“The best colleague I ever had”: Why amplifying others at the workplace is the best long term strategy for your career

It is easy for us to recall the “best boss” or “best manager” we have ever had, but it becomes more difficult to recall the “best colleague” we have ever had. Most of our relationships (and our time) at the workplace is spent with our peers — so why is this so unnatural to reflect on?

Additionally, a quick search on the internet yields thousands upon thousands of articles and books and postings with insights on how to be the best manager or leader — but there are very few articles on how to the best co-worker.

Consequently, we tend to only treat employees at the very top as “leaders.” This kind of thinking limits the significant impact entry to mid-level management can have on the career growth of their peers, co-workers and ultimately themselves. Leaders are needed across all levels of an organization.

You may have read the inspiring article earlier this year about the women at the Obama White House and the ‘simple trick’ they started implementing: amplifying one another:

“When a woman made a good point, another woman would repeat it, and give credit to the originator. This made the idea harder to ignore, or to steal. The women called the technique ‘amplification.’”

While the article spoke mainly of women amplifying other women (which is important- check out this study that points out men tend to interrupt twice as much as women, and are three times more likely to interrupt women over other men)- amplification in the workplace is crucial to successful long term career growth for employees of every level.

Amplification is a subtle form of leadership that picks up momentum and eventually is adopted into an organization’s culture. When each employee feels responsible for the success of their colleagues and their colleagues’ ideas, the team becomes more efficient, more ‘out of the box’, and generally, happier. Feeling like you did not get credit, or that your idea was stolen, will not happen in this type of atmosphere. The ‘team atmosphere’ reigns, and new teams begin to naturally form. Each team member will subconsciously delineate (and amplify) the strengths of their colleagues while organizing these informal teams/networks across business segments and functions. Tasks will be accomplished more quickly, and new initiatives will begin to rise. The harnessing of this power in an organization causes companies to thrive quickly and build a stronger, interdependent team bond full of capable leaders across levels.

Further, Harvard Business Review discusses a Gallup survey of 80,000 managers and found that one single quality sets truly great managers’ leadership abilities apart from the rest:

the ability to discover what is unique about each person and then capitalize on it makes for a successful leader.

In other words, being able to understand and promote unique individuals’ strengths and weaknesses will make you a successful leader. Amplifying your peers allows you to not only earn a great reputation (who wouldn’t want to work with you?), but it also allows you to simultaneously cultivate and flourish your management and leadership capabilities (who wouldn’t want to work for you?)

Promoting and amplifying peers is surely a long-term game, but can only end up with exceptional results. Cultivating humility and a “servant style leadership” through amplification early on in your career is integral to landing the jobs and challenges only great leaders can take on. The corner office is always a great place to seek advice and skills, but it’s time to realize that the person in the cubicle a couple feet from you can offer tremendous growth and leadership opportunities.

Inspired to start amplifying your coworkers today? Here are a few easy ways to get started:

• Help others validate and test their ‘crazy’ ideas
• Retweet a great tweet!
• Repeat your coworker’s idea and assign them credit
• Send a ‘thank you’ e-mail and copy your coworker’s manager
• Nominate your coworkers for relevant awards and recognitions
• Involve new mixes of coworkers in office projects

“To add value to others, one must first value others.” — John Maxwell

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Mary Kate Love

April 2017