How to be professional… Workplaces can be full of all types of thinking, both good and bad. The challenge with over 75% of the national workforce being unhappy at their current jobs comes when you see how that spirals out throughout the workplace dynamic/culture. So how do you protect yourself and remain professional in a world that has a large percentage of disengaged workers? I suggest two things. One, if you do not hold the target, the arrow will be less likely to come your way. That is to say, your integrity is what you have going into and leaving a job, guard it and don’t open yourself up to the engagement of counter-productive activity. Two, focus on facts and quality within your workplace, and the specifics of your job. Don’t get distracted. Facts and quality are solid. Regardless of workplace politics facts and quality are two items that will support your integrity day in and day out. The bottom line here is people on average don’t enjoy a negative atmosphere, but do often participate in it. So note to self, you can’t change what you feed.
The Positive Impact Of Complaining
As for the positive impact of complaining…there is none. There are positive outcomes to constructive feedback, offering alternatives, and/or taking ownership of a potential new course of action. I’m not saying that your life is happy, joyful, fun-filled all the time as we know this is not the case. I am saying framing action addressing the less desirable components of your life and/or job, is an amazing step and opportunity to add more fun, joy and happy into it.
How To Motivate
I read this article today and enjoyed it so much I wanted to share it. My favorite part: “Autonomy means we don’t like being told what to do. Once we feel we’re being pushed around, we check out.” The article is brief, but has some excellent advice/reminders of the simplicity of actually engaging workers and creating a rewarding workplace. Click below if you’d like to read it. How To Be Motivated
Survival of the Fittest? Competition vs. Cooperation
Survival of the Fittest? Competition vs. Cooperation? Our culture has the propensity to value competition over all else. Often rooted in the Darwin alleged theory of survival of the fittest. I’m not sure how Darwin’s theory morphed into the manner of how we often flippantly interpret it. I am however sure that interpretation is off base when it comes to the workplace. Cooperation and adaptability is what Darwin was focused on. Darwin himself only mentioned survival of the fittest twice. In contrast he mentioned the concept of love/cooperation/adaptability (call it what you want) ninety-five times. He was correct. Cooperation will win every time when you look at the big picture. And in the workplace it will create a more productivity, higher return on ongoing efforts and perhaps even re-engage the over 70% of employees out there that are actively disengaged in their jobs. That is a lot of unproductive dollars going to wages for unproductive work. Creating a culture of cooperation increases your culture of adaptability and will result in increased ROI, increased employee retention, higher productivity, etc. It will maximize both time and results.
What Just Happened?
This week I found myself asking myself “What just happened?!” I had just finished raising my voice towards an employee. That isn’t me. That isn’t behavior I approve of or exhibit. So what just happen? I want to preface this with I’m overjoyed that I had the knowledge to recognize I was at the beginning of a very dark and onerous path. One a lot of us go down thinking “this situation requires it.” Let me help you out, there is never a situation that requires you to treat others unkindly. Never. “Never” seems like a powerful statement in a world where people can be idiots and/or jerks. Here is the thing though, you (most likely) don’t want to be an idiot or a jerk. And you will be once you creep from ‘just this time’ into the next time and next time… BOOM, you’ve now got a new habit/behavior and BOOM you are now an idiot or jerk. How does that work out for everybody? Not good my friend, not good. I great friend and amazing coach sent the following link which very appropriately timed I got this morning, http://zenhabits.net/conscious/ . It addresses what I like to call “action creep”. Actions that slowly creep into behaviors and habits. Actions that also can turn us into a creep. The path you go down will determine your destination. This is to say, be very aware of the path(s) you pick daily. And above all, don’t let FEAR of failure or confrontation bully you into becoming someone you know at your core you are not.