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| Category: Business |
Date published: September 18, 2004 |
 1. The most effective way to turn a colleague, friend or family member into an enemy is to trust him or her with a large amount of money. Unfortunately, although this wisdom is a very ancient one, many of us keep falling into the trap of trusting those close to us, because we think they are different. Of course they are! But they are human too, and that means that they get confronted with daily troubles of their own. Sometimes they may not even have the intentions to do us harm: they just "loan" the money we trusted them with, with serious plans to deposit it back soon. But "soon," for some reason, never comes... I recently got confronted with this problem once again; when a good friend of mine told me how depressed he was when he found out that a close relative or a trusted employee might have caused a large sum of his company's working capital to disappear over time. He had provided these trusted people with the money as a work tool, and had distanced himself from the daily processes, with all the negative consequences that subsequently occurred. And I know my advice sounded silly and simple, but it was the best I could come up with: "You have to stay on top of things when money is involved. If you want to safe what is to be saved from this situation, you either have to start drawing yourself in for 100% again, or quit entirely right away; because trust is a beautiful word, but a hard act to execute when money is at stake."
2. The most effective way to build lasting relationships at work is to be a genuine team player, yet at the same time, remain alert of what you say, where you say it, when you say it, and how you say it. Your intentions may be pure, but you never know what others have in mind. And even if they have good intentions as well, the wordings they choose to repeat what you said may sound wrong in others' ears. It's a tricky path: the interconnected, yet unattached one. It almost sounds unfeasible in a workplace where you are in touch with the same people for 8 hours a day, but it does not have to be that. The secret is to be genuinely nice, to assist where possible, to participate fully and intensely in all projects, and to give a little extra when no one expects it; yet to refrain from making negative comments, choosing sides, or forming in-groups. It may actually be impossible to maintain this behavior in a workplace that is very politically driven, but one would assume that such a workplace would not attract genuine, spiritual workers for too long...
3. The most effective way to keep an organization growing and prospering is to provide authentic leadership, in order to maintain a devoted workforce. An authentic leader has nothing to hide, is open and honest, fair and straightforward, and regularly communicates with his or her co-workers. This leader's approach will serve as a transformational attribute throughout the workforce, and workers will value the fact that they are given the opportunity to share their ideas about processes and policies. Due to the openness and accessibility in such a workplace, the work motivation is high: workers will not feel cheated when they need to fill in for colleagues, because they know these colleagues will do the same for them in return when they need it. All workers will do everything to keep this spirit of belonging and mattering intact, and make sure that this workplace stays around long after its competitors have vanished. They will share their insights, help the company reinvent itself, and contribute all they can to maintain lasting organizational excellence, because they know that when the company prospers, they do.
About the Author:
Joan Marques emigrated from Suriname, South America, to California, U.S., in 1998. She holds a doctorate in Organizational Leadership, a Master's in Business Administration, and is currently a university instructor in Business and Management in Burbank, California. You may visit her web sites at http://www.joanmarques.com and http://www.spiritcounts.com
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