Q: I’m frustrated! I work with a political game player!

A: Got a politician on your managment team? Someone who takes credit for everything and doesn’t hesitate to hang a coworker out to dry? Someone who conveniently forgets (or never hears) bad news and overestimates the impact of positive rumors? Someone who makes your stomach sink every time you need to go in and see him?

If you are in a position of having to ensure the success of the team, you’re actually in luck. The hardest part of dealing with a politician is managing your own emotions about him/her. More on that later. Working effectively with this individual is actually quite easy once you remove your mental obstacles:

1. Help the politician look good.
   This is what the politician wants, so give it to him/her! Politicians keep track of who their “friends” are. They live in a world of favors and chits, friends and not-friends. While you may not like helping the individual on a personal level, on a professional level, you’ll be earning yourself a credit for the future… and whereas you may feel that credit shouldn’t be necessary, remember that your feelings have to do with your own view of the world, and are irrelevant at the moment, because the politician doesn’t live in your world. You need to engage the politician on terms that he/she will understand.
2. Plan to take the hit.
   If it’s even a minor risk, make sure you are prepared should you find yourself hung out to dry. Expect it! Let the politician know that he (or she) will not look bad if the deal goes south. If you do this well, the politician will let you take the blame, but not the fall. What assurance do you have that the politician will protect you? None. But if the politician is savvy–and politicians usually are–he (or she) will protect you in case they need you to take the hit again in the future. Think Bush and Rumsfeld: Rumsfeld was rewarded for his loyalty for six years of job security despite taking bullet after bullet about the war. He only lost his job when Bush lost the power to protect him. Another example would be Alberto Gonzales.On the other hand, if the problem is a big one, prepare to go to war yourself. Arm yourself with the information you’ll need to save your own hide, even at the expense of the politician, should things hit the fan, because if the problem is big enough, you will get set up to take the fall, and knowing that ahead of time means having time to prepare. If you take advantage of this time, you’ll have nothing to fear.
3. Build a network.
   Connect and communicate with a lot of people outside your immediate group. Share stories about what you’re working on. Talk about progress. This will limit the degrees of freedom the politician has to spin a story, because too many people will know too much already.
4. No surprises.
   The politician is interested in appearances. So help him (or her) maintain them: NO SURPRISES!

One final note about the emotions that often get balled up when dealing with politics: many people feel icky engaging in politics. They feel as if they need to take a shower at the end of the day. If this is you, remember that part of “meeting people on their terms” means not judging those terms. As long as nothing illegal or unethical is being done, there’s no problem. And if you think all politics are fundamentally unethical, you can always submit your resignation and make your position known that way… and go to work in academia, or the military, or the clergy, where of course there are no politics… or maybe you can quit working all together and host your extended family over at your place every single day instead.

Jason Seiden is Co-founder and CEO of Ajax Social Media, a training company that shows professionals how use social media to work more effectively.