To excel in your career, handle office issues with finesse

Career building is an uphill task. There is no room for running on autopilot. Take the case of Joy, for example.

After a performance evaluation, she found herself by-passed for a promotion she had been eyeing for a while.

The boss made it clear that she would not be elevated until she smoothens out some rough edges in her character. She was taken aback as no one had ever told her such a thing during her six-year career. She had trouble believing that the boss meant well.

However, after a discussion with him, everything was laid bare. She was always abrasive and did not cared about the feelings of others. All that mattered to her was doing what she perceived to be the right thing and if you failed to toe her line, she had no kind words for you.Joy is a classic example of a rough-edged individual. Sadly, many people exhibit such behaviour.

They assume that what matters at work is meeting their goals. The average worker is like a conveyor belt made up of inputs, processes, standards, people, and equipment.

Negative outcome

If any of these components are not well taken care of, the end result will not be satisfactory.

For instance, if you do not manage the machines well, they will break down and produce a negative outcome.

In the same way, people must be treated well even as they are expected to be attentive to detail and focused on the final goal. It is quite common to find individuals who are so immersed in their focus on results that they forget the people they work with.

The end result is a dysfunctional team that works largely on autopilot. It would take just a small hitch for such people to be grounded. The secret of avoiding the woes that Joy faced lies in identifying the benefits of treating people well. Realise that no major success story was ever written by one individual alone.

You must resolve to treat people well at all times. Every person is aware of how they regard and treat others and making the change is not rocket science.

Once the decision is made, you must strive to keep the promise. Treating people well does not mean agreeing with them when they are wrong. Rather, it is about making them realise that their actions are wrong and encouraging them to make different decisions next time.

Disparaging remarks

In this process, encouragement, rather than insults and disparaging remarks, tend to have a lasting impact.

The organisation exists to achieve a certain mission. As such, you cannot belittle the input of others and expect to get far. Understand that people will always make mistakes but that does not reduce their sense of dignity.