Politicians very rarely rank highly on “most-admired” lists unless you ask those taking tea in the House of Commons. Perhaps that is why political skills are often denigrated and those who wield them are distrusted.

Managers can little afford to be so suspicious, says Sir David Varney, the Prime Minister’s adviser on public service transformation and a former president of the CMI. Being able to build alliances in and outside your team is playing an increasingly important role in leadership.

“As you move through an organisation, every time you get promoted the number of people and the number of groups that you have to interact with grows,” Sir David says. “As you go farther up the organisation, the skills that you have in building alliances and in seeing different perspectives is in part a determinant of how far you are likely to move in an organisation.”

Organisations cannot exist in a vacuum, nor can managers, so it’s good news that political skills are within reach of all. Some are learnt in the playground, through taking part in the school play or team sports, long before the workplace is even thought about, Sir David says. In fact, the best place to learn how to network effectively and so build alliances could be outside the office.

Volunteering in a small organisation, where you can see the results of your actions and decisions much more quickly than in a large one, is a good way to learn political and management skills, says Terry Corby, the director of marketing, strategy and thought leadership at Accenture.

“It will teach you managerial skills because you will have to make managerial decisions [and] it will teach you about politics because people play the same games in small organisations as they do in large ones. And you can take the learning from those things back to the workplace.” Leaders are not born sprinkled with stardust; political skills can be learnt. But, says Tim Melville-Ross, the chairman of Bovis Homes, it is first necessary to know what an effective leader has to do and what he or she is trying to achieve; secondly, a leader must work with and through others. “Trying to do everything yourself is just a mug’s game,” he says. And finally, a leader has to communicate the plan to everyone else involved – over and over again.

Manoeuvring yourself to such a lofty position requires the right mix of intellect and skills to get you noticed without being too pushy. It’s a long and winding path so thank goodness one step is straightforward: get yourself on to the firm’s management development programme, Melville-Ross says. “It enhances your skill set and makes it clear to those who are in a position to develop your career that you are interested in your career being developed.”

So don’t just sit there, he says. If you really want to be a leader get up and do something about it.

Times Recommends

• Inspirational leadership
• How to get a new job
• The reluctant CEO