Archive for the ‘In the Workplace’ Category
 People skills. Collaboration. Group projects. Teams. Lately, business seem to have fallen in love with the idea of employees working together. The theory, apparently, is that two heads are better than one, and anything over three can’t help but produce something of genius.
In some ways, this point of view is understandable. After all, one person can have a crazy idea and just run with it, but if there are others around, they can rein that person in. Plus, with a group, things will be vetted as they move forward, making it more likely that the best ideas will rise to the top like the proverbial cream, right? Not necessarily.
The Loss of the Lone Genius
What all this togetherness doesn’t account for is the simple fact that some people just work better when they are off by themselves. In fact, more and more research is showing that some of the most creative individuals in any field are introverts that work far better when they are allowed to have privacy and freedom from interruption. These are “lone geniuses” who, by their very nature, just aren’t people who join with others. They are able to interact to the extent that they can share and advance their ideas by talking with people, but actually evolving those ideas with the hands-on help of others often ends up being detrimental.
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 Ever watch kids play? Most of the time, they’re intensely focused, giving it their all, and very close to shrieking or laughing with pleasure.
Adults at work? Not so much.
The difference comes not just from the ages, or from the external pressures that impact adults at work much more than kids at play.
Among the biggest differences are how much more closely kids’ play meshes with and engages their basic interests, preferences, and sources of pleasure. But this seems natural, since most times kids choose what they’re going to play, while adults most often work on tasks and projects handed to them by supervisors.
Unless you’re independently wealthy, it’s undeniable that (in the words of the classic lyric): “you’re taking what they’re giving ’cause you’re working for a living.”
However, despite what you and everyone else may think, you may not have to accept quite as many unwanted job elements you do. In many jobs, there is room not only for pushback, but for choice. And the more deeply you can tap into your unique personality, skills, and abilities, the more likely you are to find work that’s well suited to you, work that fewer people are capable of doing as well as you. That’s an advantage, because when fewer people can perform a job well, it generally carries more prestige and pay.
These simple truths offer a strategy for upgrading your job situation to be more personally satisfying. Here’s how to do it:
Phase 1
Start by re-learning who you are and what you’re most capable of doing well. Think back to your childhood, then your teen years, then your early adulthood, and so on until you reconsider the present. Look for patterns, themes, and tendencies. Were you always good at math? Did you find it easy to see the best way forward? Were you unwilling to give up on certain goals? Did you frequently lose track of time during one or two of your activities?
The person you were in years gone by offers wonderfully accurate clues to your inner nature, native skills, most exciting potential, and deepest interests.
These are the elements you should try to incorporate into your working life, starting right away.
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 Even though there’s been a bit of a rebound in the job market recently, we all know that things still aren’t good, and probably won’t be good for a while. However, if you’ve been let go from several jobs in the last few years and can never seem to latch on to any permanent positions when you go through temp companies, it might be time to take a good look at yourself. We all have a bad habit or two that we take with us to the workplace, whether it’s arriving late, taking too many breaks, gossiping, complaining, or spending all day on Facebook and Twitter. If you believe there are things you might be doing that are hurting your chances at getting and keeping a job, it might be time to break the cycle. But how?
Identify the bad habits. The first thing you need to do is be honest with yourself about your negative habits. It might even be worth it to ask a former trusted coworker if there were any things you did at work that bothered them. Hearing these things might not feel good, but it’s important to know so that you can get better.
Come up with positive strategies. If your problem is that you’re always late, set a goal to leave 10 minutes earlier and do whatever you need to achieve this - alarms, going to bed earlier, showering the night before. If you put off answering emails, schedule time each morning to work on them. Your strategy should fit the nature of the problem.
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 Workplace politics are always tricky. Who can you trust to give you helpful advice without making it seem like you don’t know what you’re doing? Is it okay to vent to one coworker about another one? What about going around or over the head of someone that you don’t work particularly well with? But one of the most challenging experiences has to be figuring out how to tactfully tell your supervisor no when they request something of you.
Is their request even possible? The last thing you want is to tell your boss that something can be done when you know it can’t. It can be hard, but you are far better off being honest with them; many bosses will even respect you more for your knowledge about something if you are confident in your answer - even if that answer isn’t what they want to hear.
Do you have the bandwidth? Even if you’re juggling 20 tasks and the boss asks you to take on another one that you know you won’t be able to do, it can be hard to find the strength to say no. Here’s a great tactic, though: “Sure, I can do that, but I’ll have to put X project on the backburner till next week.” This will show your boss that you are conscientious about your duties and willing to prioritize based on his or her needs.
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 Some of us are charming and charismatic. Others of us have a way of creating distrust or antagonism within moments of meeting someone new. But most of us fall somewhere between these two extremes. So there’s a good chance you can learn to improve your ability to develop a feeling of harmony and friendship - a feeling of rapport - with others.
Rapport is helpful because those with whom we feel it tend to be more open to us, more interested in spending time with us, more willing to help us, and - yes - even more likely to buy what we’re selling.
Unfortunately, you cannot unilaterally generate rapport with another person. All you can do is lay the groundwork for rapport to develop on its own. If you do this right then, in many but not all cases, it will.
There are several simple steps you must take to lay the groundwork for rapport to develop. These include:
Look for Interests in Common.
When you meet a new person and find they grew up in the same neighborhood as you, or went to the same school you did, it’s natural to transfer some of your good feelings about that neighborhood or school to the new person. In other words, you begin to build rapport.
This process works so well that it’s helpful to jumpstart a feeling of rapport with another person by looking for commonalities. But don’t turn this quest into an inquisition. Instead, simply ask a few open-ended questions and listen carefully for clues that he or she may have some experience, interest, relationship, or preference in common with you. It doesn’t have to be big; it just has to feel big to both of you.
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