Be a fountain, not a drain

Fountains and drains have two directly opposite functions: fountains give water, while drains take it away. When thinking of relationships most people can be placed in one of these two categories: drains are the energy vampires that suck the life out of those around them, while the fountains refresh others through their positive, grateful, and giving attitude.

Chances are you have already thought of people that fall into either one of these categories. That is because this is not just a made-up distinction.

A study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania among more than 30 000 participants found that people (including you) differ significantly in one key area of motivation – a willingness towards helping others. They identified three distinct groups:

Givers – These are the fountains. They make up approximately 25% of the population and are highly motivated towards helping others without expecting anything in return. They freely share what they know and regard success as something everyone should share in.

Takers – Your drains, about 19% of people – these people are in it for themselves only and carefully guard their own knowledge, time, and expertise as they are always trying to gain some advantage.

Matchers – A third group (the largest group at 56%) fits somewhere in the middle. These people take an eye-for-an-eye approach – they give to givers but take from the takers. They get along with givers and are likely to return the favour, but they will do their best to punish the takers.

You will also find these groups in your work environment and this is where it gets interesting…

Takers usually make quick progress in organisations, but inevitably burn their bridges as others start to see through their tactics. When they are caught out (usually by the matchers) they must move on and start again somewhere new.

Givers are an interesting bunch. Companies that have more givers in their ranks perform better on measures of profitability, customer satisfaction, staff retention and have lower operating costs. But when taking a closer look, the research showed that these individuals are found at both ends of the extreme of performance indicators like sales and productivity. They either flourish or they sink. This is because they are more likely to sacrifice themselves for the “greater good” when not managed carefully. They are an enormous asset under the right circumstances but are at risk of being taken advantage of by the takers.

So how does can an organization protect its givers and help them flourish to the benefit of everyone?

1. Protect them from burnout!

Since givers are prone to giving, leaders and managers need to make sure they don’t give too much. High performing givers are really good at making quick introductions between people with complementing skillsets – instead of trying to do everything themselves they connect people that will benefit from knowing each other.

Encourage your givers to give small bits of timely advice, rather than taking over and running the entire project and process. Since teaching and sharing comes so naturally, encourage them to do it in a way that allows others to learn, while protecting the givers from over commitment.

Publicly recognize the givers for their contribution to encourage others to take up their part of the responsibility.

2. Encourage help seeking.

Teach and model help seeking as a positive behaviour in your organisation. Often people don’t want to ask for help for fear of looking incompetent, but when this type of behaviour becomes the norm people will realize that it doesn’t portray a weakness. Furthermore, when helping becomes the norm, you end up with more giving behaviour (since the matchers also start coming to the party) and it becomes easier to lend a helping hand when you know what is needed and who to help.

3. Hire the right people.

Takers will inevitably hurt your entire team – you don’t want them on the bus. Rather, you want a healthy combination of givers and matchers. But how would you know which is which when you are going through the recruitment process?

Adam Grant, the lead researcher on the project mentioned earlier gives a valuable tip: during the interview process ask the candidate to name four people whose career they have influenced in a positive way. Takers are more likely to mention their superiors, as they love sucking up to those that could benefit them. Givers are more likely to mention people in subordinate positions – people they have invested in out of their motivation to develop others.

Alternatively, take your recruits for lunch and see how they treat the waiter, cleaner or Uber driver – anyone that cannot benefit their position. This should give you a good insight into how they are likely to treat the givers in your organisation.

The Takeaway

Would you rather be known as a fountain or a drain?​

In Closing…

Which aspects of life are proving to be the most challenging on a personal or professional level? Please let us know if there are any topics you would like to read more about. If you find the content of these newsletters meaningful, please share with anyone you think could benefit from it.

​​We help organisations create cultures in which your givers can flourish. Contact us at hello@purposeworks.co.za for more information on how we can get involved in your environment.