"Imagine what high school would be like if the popular kids graded exams. That's what corporate work is like for most people."
This is, sadly, very true. The track to reward and recognition in a corporation crosses the popularity track over and over, even in corporate IT. I saw a very senior engineer buck this whole setup once he used it to get to near the top. He was immediately quarantined and shipped off to another, less popular team. He still has strong leadership qualities, so they won't hellban him, but he's not in line for a promotion any time soon.
This is true, but in a very Darwinian way, the system selects for people who will thrive in the system.
At most F500+ corporations, the higher up the ladder you go, the more political your job becomes, and consequently, the less directly functional or operative it is. At the highest rungs of the big corporate ladder, you are essentially a politician. And little more. You are tasked with "legislation" the way a Congressman is tasked with such. But you're spending 99% of your time pandering to the base, setting up and maintaining alliances, cheerleading, politicking, and kissing babies.
These skills are derided by those who hate corporate politics, as most of us probably do. But to get to the top, and to manage effectively from the top, you need to play the game and be damned good at it. If not, you'll be out in 6 months -- and even if not, you'll be a lame duck, unable to get a coalition to advance your agenda. This is why, at each rung up the ladder, political skill, social capital, and favor become increasingly important criteria for advancement.
You're expected to get great results, of course -- but the number of people that stand in the way of your input --> your output increases exponentially the higher you climb. Ergo, your job is more about people than it is about the input itself.
This equation isn't going to change so long as the current structure of the public corporation doesn't change. For those of us who dislike it, we need: a) to cultivate specialties or skills we bring to the table that permit us freedom from "the game," or b) to work for startups and smaller companies.
I think it's worth separating two things commonly conflated as "politics." The first is the building of alliances, persuading, and general social skills-based work you mention. That's totally fine and expected-this is the positive form of politics.
The negative form of politics is when a manager's best interests are misaligned with the company or their direct reports. For example, John may not want to promote Bill, his star employee, if it means that Bill will join a different department and Bill's successes will no longer contribute to John's success. So John is incentivized to give his best employees moderate, but not great performance ratings. This is clearly negative for Bill and for the company as a whole.
That's almost correct. What you describe is true for the relationship between CEOs and the board. Or execs and other execs, neither over, nor below them, in the management structure. Those are corporate peers.
For those under your management the relationship is more similar to a military command structure.
Luckily corporate officers can't order you to kill or die. But corporate underlings don't elect their managers. There are many more people being managed, than there are peers.
"But corporate underlings don't elect their managers. There are many more people being managed, than there are peers."
Yes, but. The higher up you go, the higher up a lot of your underlings are, and the more they start to become power brokers in their own right. They report to you, and they will follow orders, but they have their own (strong) agendas, personal and political. Some of them are even rivals, waiting in the wings.
There's a command-and-control structure on a broad level, but the higher you go, the more the pyramid underneath you becomes something like a constituency. (They don't elect you, but they can rebel, they can become unproductive, etc. If you lose their respect, you lose them -- often literally).
This is, sadly, very true. The track to reward and recognition in a corporation crosses the popularity track over and over, even in corporate IT. I saw a very senior engineer buck this whole setup once he used it to get to near the top. He was immediately quarantined and shipped off to another, less popular team. He still has strong leadership qualities, so they won't hellban him, but he's not in line for a promotion any time soon.