No matter your education, ability or accomplishments if you’re not skilled at playing well with others, all your hard work and drive will be for not.
Here’s 3 common sense ways to help you to “play nice”.
Verbal and non-verbal communications.
Verbal or non-verbal sarcasm or talking down to co-workers is felt not just by those you are addressing. It reverberates emotionally and stays in the long-term memory banks of your entire team. Worse, you risk losing the best people on your team first. Your A-level players are especially at risk because they’re the ones most vigilant about scoping out the health of their environments, and are also most likely being eyed by your competition.
Table solutions, not just problems.
The easiest thing in the world to do is identify problems. Anyone can do that. What sets average from A-level players apart is the ability to find and articulate workable solutions to these problems.
Frame your solutions as cost-effective benefits to the company and productivity gains to your team. You will be seen as a team player and, gain the respect and ear of others like you who are onside to make things better.
Acknowledge. Don’t blame.
If finding problems is the easiest thing to do then blaming others is a close second. It’s human nature to look outside at the cause of problems and to focus attention there. But this does little else but alienate yourself from others.
Nobody wants to be at the receiving end of blame. Focus attention on what is going right and acknowledge the good things individuals and teams are doing before presenting problems.
This is all part of staying in the solution and goes a long way towards your building and keeping strong, non-threatening and mutually respectful relationships with your peers and co-workers.
And isn’t having great relationships in our work what success is really all about?
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