Brown Noser or Opportunity Seeker
When I worked for a company for 11 years, I took every opportunity to seek personal growth that I could and I also did my best to develop relationships with people in every department. I took it upon myself to be that person who took a little extra time to ask how your kids were doing and wanted to learn more about your life outside of the workplace. Many of my co-workers made a conscious effort to constantly challenge co-workers from other departments, to ridicule their efforts if they felt they weren’t finishing a project quick enough and to make judgements without fully understanding the other departments situation. The culture that had been created in the company was far from supportive, far from positive and felt very segregated. It always felt like it was us versus them, like there was an office civil war every day and I felt like I was the middle man, always trying to help my group see that working together was the key to success.
I always took advantage of any opportunity to become a stronger leader, to have the opportunity to work with the other departments and to grow my communication skills. When the company was offering the opportunity to take courses that they felt were beneficial to the growth of the company as a whole, I jumped all over it. I knew that by improving my skills and learning new tools to become a better leader, that all areas of my life would improve. At work, at home, as a minor sports coach I utilized these new tools to better my life and to help others see that teamwork is the key to success and growth in any area of your life.
It seemed like a difficult task some days to be the voice of reason and understanding when our group had it out for another department. It was very evident of the impact a leader can have on it’s followers, both negatively or positively. There was many times when the leader of our group condoned aggressive actions and words towards the other departments when we didn’t get what we wanted and this created a ripple effect amongst the behaviour of the rest of the team. I would do my best to listen and to consider both sides of the argument, while working in the angle of teamwork and open communication with the other department instead of becoming angry and throwing insults their way. This was a constant battle for many years, yet I did my best to continue growing, to continue developing relationships with the other human beings that worked in the other departments. Even when the CEO started to send the message of growth, of seeing the company as a whole and not as departments, the response from our group was one of resistance.
I quickly learned that having a growth mindset puts you in the minority, and when you make a choice to not go with the flow of the leader and the majority of the group, it’s going to be a challenge. I stuck with my beliefs and kept strong to what I knew was the right thing to do, for me as an individual and for the group as a whole and it paid off. While I’m sure that I came across as a brown noser to the fixed mindset group, it was my determination to promote growth, to spread the message of teamwork and to continue to develop relationships with everyone in the company and when I received a bonus two years in a row that the others in the group didn’t receive, their noses were out of joint. I saw the value in others and the opportunity to make the workplace just a little more enjoyable each day and with a growth mindset was able to enjoy getting to know co-workers for who they really were, not just as the people from the other department or by the title beside their name.
