Carrying It The Right Way
I have spent close to two years in the corporate scene and yet in these wee years of my service I feel I have imbibed a lot about the attitude one needs to carry. It is said that it is very easy to possess an attitude. People love to adopt attitudes irrespective of the vibes it reflects – positive or negative. But what makes it difficult is carrying your attitude to reflect only positive vibes. Some places of work within the same company have atmospheres that exude warmth and happiness and other places of work in the same company might severely lack that warmth. This clearly indicates that it’s the people in and around the workplace who create and rule the atmospheric conditions.
So it falls on our shoulder, what should our place of work be like and what can/should we do to help it scale in the right direction. Quite a lot of us, every new day while travelling to the office, think at least for a minute or two about how the day would progress. For those who don’t do this, better start now; and for those who already practice this have done half the job. I read somewhere, “It is difficult to scale from point ZERO to point ONE but it is comparatively easier to graduate from point ONE to TEN.” What matters is how you start and the attitude which you pick up, will swipe your day the way you want it to be.
Gradual changes in mindset and in attitude towards our work and life will definitely make trendsetting changes. This comes more like a personal responsibility. You know who leads a spontaneous fight? The one makes the first move!! At least 80% of the times. So really, I mean it.
I once witnessed this in a local train, where a hefty man was trying to create some “extra-space” for himself in the crowded coach. A guy, of the same age, but quite sheepish in his appearances was now and then being pushed – sometimes left and sometimes right. He politely asked the hefty guy and told him to stand straight, and the guy continued his activities and this time with certain filthy remarks as well. The sheepish guy turned and slammed him tightly. No one would actually believe but then the fact was he really made a start and that was enough to blow his morals. The guy then travelled fearlessly because the crowd was in his support as well. Moral of the story – Don’t wait for someone to come and set a trend. If you are a leader, and you want the winds to blow in the direction of your choice, then go ahead. Do it for yourself and the rest will follow for they know “the leader would lead them in the right direction”. There are many different ways to achieve this workplace attitude, and as with anything you need to try different approaches to see what would suit your place of work. I may suggest some “Do’s “which I have seen that people actually don’t really do.
Approach people with a smile and not with a frown - A friend of mine shares a lot of project responsibility and addresses quite a lot of critical issues. Each time he approaches me, no matter how big or small the issue would be, I have always seen those three lines on his face. When I suggested him a smile instead of a frown he says, frowns, in his opinion, indicates that one is having deep thoughts over the issue and gives a serious and a professional look. I googled “smiles vs. frown” and came to know that there are 43 muscles in a frown vs. 17 muscles in a smile. So why to overwork? Or else we can have the “cup is half full instead of half empty” approach. Think it this way - Never frown; you never know when someone's falling in love with your smile. That’s perhaps yet another reason for you to smile before you approach someone. Speaking Nicely – Attitude is all about being good, being straight forward and it is about being smart so that “smarter” people don’t take you for a ride. It is said that you can be taught all of the skills and procedures to correctly do any job, but I believe you can't be taught to be nice. It’s your conscious which directs you what is actually being nice all about and how to stay away from getting carried being a nice person, because no sooner you get carried than you will find people taking advantage of you.
Appreciate people - Encourage what you see as positive around you – notice what someone at the next desk did well and give a gesture. This could be about anything that seems pleasant - Sense of dressing, good documentation, or a nice piece of coding. Appreciation is always welcome and tells the person that his presence is being well acknowledged and not being ignored. Appreciation done at cross designation counts a lot and it helps to minimize the professional distance between two levels.
Stay away from over-work – This is a serious and a grave issue. People tend to over work when they don’t have any work outside their office. It starts with a simple motivation but then creeps within you as a virus and kills you and your work place. Familiarity breeds contempt and so happens with work. Over-work drains our interest and reduces productivity in the long term. Our grey cells need nourishment and we often ignore that. Our brain is like a cute little baby which needs a lot of care and is very tender. Working late and getting up early and sleeping late is like a barbaric act which we do on our self. For sure, it helps to meet our target but then to meet one target we are killing the other target – the target of being healthy. The balance should be maintained for sure and the trick to maintain the balance determines the finesse of the person handling it. In zeal to work we forget there is someone waiting at home. There is someone who shares us. We tend to forget that in an attempt to complete our professional goals we are running from some other responsibilities.
Empathize with others – Treat others as they would want to be treated. Humiliating remarks in public may make the person loose respect and trust in you. There are always more optimistic way of conveying derogatory remarks. There are ways in which you convey something so that one feels the pinch and learns it leaving your desk with a smile and not with a grudge at the bottom of his heart. The day one learns to do this, people would say – He has an attitude and he still is equally adorable because he knows how to carry his attitude.
So it falls on our shoulder, what should our place of work be like and what can/should we do to help it scale in the right direction. Quite a lot of us, every new day while travelling to the office, think at least for a minute or two about how the day would progress. For those who don’t do this, better start now; and for those who already practice this have done half the job. I read somewhere, “It is difficult to scale from point ZERO to point ONE but it is comparatively easier to graduate from point ONE to TEN.” What matters is how you start and the attitude which you pick up, will swipe your day the way you want it to be.
Gradual changes in mindset and in attitude towards our work and life will definitely make trendsetting changes. This comes more like a personal responsibility. You know who leads a spontaneous fight? The one makes the first move!! At least 80% of the times. So really, I mean it.
I once witnessed this in a local train, where a hefty man was trying to create some “extra-space” for himself in the crowded coach. A guy, of the same age, but quite sheepish in his appearances was now and then being pushed – sometimes left and sometimes right. He politely asked the hefty guy and told him to stand straight, and the guy continued his activities and this time with certain filthy remarks as well. The sheepish guy turned and slammed him tightly. No one would actually believe but then the fact was he really made a start and that was enough to blow his morals. The guy then travelled fearlessly because the crowd was in his support as well. Moral of the story – Don’t wait for someone to come and set a trend. If you are a leader, and you want the winds to blow in the direction of your choice, then go ahead. Do it for yourself and the rest will follow for they know “the leader would lead them in the right direction”. There are many different ways to achieve this workplace attitude, and as with anything you need to try different approaches to see what would suit your place of work. I may suggest some “Do’s “which I have seen that people actually don’t really do.
Approach people with a smile and not with a frown - A friend of mine shares a lot of project responsibility and addresses quite a lot of critical issues. Each time he approaches me, no matter how big or small the issue would be, I have always seen those three lines on his face. When I suggested him a smile instead of a frown he says, frowns, in his opinion, indicates that one is having deep thoughts over the issue and gives a serious and a professional look. I googled “smiles vs. frown” and came to know that there are 43 muscles in a frown vs. 17 muscles in a smile. So why to overwork? Or else we can have the “cup is half full instead of half empty” approach. Think it this way - Never frown; you never know when someone's falling in love with your smile. That’s perhaps yet another reason for you to smile before you approach someone. Speaking Nicely – Attitude is all about being good, being straight forward and it is about being smart so that “smarter” people don’t take you for a ride. It is said that you can be taught all of the skills and procedures to correctly do any job, but I believe you can't be taught to be nice. It’s your conscious which directs you what is actually being nice all about and how to stay away from getting carried being a nice person, because no sooner you get carried than you will find people taking advantage of you.
Appreciate people - Encourage what you see as positive around you – notice what someone at the next desk did well and give a gesture. This could be about anything that seems pleasant - Sense of dressing, good documentation, or a nice piece of coding. Appreciation is always welcome and tells the person that his presence is being well acknowledged and not being ignored. Appreciation done at cross designation counts a lot and it helps to minimize the professional distance between two levels.
Stay away from over-work – This is a serious and a grave issue. People tend to over work when they don’t have any work outside their office. It starts with a simple motivation but then creeps within you as a virus and kills you and your work place. Familiarity breeds contempt and so happens with work. Over-work drains our interest and reduces productivity in the long term. Our grey cells need nourishment and we often ignore that. Our brain is like a cute little baby which needs a lot of care and is very tender. Working late and getting up early and sleeping late is like a barbaric act which we do on our self. For sure, it helps to meet our target but then to meet one target we are killing the other target – the target of being healthy. The balance should be maintained for sure and the trick to maintain the balance determines the finesse of the person handling it. In zeal to work we forget there is someone waiting at home. There is someone who shares us. We tend to forget that in an attempt to complete our professional goals we are running from some other responsibilities.
Empathize with others – Treat others as they would want to be treated. Humiliating remarks in public may make the person loose respect and trust in you. There are always more optimistic way of conveying derogatory remarks. There are ways in which you convey something so that one feels the pinch and learns it leaving your desk with a smile and not with a grudge at the bottom of his heart. The day one learns to do this, people would say – He has an attitude and he still is equally adorable because he knows how to carry his attitude.
posted by viveksahay at
4:29 AM
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