it is important to know how coworkers think.
Hello, good morning. Welcome to solsarin. Today we are with you on the subject of “it is important to know how coworkers think.”.
Coworkers or colleague
Colleague is taken to mean a fellow member of the same profession, a group of colleagues united in a common purpose, and used in proper names, such as Electoral College, College of Cardinals, and College of Pontiffs.
Colleagues are those explicitly united in a common purpose and respecting each other’s abilities to work toward that purpose. A colleague is an associate in a profession or in a civil or ecclesiastical office. Collegiality can connote respect for another’s commitment to the common purpose and ability to work toward it. In a narrower sense, members of the faculty of a university or college are each other’s colleagues.
Sociologists of organizations use the word collegiality in a technical sense, to create a contrast with the concept of bureaucracy. Classical authors such as Max Weber consider collegiality as an organizational device used by autocrats to prevent experts and professionals from challenging monocratic and sometimes arbitrary powers.
More recently, authors such as Eliot Freidson (USA), Malcolm Waters (Australia) and Emmanuel Lazega (France) have shown that collegiality can now be understood as a full-fledged organizational form. This is especially useful to account for coordination in knowledge intensive organizations in which interdependent members jointly perform non routine tasks – an increasingly frequent form of coordination in knowledge economies.
A specific, social discipline comes attached to this organizational form, a discipline described in terms of niche seeking, status competition, lateral control, and power among peers in corporate law partnerships, in dioceses, in scientific laboratories, etc. This view of collegiality is obviously very different from the ideology of collegiality stressing mainly trust and sharing in the collegium.
You probably don’t know what your coworkers think of you. Here’s how to change that
It’s hard to know what other people think of you. Your own feelings of self-confidence and self-efficacy (your belief about how well you are able to influence the world) are likely to determine how you think other people view you.
WHY PEOPLE AREN’T HONEST
It’s critical to first understand why you might not have an accurate picture of how people see you. For starters, most people aren’t very confrontational. They try to avoid negative interactions. As a result, they don’t point out things you do that bother them. They may talk about them behind your back to others or stew about them in private, but they will probably not come out and tell you.
There are several reasons for this reluctance to be critical. First, many people are high in the personality characteristic of agreeableness. This trait (which is one of the Big Five personality characteristics) reflects how much you want to be liked by others. The more agreeable you are, the less likely you are to criticize others, because you believe that they will not like you if you express your concerns.
Second, many cultures promote civility as a virtue. This bleeds into the workplace by making it difficult to give explicit critiques to others. As a result, your workplace culture is probably making it harder for people to tell you what they really think of you.
Finally, the higher you rise in an organization, the less likely you are to get an accurate picture of how other people view you. Most people want to be viewed favorably by others in a position of power. Once you move up to a supervisory role (or even higher), it is difficult to get people to give you a straight answer about their concerns.
8 signs you don’t actually know what your coworkers think of you
Your professional reputation is important because it can affect your ability to maintain and get a job — that’s because it can affect how other professionals both in your job and in your industry as a whole view you.
If you’re in tune with your workplace, communicate with your colleagues and self-aware, you probably already know your workplace reputation. But here are eight signs that you’re not self-aware about it (and should become more aware).
1. Your colleagues always come to you for specific situations and you’re not sure why.
If your colleagues are constantly coming to you to help them fix their email settings or reboot their computers or something else technology-related, it’s probably because they know you as the go-to person for all things tech. If you’re a tech-savvy person, that might be your reputation. Meanwhile, if they’re always coming to you for help with campaign slogans or company fundraiser ideas, perhaps they consider you the witty, creative one on the team.
2. Your colleagues never ask for your help, even in your expertise.
If your colleagues are never coming to you for help, even if the help is something in which you can certainly lend a hand, it may be because they don’t trust you. For example, if they need help crafting an email to pitch to clients, and that’s your job, but they ask someone else on the sales team who happens to be a decent writer for help instead, that’s not a good sign.
3. Your colleagues never include you at informal company outings.
If your colleagues are never inviting you to happy hours, lunches or other informal get-togethers, this could be a cause for concern. Perhaps you’re unaware that you don’t have the greatest reputation — and they may not want you around after hours. That, or you may be known as the quiet one who doesn’t seem all that interested, so they don’t bother asking. Either way, this is not a reputation you’d like to have at work.
4. Your colleagues always ask you to plan company outings, and you’re not sure why.
If your colleagues are always asking you to plan company outings, it may be because you’ve got the reputation of the motherly one. If you’re constantly being asked to take on mother-manager duties like managing everyone’s schedules for them to plan an after-work party that has nothing to do with your actual job role — just because you’re so good at it — you might be considered the “office mom.”
5. Your colleagues always come to you about gossip.
If everyone comes to you to talk about gossip, they might assume it’s because you’ve got the scoop. Maybe they’ve heard that you know something about someone, or they know that you can get the details on whatever is going on in the office.
6. Your colleagues make jokes about you, and you’re not sure why.
If your colleagues are always calling you nicknames like brown noser, for example, it may be because you’ve got the reputation of kissing up to the leaders in the company. Meanwhile, if they’re always making jokes about your arsenal of random facts, perhaps it’s because they know you as the person in the office who’d win jeopardy every time.
7. You’re passed up for promotions.
If you’re regularly passed up for promotions or passed up by someone in the office who isn’t as qualified or hasn’t been with the company as long as you, it may be because you don’t have as professional a reputation as them. Of course, it may be wrongful of the company, too. But there could be a legitimate reason that they didn’t pick you, and that’s concerning.
8. You’re promoted unexpectedly.
If you’re suddenly promoted and didn’t see it coming yourself, maybe your company values your work more than you thought. Perhaps you have a better standing and a more impressive reputation than you ever believed yourself.
The ten things you should know about the people on your team
As humans, we do most things in teams. At work, in life, in the community, socially, academically… the list goes on. Working in a team is not just about your own personal contribution. In fact, the single most important thing you can do on a team is to bring out the best in others. The first two of these things sit with you (unfortunately I can’t make you interested or care), but I can help you by sharing my top ten things that everyone should know about the people in their teams.
(1) How they like to be addressed
Let’s start simple. When working in a team, what do they like to be called?
In a past job, I was introduced to a colleague named “Steve”. I called him “Steve” every day. I introduced him to other people as “Steve”. Three years later, “Steve” told me he would prefer to be called “Stephen”. I was mortified. Learn from my mistake and avoid this faux pas!
(2) What is their ‘real story’
Sofia works in Accounting and has been working in the team for 5 years. Factual? Yes. Interesting? Moderately. Her ‘real story’? Not even remotely.
This is the stuff you will learn over time as you build trust and show interest. You might find Sofia is Pro Motorbike rider. Or is a wine collector… Getting to know the full person will add to the richness of the relationship and help you understand them better.
(3) The important players in their life
Friends? Partner? Kids? Family? Pets? Who do they go home to? This is not about prying into a person’s personal life, rather it’s about knowing more about their story.
(4) What they actually do
Sounds like a no-brainer, but knowing what a person actually does and how they fit into the team is super important. This can be especially true for people in technical or ‘new’ roles. “Oh, you’re a Coder, great! Can you help me sync my phone to my emails?” Nothing more frustrating.
Make sure you understand what your colleagues do. Even if this bamboozles your brain with its complexity. Rather if it is boring to you. Even if you think it’s not important. Listen. Learn. Appreciate. Respect.
(5) What they are really great at
This includes the job-related stuff (technical skills, industry/customer knowledge) and the ‘life’ things (they know everything there is to know about tech hacks, Greek culture, Shetland Ponies…). This will help you play to the strengths of your colleagues – we all like the things we are good at!
(6) What they are not so great at
If a colleague is not great at public speaking, it is probably best not to ‘select’ them as the representative spokesperson when working in a team or within your group. Not great with numbers? Easy, provide a second pair of eyes over calculations so the collective team achieves great outcomes. Play to strengths, offset weaknesses, leverage the skills of others. Help everyone to look and feel good.
(7) Where they want to go
What are their goals? Do they want a big career? Or do they want to be amazing at their current job? Do they like working in a team? Are they looking to cut back to part-time work? A career changes? As a colleague, you are not responsible for getting the person to where they want to go, but knowing the direction they want to head in, can really help align your efforts and thinking.
(8) How they like to work
Are they an introvert or extrovert? How do they like to communicate (face to face, email, text)? Do they think out loud or prefer to reflect and then contribute? Do they like the workspace to be quiet or abuzz with conversation/music? This is the stuff you can usually easily learn via observation or through a simple question.
(9) What they need from you
Do they need information or outputs from you to get their work done? Or do they need you to connect them with the right people? Do they need someone to brainstorm with? Do they need peer review of their work? Understanding what the need is, and how you best deliver this will save everyone involved a lot of time and angst, and to put it crudely, will help your team ‘get shit done’.
(10) Their coffee/tea preference (Coke vs Coke Zero, beer vs wine… you get the drill)
Often the most meaningful things are the smallest. A tea and a note on a person’s desk when they are having a bad day can show support in a way no words can. A personalised coffee order for early morning meetings. The first round at after work drinks. The cheeky 3 pm soft drink pick me up. These are the little ‘intimate’ gestures that show connection and genuine great team relationships more than any values poster, tee-shirt or team building activity can.
Knowing these ten things, while pretty simple and practical, will make a huge difference in the type of relationships you can (and will) have with your colleagues. And if everyone on the team has great relationships, really knows and focusses on getting the best out of each other, imagine how successful, and even fun, work could be for everyone.
Thank you for staying with this post “it is important to know how coworkers think.” until the end.
