An article in Forbes by Rodger Dean Duncan recently caught our attention. The title was 5 Rules for Boosting Your Value in The Workplace. Here are some of the highlights we found most interesting:
* Resist the urge to be a Smarty Pants – You were no doubt hired because someone thinks you have brains, skills, experience, or other credentials that will help you produce good outcomes. Or maybe you were hired because someone thinks you have potential and wants to give you a chance. Either way, stay humble. I’m not talking about tossing your self confidence out the window or hiding your ability. I’m talking about resisting the urge to show off. Don’t be coy. If you were hired for your brain power and skills, by all means don’t hold back. At the same time, don’t try to play one-upsmanship with your colleagues. The workplace is not a fraternity party where everyone horses around and constantly tries to out do others. In the real world of real work, mature people are expected to bring out the best in each other.
* Ask engaging questions – If you’re really serious about listening to learn—and you should be—you’ll discover that asking engaging questions is perhaps the best pump-primer for meaningful conversations … Learn to be a questioning detective. Remember Columbo, the television cop who always solved the crime by asking (in his famously offhand manner) just one more question? We should be more like Columbo, asking that extra question to probe and clarify until we’re sure we understand what we need to know or do.
* Be willing to change – Change is not just fast. It’s also exploding in quantity and magnitude. Experts say we can expect more change in our lifetimes than has occurred since the beginning of civilization. Trying to keep up with change can feel like getting trapped on a runaway treadmill. But keep up we must. Listening to learn and challenging assumptions are critical steps to managing change. I’m not at all implying that we should abandon our core values. Navigating our lives with a solid moral compass is of paramount importance. But to provide the greatest value—to our colleagues, clients, and other stakeholders—we must constantly challenge the status quo. Even when things are going well, we should be exploring paths to improvement.