Nine damaging games people play in the workplace

There are nine games people play to out-pace, out-do, and out-perform the competition. Unfortunately, using these games almost always backfires. Maintaining a positive professional reputation is key to gaining the respect of fellow colleagues. These behaviors cause consistent damage to relationships and team dynamics. Everyone engages in them and the key is to know when they are occurring so that they can be shut down.

In reviewing the games, be aware of how often each is utilized. Determine why certain situations bring on certain behaviors. Understand who in the work environment brings out these behaviors. Focus on personal responsibility and strategies for prevention.

Assumption: The Assumption game occurs when assumptions are made about people, groups, and situations instead of truly taking the time to investigate the realities of the situation. It is key to first make sure that stereotypes and other assumptions are eliminated before evaluating the actions of others.

Blame: The Blame Game occurs when blame is aimed at other people, situations, teams, and variables without fully acknowledging personal responsibility. It is key to first determine personal responsibility before looking elsewhere for it.

Comparison: The Comparison Game happens when a situation, person, or event is compared with another without really taking stock of the issues. It is key to first weight the merits of the current situations, person, or event before bringing history into the picture.

Competition: The Competition Game happens when people on the team are competing with each other, or when the group is competing with other groups. It is key to work from a place of consensus with colleagues, whether individually or in groups.

Denial: The Denial Game happens when individuals or groups miss the obvious facts because of fear, embarrassment, or even politics. It is key to see the absolute truth a given situation and resist pushing away responsibility.

Expertise: The Expert Game happens when a person or group takes on the role of expert, and then proceeds to shut down others’ opinions and ideas. This often creates animosity and contempt. It is key to make sure every person is provided opportunity to state their knowledge before making decisions.

Living in the past: The Living in the Past Game occurs when comparison is made between current trends and situations to others in the past. Old solutions do not always apply to new problems. It is key to live in the present in order see the current situation clearly and accurately.

Passive aggressive: The Passive Aggressive Game occurs when anger or frustration is aimed from one situation/person to another situation/person. This occurs when a person carries aggression from a prior interaction and applies it to the current one. It is key to either aim frustrations at the person whom they were intended or find a way to eliminate them.

Technology: The Technology Game occurs when technology is used to do interpersonal dirty work. Instead of confronting the situation directly, e-mail, text, or other form of electronic communication is used. It is key to handle interpersonal challenge face to face.

To learn more about wisdom in the workplace:CLICK HERE

To find out about elements of job satisfaction: CLICK HERE

To review recent trends in career transition and employment: CLICK HERE

Sending Resumes? Then press pause on your Dignity.

One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered. – Michael J. Fox

Everyone should have the basic right to respect and ethical treatment, but if you are in the middle of a job search, dignity can be a difficult thing to maintain.

The job search is all about trading ego for hope. Your resume will be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked…don’t take this personally. Until your resume matches up, it is worth no more than the flickering screen it appears upon.

Your resume is a professional calling card and point of pride. No doubt you have spent countless hours perfecting, retuning, and agonizing over word placement. If you are going to assign your self-worth and dignity on an agonizingly short document, take the steps to do it right.

Recruiters and HR pros receiving your resume quickly screen for specific key words and familiarity. Having been in a recruiting environment at a major US company near Seattle recently, I can tell you that most resumes are sloppy, out of date, and fail to address the qualifications of the position applied for.

You have one minute to impress, let’s make sure you are worth the time.

Testing your resume – a four step process:

1. Put the dignity you have injected into your resume away. It will not help you here. More important now is that you find your objectivity.
2. Read the position that you are applying for in full. Jot down the 5 main qualifications that you believe they are seeking.
3. Bring page 1 of your resume to your computer screen or print the first page (most recruiters do not go to page 2 unless page one is worth it). Give yourself one minute to review it while focusing upon the 5 main qualifications you jotted down.
4. Would you consider yourself for the job?

I asked you to put your dignity away, but do not get rid of it – you will need it in force when you interview. For the paper process however, it is a numbers game. You need to get your resume out there in big numbers, and you need to make sure the message you are sending is quick, effective, and matches the needs of the recruiter.

Courage in the Workplace

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear
--Mark Twain

Unemployment in the Seattle area is still scary at 8.5 percent (US Dept. Labor) and even though this is a better rate than many urban areas, it is still painful.

My monitoring of Monster, CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, Craigslist, NWJobs, and etc. indicate the number of jobs in the Seattle area are on the rise. There is one problem: The jobs that are opening have specific skill needs and often seek people with experience in that particular role.

Most employers are dreadfully bad at hiring talent with “transferable skills” – many hiring agents are taught to hire what/who they know, take few chances, and not think creatively. It is sad, I know. As a former recruiter, the hiring managers that I worked with wanted candidates that from a skill perspective, looked like their current employees.

So you have to gain some resilience in your search and develop some career courage. You need to leverage your experiences and create a compelling case for the employer to take a look at you. Career courage is all about trying the things that you have not yet done to secure interest, get the interview, and land the job. Here are 3 ideas that might spark your courage:

1. Write cover letters for each job that imbed information about the job in the letter. (not super courageous), but seems to be rare these days) This works on 2 levels…it separates you from the crowd and may give your application a second look. Writing a cover letter also fine tunes your interest and true qualifications for the role. Even if the employer does not read it, at least you are more in tune with the role.
2. Cold call the business/HR department (pretty darn courageous). Find the company number, get to know the job posting inside and out, and call in. Ask to speak to someone in HR…if you are really full of spunk and courage, ask to speak to the hiring manager. Be ready to say something of worth once you get through…practice!
3. Show up on their doorstep (epic level of courage). If you show up prepared, looking professional, and sounding intelligent, you may get to speak to someone associated with the job. Face:Face will separate you from the crowd. It is harder for people to overlook candidates that they have met.

All of these ideas are double edged swords. Since they require some level of job-seeker courage, they are more risky. You can win big but you could also really flop. Be sure to prepare thoroughly for any of these approaches and remember the most important points on courage: Manage your fears and be yourself.

This blog is copied from:

http://www.examiner.com/career-transition-in-seattle/leo-sevigny

Compassion in the Workplace: Catchy

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. – The Dalai Lama

You are not going to get ahead by being a professional jerk. As you go through the motions over the next few days, consider:

Are being the one no one wants to be around, or you are being the one people aspire to be…

1. Are you paying attention to how your actions impact others? Not holding the elevator for the next person, leaving the coffee spill in the break room, or walking away from the paper jam is not going to inspire a fan club. Don’t be the workplace dolt…think about how you represent yourself and how what you do defines who you are.

2. Have you offered anyone help this week without expecting something in return? Not everything is about the next promotion. Take time to figure out the needs of your colleagues. Who needs editing help? Who needs help carrying a few boxes? Who looks like they have been run over by a train and could really use a “hey, how ya doing?” Find a person who needs something and help with that need.

3. Do you have a personal definition for humility, and can you act upon it? I am not suggesting submissiveness here…although for some a few hours of serving others would be ideal. Be a little modest..find a way to be humble today - -drop the arrogance.

Invest in these three things that focus in on being a compassionate professional, your colleagues and you will thank you for it. Who knows, maybe someone will return the favor when you least expect...

Generosity

My days of focusing upon generosity broadened my perspective. Even though I know that generosity means more than a monetary equation, it is where my mind first went. I set out to not be stingy, not hold off on the larger latte for my wife, not say "no" when the kids wanted something. Then I went back to the meaning...I looked at the synonyms:

All heart, alms-giving, altruism, beneficence, benevolence, bounteousness, bounty, charitableness, charity, free giving, goodness, heart, high-mindedness, hospitality, kindness, largesse, liberality, magnanimity, munificence, nobleness, openhandedness, philanthropy, profusion, readiness, unselfishness...

Generosity, I had to remind myself is more than the monotization of life -- it is a process or way of being that focusing upon the goodness that comes from giving. Giving of the mind, of the heart, of the body...it is about being a person that is not stingy about their own being.

The best aspect is giving without expectation of return...and I think this is the deeper and more functional meaning of generosity. Giving a gift in hopes that it will result in a return gift, whether that be a physical, tangible one or an emotional gift is not generosity. It is bartering.

July 31, 2010 - I'm Back

It is a unique challenge to write a blog that for the time being is read by one person, that person being the writer (that would be me). I am a faith of one...at this point I have to build a belief that what this is about is worth believing in. :-) If not, i am just a public diary or a little off my kilter.

Tomorrow I begin again where I left off, the next Virtue being Generosity. Could be generosity of money, could be of heart, could be of emotion, or who knows?? All I know is that tomorrow, I will keep the idea of generosity in my mind as often as I can, and we will see where it leads.

Peace,
Leo

Frugality

Frugality without creativity is deprivation.
Amy Dacyczyn

Frugality has been a bust for me today -- this weekend we celebrated the kids' birthdays...not an easy time to be frugal :-) While we are not really into the exuberant regarding big gifts, we do like to bring together their friends to celebrate.

Sparing or scaling back the grandeur of the modern lifestyle is a challenge for me. I do have these long deep thoughts sometimes of simplifying, not purchasing so much, saving, scrimping...what have you. It helps that my personal need/desire for the material has decreased over the past few years as I find less and less pleasure in having "stuff"

The real challenge is making the transition from the easy decision of just wanting less to the difficult of actually cutting back what I feel I "need". To simply know that I am not driven to have more goodies does not make me frugal, it just means my desires have changed. To actually think of what it is I want and how to drive to using less, wasting less, making economical choices...now that is the hard. It really is not frugality if there is no sense of sacrifice.

Given that the whole weekend my wife and I have been providing birthdays parties for my children and their friends, it seemed an odd time to really focus on frugality. But then again, would it really have made a difference to the kids if we had spent $500 or $20 on the parties? Would their own desires and needs for "stuff" drive a feeling of disappointment?

It is my belief in creating The25Virtues list is that the virtues themselves should be pervasive in my life. That by intentionally focusing upon them, I would grow to be a more ethical, centered, peaceful individual. Frugality is going to be a tough nut to crack.

Tomorrow -- Generosity (ironic that it comes right after frugality, eh?)