.
"Winning" is collecting your paycheck is a sad but true statement these days. It was not like this when I joined 20 years ago and I hope EH does some major housecleaning to move us in the right direction to getting that passion back as a company. We also need to bring back at least some of the great leaders that were let go over the last couple of years.
long long time former employee and you aren't going to like the answer...
Be nice to everyone you work with, regardless of who they are. Relentlessly and continuously.
And do a detailed status report to your direct manager every week without fail.
"Winning" is collecting your paycheck, there isn't some fanciful version where you do crafty things and life magically improves.
It's an interesting question though OP.
If you try to play the politics game, you’ve lost already. Keep your head down and do good work, don’t give reasons for others to be Machiavellian against you.