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How does it make you feel when you accidentally overhear someone complaining about you? Believe it or not, most people, no, everyone is trying as hard as they can try. We are all given a set of emotional baggage we have to carry. This goes all the way back to childhood and gene pools. But let’s not try to be "shrinks." Let’s see what we can do about making our work place a better and more enjoyable place to live and work. Most of us spend a major part of our waking hours at work. How do we make the best of it? The most critical element for a healthy work environment or any other environment is trust. The biggest lessons in trust I learned came from flying close formation in combat. This was life and death. Two key elements came into play. First is the perception by others of your competence. If I’m going to trust you with my life at supersonic speeds close to the ground or in combat, I need to believe you are competent. It doesn’t help for you to talk about it. I need to observe you and hear what others say about you. Contrary to popular opinion, a good environment is not necessarily one in which everyone is always having fun. Peter Drucker tells the story of a manager who went away to a retreat and came back a new person: smiling, happy, joking, full of fun. Everyone was in shock. He normally was intense, short with words and a bit abrasive. Yet everyone respected his competence. Production went sideways with this new jovial person in charge. In time the retreat wore off and things got back to normal and production went back up. This does not mean you don’t have to improve. Competence goes hand and hand with life long learning. It does mean that trust and competence are more important than being a good joke teller. The point here is, trust is "number one." Trust is composed of two elements, competence and keeping commitments. This again becomes a belief based on observation of your actions, not words. Simply put, "do you do what you say you will do." One of the easiest ways to ruin the moral in an office is to come in late, not tell anyone in advance, and force everyone else to scramble to cover for you. This will start the rumor mill and generate snide comments at lightning speed and it’s just the start of the day. Watch, lot’s of other things will go wrong that day and guess who will get the blame, "The inconsiderate xyz who came in late." Practice keeping your commitments in the little things. Be on time. If you promise to get back to someone in the morning, do it, don’t let it slip to the afternoon or the next day. Write things down so you remember what you have agreed to do. Realize that the perception others have is their reality. With frequent communication and feedback you can judge if you and others are looking at things the same way. There is no substitute for face to face discussion where both parties are trying to understand and relate |
