I Was Blown Away By The Attitude Of My Colleague
Employee Traits To Admire
This is a small example of how fearless and proper communication can improve relationships and reduce stress levels at work.
I am working with 3 to 4 members of my team on a project that needs to be delivered by the end of every month. There is a deadline for everything — ideation, first draft, final draft, etc. At the beginning of every month, we keep the deadline on our tracker and adhere to it.
Going by the schedule, it was the day I was supposed to get the first draft. I hopped on a call to discuss multiple things including the draft. I discussed about other things in the agenda first before the draft.
Finally, I asked,
‘By the way, how is the draft coming up?’
‘Oh. I was planning to work on that during the weekend. But, I was unable to. I will share it tomorrow’
That was it. The tone was neither apologetic nor regretful. I was amazed by the fact that the response was both polite and assertive. Clearly, the circumstances were not in our favour and delivering it tomorrow is the next best thing.
If you have some amount of corporate exposure, you would know this small thing could have blown out of proportion and raised the stress levels of everyone involved.
I know this because if my younger self was in the shoes of my colleague, the story would have been different.
I would have apologised multiple times, come up with multiple excuses, regretted my incompetence and would have pulled an all-nighter while overthinking my incapabilities. Unnecessarily, I would have increased my stress levels, which would further affect my mental and physical health.
I am not saying one should not apologise or one should not adhere to certain responsibilities while working in a team.
But, one needs to do have dignity and pride in self.
Someone who is confident about themselves would definitely behave the way my colleague did — they will be transparent and assertive. Someone with self-doubt and poor confidence would easily get stressed out under difficult situations.
I wonder how things would change if my colleague had acted like the latter. I would have reminded to stick to the schedule, how meeting deadlines are important, etc. In turn, she would feel bad about not meeting the expectations. The next time, something happens, all these previous conversations would come to her mind making her even unhappy. If this vicious cycle starts, then there is no end to it. The result would be an unhappy workplace.
But, look at what my colleague’s behaviour did to me. It reminded me of my younger self who didn’t have the courage to be assertive. It made me realise courage and transparency goes a long way in maintaining healthy relationships at the workplace.
Most importantly, it made me feel good about myself — for not reprimanding her. Even better, I did not behave like the many bosses I had in my career who were inconsiderate. I am proud that none of those characteristics affected me. I actually turned out to be better than them.
For me, personal growth is a journey. Feel free to read about my growth experiences here.👇
