Are you easy to work with?

This point recently came across our LinkedIn feed and it struck us as a good one. To be precise, it read as follows:

“Being easy to work with is a massively underrated career skill”

There seems to be a lot of truth there, although this is not something we think about often. This got us thinking about some of the people we’ve enjoyed working with most over the past 15 -odd years. Obviously we made a list. It’s important to note that nobody will probably have all of these qualities, but it might be worth your while to ask yourself (and your team) which of these you have.

Before we jump in, a quick sidenote: Competence matters a lot, but it matters less when you act like an asshole. Most of what you do is likely to happen as part of a team and individual brilliance can only truly flourish when it happens in a well functioning team environment. A healthy team of average performers will always beat a group of brilliant individuals that don’t work well together.

Back to our list of what makes people easy to work with. Here goes:

• They keep their word, they do what they promise to do, they are reliable
• They are teachable and open to learning from anyone
• They jump in when things get tough
• They care about you as a person
• They are good at solving problems
• They are even tempered and predictable in terms of their mood
• They are fun to be around, they can make and take a joke
• They have your back and act with a high level of loyalty
• They are patient when we screw up, but they hold us to high standards
• They tell us when we have spinach in our teeth and when we need to step up
• They take pro-active action and move things forward without having to be instructed
• They have a go at thinking for themselves, even though they might be inexperienced
• They make their expectations clear so you know exactly what they need from you
• They smell good 😉

What would you add to this list? And more importantly, is there somebody that you can thank for being easy to work with in their own way? Tell them, they probably don’t even realize it. And furthermore, which of these aspects do you need to sharpen up on? Ask yourself, your team, your partner, your friends. That is your homework for the week.

We truly appreciate you joining us again at the end of this week. We know how busy you are and how many emails you have to read in a regular week. We hope that these content pieces bring you encouragement and something of value to start using in your own life. Please share with anyone you think could benefit from it.

Have a great weekend – here’s to hoping the Boks can do what needs to be done to clinch the Rugby Championship!

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.