Last week I read an article that caught my attention and gave me some food for thought. Adam Grant a professor of The Wharton School of the University of Pennyslvania explains in his book Give and take that people become successful in corporate life by offering time and energy selflessly (givers) rather than expending it on their own ambition (takers). That statement at the beginning of the article stirred my attention to continue reading, as it seemed to me that there were more takers than givers being successful in the corporate career ladder. I feel it is important to know how does an organization reward employees, if you choose your working environment better to know in advance.
He was asked the following:
1.Don´t you have to put number one first to get ahead?
If the organization only measures individual results yes, but most of the world doesn´t work that way. The quality of relationships you build with your team determines if you will be a star or not.
2.Why do takers prosper then?
There are many organizations that only reward takers and there are a lot of psychopaths that are really good fakers, they create a glowing image in the eyes of their superiors, which includes the idea that they are generous people. They fool influential people and get promoted.
3 You have researched praise-giving in organizations. What´s the most effective?
A lot of people confuse being nice with being a giver. The idea of being warm, friendly and welcoming and polite is completely different from having someone´s best interests at heart. Givers are looking for the potential in everyone but that doesn´t mean they say “ I think you are special” if you´re not. They look for opportunities to highlight capabalities and skills but they set ambitious goals and they are specific in their praise.
4.How does being a giver fit in with the idea of emotional intelligence?
If you have to deal with difficult customers you will perform better if you have high emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence matters more for people who are lower in cognitive ability, if you don´t have extraordinary brain power to solve difficults and complex problems you can compensate by paying attention to the emotional needs of other people.
5.How do you recruit people that are givers?
It is much important to build a recruitment process that screens out takers. It´s easy for one bad apple to spoil the barrel but one good egg won´t make a dozen. If you hire a giver you won´t see everyone suddenfly inspired but if you hire a taker you can see the large-scale increase in paranoia.
6.How to identify takers in the hiring process?
Be aware of the kissing up and kicking down pattern, relay more on references from peers or below because those people get to see more of your true colours. For example the CEO of Johnson &Johnsons asks when he is looking to promote a senior leader is “ Tell me four people whose careers you have made better”. So many people can´t answer this question on the spot because it is all about them. We spend a lot of time at interviews trying to assess your accomplishments and whether you have learned from your failures but it is more important how you attribute and explain your successes and mistakes. Takers are much more likely to say I and me and more likely to blame others when they talk about their failures. If you ask What do you think other people would do in this situation? The takers will me more likely to assume other people will have behave selfishly too.
If you are recruiting you might be interested in this and if you are a candidate looking for an organization this is also a good thing to take in consideration, don´t forget that it is not all about the money but also where you can be productive and happier. You can also check http://comerecommended.com/which-work-environment-fits-your-style/
For more information you can read the interview ” There are a lot of psycopaths out there” published by http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk
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