Communicate!

Think of the people you work with. Consider someone who works alone, isolates themselves from the team. How do you perceive them as a worker? Effective or ineffective? Hardworking or lazy? Now think of someone who talks to you several times a day about work (not idle banter). How do you perceive them?

Chances are the person who engages you comes across as a more effective worker, even if the isolated colleague works alone because they don’t have time to come up for air because they are working so hard!

As technology creates more and more ways to communicate and the many ways condense into fewer devices as our cell phones become pocket sized computers, communication has never been more important. With the apparent ease with which we all communicate, and the almost ubiquitous aversion to meetings amongst workers, we have become more and more isolated in our jobs.

It is interesting indeed that many firms are instituting e-mail free days or times. Sure, one might expect an improvement in productivity if we were not slaves to our email, but more importantly we encourage face-to-face communication.

Believe me, you will be noticed more, seen as a more effective person, when people can engage you one on one more often. The folks who engage in endless volumes of water cooler chat are seen as unproductive for certain - but if you can find a middle ground where you spend time with others on a professional level you are sure to see your stock rise.

Quite simply, if you are beavering away in solitude, firing off emails, writing reports and so on, you are relying on people to “notice” you based on your work alone. You are asking them to “trust” that you are hard at work when they rarely see you. Unfortunately, that is against human nature.

It is sad, but when someone isolates themselves, as productive as they may be, the typically cynical office will rarely notice what they do, or worse, assume that they are doing “nothing”. Don’t let this come off as communication as personal marketing either. No matter how intelligent you think you are you will be more effective with the support of your colleagues. You may step out of your shell for appearances, but you will soon grow from the effort you make as well and your work will improve.

For a leader this is even more important to recognize. In fact, you may be a great communicator with your superiors but be precisely the opposite with your team. You may really have no need to report to anyone as a leader - or at least you can get away without reporting. But today’s worker is different and effective leaders include their teams in the process. In fact, research out of the Harvard Business School suggests that leaders who include members of their team by asking for opinions and input are perceived as more effective.

So, set a goal for yourself this week. Find a way to include others in what you do at least once a day. Go see a colleague, or better yet as a leader in a team meeting, ask for input and opinions about something you are working on.

You will be seen in a better light, and even better, others will begin to open up with you more.