How do you manage power dynamics in an organization? In Part One, a panel of business leaders joined us to unpack how one’s deep-seated emotions can lead to positive and negative office politics. In this episode, we look at various solutions and courses of action you can take to mitigate, manage, and navigate the politics more effectively.

Nearly everyone experiences the effects of office politics at some point in their careers—so what does it take to build that political know-how to help you get unstuck and thrive? In this episode, a panel of business leaders gives the lay of the land by exploring what office politics really means, the positive and negative sides of it all, and most importantly, what’s drives the political behavior at its core.

Scott DiGiammarino is the CEO of MovieComm, a SAAS- based technology company that helps leaders lead through the power of movie clips. Prior to MovieComm, Scott was a senior executive at American Express. During his tenure, he turned around one of the worst performing offices and achieved the top ranked spot in a year, then held that spot for 20 years. He grew the business significantly, and in the process, applied creative solutions such as movie clips to motivate and engage a geographically distributed, expanding, and increasingly younger workforce.

Lee Sommers is the owner of Purpose Personal Fitness, a leading strength and athletic training company. He’s been involved in the fitness industry for almost 20 years and has worked with athletes of all levels, including Olympic champion Katie Ledecky. He has seen the industry evolve over that time with a primary focus on profit over people, which Lee believes is a mistake, in the long term.