If you’re walking into a new job and you want it to be a great experience, you can bring successful energy with you. After all, a team is only as powerful as its individual team members, and each person can learn to lift the other up. Even if your office does not have that energy now, you can be the leader, the one others can depend on. In most cases, just one person with that positive, uplifting approach can inspire others to do the same. Here are some tips to be that coworker:
1. Be a Team Player
In many workplaces, there’s still an atmosphere of “every man for himself.” It can happen organically when managers and supervisors don’t get a strong grip on teamwork. Sometimes, it happens when one toxic team member spreads negative energy. Either way, that kind of individualistic energy is not good for the team members, the team as a whole, or the company’s goals.
Fortunately, it often takes only one powerful team player to get rid of the toxic energy. Jump into action from day one and build community energy. You can do this in small ways — celebrate birthdays, send get well soon gifts, start a meal train when a coworker has a baby. You can also do this in larger ways — offer to listen to coworkers’ ideas, help them meet deadlines, be open-minded, and refuse to engage in office gossip. Attitudes will likely shift quickly.
2. Take Accountability
A big part of being a team player and bringing positive energy is to be accountable for your actions. Few things are worse in the workplace than shame, blame, and shirking responsibilities. It’s one thing to make a mistake. It’s entirely another to refuse to own your mistake and start pointing fingers at your coworkers — even if they had a hand in the mistake. This approach can turn an office into a den of gossip and negativity overnight.
Instead, own any mistake you took part in. Be honest about what happened, be clear about where you failed, and, most importantly, be open about ways to fix the mistake. Everyone has bad days and everyone drops the ball. To be a coworker your colleagues can depend on, you don’t have to be perfect. You have to pick the ball back up and start running with it again, with fresh ideas for how to get it where it needs to be.
3. Openly Share Ideas
Openness is a critical aspect of any team, yet it can feel scary to share ideas or put yourself out there. In many companies, good ideas get stolen, others take credit for your work, and hard work goes unrecognized. These workplaces breed conniving and manipulative attitudes, where no one trusts anyone. You may find yourself surrounded by people willing to throw you under the bus at the first opportunity, with no idea how to fix it.
The first step toward getting coworkers to trust you and to trust them in return is to openly share your ideas. Wait for team meetings and bring up constructive ways to move forward with a project or challenge your team is facing. That way, no one can claim credit for your idea because everyone is present when you share it. Your coworkers can learn from your example and begin following your lead, bringing up good ideas in public forums.
4. Support Coworkers’ Ideas
You can take this approach a step further by sharing your coworkers’ ideas as well. Again, you want to be an example. In some circumstances, your colleague may worry you’ll take their idea. It happens all the time, and it creates toxic energy in the office. So, coworkers may tend to keep ideas to themselves, hiding them away, where they can’t generate momentum and become great ideas to be shared with the team.
Every chance you get, help your coworkers develop their ideas and turn them into powerful projects. Support their plans, actively listen to their ideas, and always give credit in meetings or with supervisors. Even when you’re praised for your hard work on a coworker’s projects, be humble and give credit back to the original thinker. This will set you apart in your workplace as someone who can be trusted and depended upon — a real leader.
5. Stay Positive
Finally, one of the most powerful qualities of someone others can count on is positivity. The business world has enough negativity, guilt, and blame. It can bring a team, even an entire company, to its knees. Negative energy descends quickly into toxic environments where no one trusts each other or is inspired to present hope and change. It’s a strong force that can suck you in if you’re not careful.
So, if you want to be the coworker others depend on, even in the darkest situations, be the light. Be the person in the office who can put a positive spin on anything. You can’t control what happens in the office, but you can be the person who sees the silver lining. A positive leader is often enough to lift everyone else out of gloom and doom, seeing the light as well. Present positive options, see the bright side, provide constructive feedback, and watch others follow your lead.
In the end, being the kind of person, in or out of the office, others can depend on, is an ongoing practice. You essentially want to become a leader, and a leader is someone who is accountable, uplifting, inspiring, and positive. More than anything, it takes a willingness to fall down and get back up again over and over. Be sure to take good care of yourself along the way, as being the dependable one can get exhausting. The “strong one” needs rest and self-care, too.
