Early in my career, I thought “politics” was a dirty word. I believed good work spoke for itself. I was wrong. Here’s what I learned: in any organization, you need political capital to get things done. Not the deceitful Machiavellian kind. The kind that comes from building genuine relationships and earning trust across the organization. 

Think of political capital as an asset. You invest in it, it compounds over time, and you spend it when you need to move quickly or get support for something important.   

What Political Capital Really Means 

In my book, The Business Acumen Handbook, I refer to political capital as the goodwill you’ve built with key influencers. It’s what allows you to get a last-minute budget increase approved, secure engineering resources for an urgent customer issue, have your strategy taken seriously by executives, and navigate organizational changes without becoming collateral damage. Without it, you’re constantly pushing uphill. With it, doors open faster. 

How to Build It (The Right Way) 

1. Synchronize with your boss. Understand how they prefer to work. Do they want detailed updates or high-level summaries? Morning check-ins or end-of-week reviews? Make their job easier, and they’ll become your biggest advocate. 

2. Establish ties with managers in other departments. Don’t just work with your engineering counterparts—build relationships with their managers. When you need something escalated, you’ll know who to call. Better yet, they’ll already trust you. 

3. Share information generously. When you learn something valuable about the market, a competitor, or a customer trend, could you share it with people who can use it? Knowledge hoarding kills political capital. Knowledge sharing builds it. 

4. Help others win. Does the VP of Sales have a quarterly target? Figure out how your product roadmap can help them hit it. Marketing needs a customer success story? Connect them with your best reference account. Political capital grows when you make others successful. 

The Long Game 

Building political capital takes time. You can’t fake it. Leaders can smell self-promotion from a mile away, and it backfires quickly. 

What works: being genuinely helpful, delivering consistently, and acting with integrity. These things compound. 

One warning: political capital can be spent, and it doesn’t regenerate instantly. Choose carefully when to use it. Save it for the battles that matter. 

Start this week: Identify one key relationship you haven’t invested in. Schedule a coffee conversation. Ask about their goals and challenges. Find one way to help them succeed. 

That’s how you build political capital that lasts.