Encourage Others

Like PraiseGoodWork, encouraging others builds joy in the workplace. Deming taught: Drive out fear. Fear is the result of the typical witch-hunt mentality that pervades many workplaces. Encouragement is one component of mentoring -- perceptively look for the things that you can do to bring a younger colleague along. Somehow we've gotten it into our heads that encouraging others is not our place -- perhaps that is due to phoniness; I don't know. But when you express admiration for something someone has done, when you ask them for their opinion and advice and really want it, when you offer them something you have that might help them do a better job -- then you are empowering them and making the whole workplace better. It works. Try it! --RaySchneider

A few days before I got laid off, I heard a rumor that I was brilliant but a loner. This disturbed me greatly, since I try to be both brilliant and easy to work with, to contribute to the group. Then the layoff came, and we all found ourselves out of a job. As I was saying my final goodbyes, another engineer told me that she really enjoyed working with me, because she'd learned more from me than from anyone else there. That was just the thing I needed to hear. We should feel free to tell others the good things they've done for us, and not just at layoff time. People respond much more to positive reinforcement than to punishment. When someone tells you, honestly from his perspective, something good about yourself, it can change your outlook, much more than if that person had told you something negative. --TimKing