Evaluating Your Workplace Behavior
Did you know that the average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime? The relationships we have with our co-workers play an important role in our lives and impacts our overall “happiness”, even in our non-working hours.
Does your workplace behavior have a positive or negative affect on you and on your coworkers? There are some very simple steps you can take to improve your own workplace behavior.
Take this brief self-assessment to evaluate your behavior on some of the more common workplace negative behaviors:
- Do you constantly interrupt the speaker and not wait for your turn to speak?
Practice being an “active listener”. Really try to listen to what you are hearing before you jump in with what you think you need to say. You might learn something!
- Are you a “saboteur” – hijacking every conversation wasting time to talk about yourself and your personal life ad nauseum?
A few non-work-related conversational words are great but going on and on about the state of your landscaping, marriage, health condition, etc…not so much!
- Is whining and pouting your chosen method for showing displeasure?
Maybe this worked for you when you were 4 years old. It’s not for the workplace. It just shows you have not grown up yet.
- Does negativity rule your day?
Get up in a bad mood? Leave it behind the door of your home with your pajamas when you leave for work.
- Do you use unprofessional or vulgar language to get your point across?
Words matter. Chose them carefully. Once they leave your mouth, you can’t get them back in.
- When all else fails for you, do you resort to bullying?
If you are using this tactic to “motivate” your staff, stop now, that’s it…just stop!
…AND some more simple and basic steps you can take to enhance your work relationships:
- Exchange Valuable Information:
Show genuine interest and learn something about your colleagues, and let your colleagues learn something about you.
- Learn, Remember, and Use Your Coworkers Names:
Chester Santos, author of “The International Man of Memory,” says that“when you can remember someone’s name, it shows them that they are important to you.” Don’t we all like that?
And Finally…
- Show Respect
Respect means having a positive regard for others and treating them with dignity. It also means accepting their differences and using tact and diplomacy in your communications. Respect acknowledges the contributions of others and gives credit where credit is due.