Own your role: 7 employee actions to cultivate a positive workplace

Company values! Don’t they all sound great: integrity, trust, honesty, teamwork are just a few out of the top 10 most common values in companies.

Stop cultural improvement programs if your day-day role, your vibe is not addressed

Organizations are not living their values? We would love to argue this but we all know this is mostly true. Values look great on paper and sound amazing when you present your company to a new employee. But let’s be honest. When it comes down to getting results or a better career, the values are easily forgotten.

Many consultancy firms thrive on cultural improvement programs. Yet, burn out, stress and conflict are still the main sources for mental illnesses related to workplaces.  

I am sorry, but you are the issue, employee! Not your boss or colleague!

Employees create culture, employees re-states the informal leadership values that run the show in any organisation, by complying to them. If you make yourself guilty of gossiping about another colleague instead of addressing an issue directly, it is your responsibility for contributing to non-transparency. If you bring your emotional private issues to the workplace without being aware that this is the reason why you fall out with a colleague or why you blame your boss for his/her role, you are responsible for owning your issues and stop projecting them onto others.

So what about bad work conditions? Yes, that is the responsibilty of the owner and management team. Still it is up to you to accept and comply. No one forces you to work with a certain company. There is always the option for finding another job for the vast majority of the people in western countries today.

Without a workforce, there is no organization.

From the day you said yes to a job, you have said yes to your role and that includes everything, not just your work performance. Your attitude, your energy, your thoughts, your actions during meetings and with colleagues, everything contributes to the health of the workplace. And if the work conditions are not so good anymore, think in solutions and collaboration with other colleagues to make it better, instead of complaining, judging and projecting it on others. Ofcourse, if the management resists improvement, it is time to leave.

But most workplace don’t have bad working conditions. If you feel overloaded with work, address this asap and come up with a solution instead of thinking you need to solve it on your own. Yes, you are responsible for your role, but also for your communication.

Here are your 7 ways to make the worplace better

1. You are co-responsible for creating a safe workplace. Don’t contribute to anything that would make you feel unsafe. Don’t gossip, don’t keep valuable information behind, don’t go behind your colleagues back to get a better job, don’t exclude colleagues who are different, don’t judge your colleague for their ideas or comments. Be open, curious and empathic!

2. Feel and observe where you  don’t ‘walk and talk the value’ you love to see in others. Observe your own thoughts, feelings and attitude in your daily job and role as a colleague. If you are complaining all the time, how does that support a value of team collaboration? If you would love to see more integrity and honesty, start sharing your insecurities or uncertainties how to solve an issue, instead of pretending you know it all.

3. If this is you: stop thinking negative, stop complaining. Go back to why you wanted this job. Just for the paycheck? Well, own that too and make the best again of your job or find another one.

4. Make it very small: look at your role and your responsibilities. Own it as if you are the boss. How can you improve it? What tensions do you feel that is related to work from your colleagues (only! where they interfere with your work directly). Now, formulate your tension in a positive way: if this …. (tension/issue) is improved by … (not the person but the job defined in a possible solution), than my job/role would result in … (better outcome). Approach your colleagues with this attitude and become solution driven.

5. Don’t make the attitude of your colleague, your personal issue. Use relational communication techniques to address his attitude: ‘I hear/feel your are a bit stressed by…, what I can do is …, and what do you think you could add’. (Side note: all companies would be helped greatly with a Gordon Communication course for all employees as a mandatory start!)

6. We all have private issues at times. Even if it is as little as a bad night sleep, own it and express it neutrally. Start every day with a small stand up team meeting. Let everyone express how they feel/what is happening in their lives (pos and neg). Make this very short, neutral and open. Doesn’t need to last longer than drinking a cup of coffee together. The benefit of expressing your personal issues is tremendous: your colleagues know what is going on, so for example if you snap a little they know you have had some sleepless nights. Or your colleague can pro actively help you with some workload. But! Most importantly, you feel seen and heard, you can be yourself! If your personal issue is influencing your work, own that and be transparent. Don’t stay home and call in sick for weeks. Share what has happened, evaluate what you can do and can’t. And be super honest here with yourself!! What would you do if you are the boss and owner?

Your boss (the owner) is not responsible for all of your private issues. Yes, sick leave is a good thing to have. But what do you do to heal your personal issues? What do you do to improve your health. As this is very personal for everyone, you can only answer this question with self-honesty: where do you hide behind sick leave, where do you keep working too much while you know you are getting overworked.

7. Don’t judge your colleagues for having a different view. In todays world we easily box each other in a certain ‘camp’. Politics and (social) media have entered the workplace big time. If your company wants to support a new direction, let’s say all company cars need to be electric, and you don’t stand behind this objective, express that it is not your view. Don’t get into arguments, there is no need to defend your viewpoint, when it is not related to your role. If it influences your work, for example your work with HR and responsible for rolling this out, then decide to find another work place if the new policy is set in stone. If it is not directly influencing your role, answer this question for yourself: would it have stopped you working for this company if you knew this upfront? If that is a yes, then find another job. And most of all, stay non-judgemental while you still work there. Agree to disagree. That’s it. If you agree with the new policy, don’t push another colleague to agree with you. Let everyone live their own perspective. 3 decades ago, we had all political colours in one workplace and it never bothered our workplace.

What is important here is that you learn to be self honest and develop some self-reflection. The moment we all own our role, ask constructively for help, share neutrally what you don’t agree with combined with a possible solution, and keep reminding yourself why you wanted this job in the first place!

Perhaps you simple choose the wrong place or the wrong role. The moment you will grow into roles you really love doing, your attitude and contribution to the workplace will be so contagious that soon your colleagues will join you lifting the spirit of the workplace.

Walk your talk, be the example. It is in your hands to create better workplaces.