Smooth
Interactions in the Office
Doug
Hissong
Does your office run like a well-oiled machine?
Is it an efficient and pleasant place?
Have you thought about what you can do to smooth those
everyday interactions that have such an impact on
productivity? Let
me suggest a few ideas.
Consideration
I was watching my son as he started to wash the family car on
our driveway. As
he started, he noticed that water was running toward where a
neighbor was cutting his grass.
Realizing the water would cause the neighbor’s grass
to clog in the gutter, he moved the car to the other side of
the driveway to channel the water in another direction.
I thought, "Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone were
willing to make little changes that would make things easier
for someone else?”
How can we be more considerate of our co-workers?
We can make things a little easier for them as we
communicate by phone or e-mail.
We can leave our phone number with a message so they
don’t have to look it up, return calls promptly, and avoid
prolonged “telephone tag.”
We can structure our e-mails so they can easily forward
or otherwise handle them.
We can think through and present options rather than
just dumping a problem on someone.
We
can be considerate of someone’s situation and feelings when
we ask him or her to do something for us.
We can say:
“I know you’re busy, but …
(I hope you can do my job soon)
“I know this isn’t the most enjoyable kind of work
for you, but …
(I hope you’ll do it anyway)
He or she will be more likely to do what we ask if he thinks
we understand his situation and feelings.
It shows that we care about him, not just about what we
want.
We can be considerate in the things we say to others.
And we can also be considerate by what we don’t
say. We can avoid
saying something that will hurt him, and that includes
situations when the subject isn’t present.
Feedback
When someone helps us prepare a presentation, we can later
tell him or her how it went.
Then he will know we appreciated his help and will see
more of the big picture.
He will be more willing to help next time if he knows
his work didn’t just disappear down a black hole.
We can emphasize praise and encouragement over criticism
(which some very famous and successful people have found
ineffective anyway). If
we talk with our co-workers regularly and praise their work
when things are going well, then they’ll be more receptive
to solving a problem when one arises. [Like if you have regular friendly chats with your neighbor
it will be easier when your kid hits a ball through his
window.] If the
only interactions are negative ones, they won't be very
effective. We
need to build rapport before we can make corrections.
Helping
We can be sure that we do our share of the work rather than
just dumping it on others.
When we work with someone, rather than making him do it
all, we build rapport and we help train him to do it the way
we think it should be done.
As we gain experience, more and more of our
contribution should come from mentoring and training others.
We should take pride in what we pass on to others.
What we help others do is an important part of our own
contribution to the world. And there’s that practical matter that if we help others
they’ll be more willing to help us.
Little things
There are many "little things" that smooth our
interpersonal relationships.
One is using other people’s names.
We can do better with a little effort.
We can anticipate situations so we’ll be prepared
with the names of those we’re dealing with.
We can focus on names as we hear them so we’ll
remember them.
We can smile, speak to people, and generally be pleasant.
Nothing makes us look better than a smile. We can be
courteous, which is just a means of showing respect for
others. We can
keep a positive and enthusiastic attitude and pass it on to
everyone we meet.
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