Behaviour is often talked about as an essential element in a workplace. The way people interact, communicate and collaborate is key to any organisation’s success. Individuals respond differently to different forms of communication and behave accordingly based on workplace culture, values, and goals. As a result, they tend to align themselves better with teammates and managers who display the same behavioural strengths as they do. But what if behaviours differ within a team? Are there good and bad behaviours and if so how do we inspire ‘good’ behaviour?
In my short time at Cultural Impact, I have learned that there are no good and bad behaviours. Only good and bad impacts. Our behaviour can be incredibly helpful or terribly harmful depending on the impact.
The most important thing is to be mindful of the behaviour we are bringing. The awareness of how we behave, how it is perceived and the impact of our behaviour is how we can connect better with people. This connection will build empathy and create a rapport and a deeper understanding.
Sometimes, when things don’t work out the way we want them to, we tend to blame other people. It is essential that we be proactive in our mindfulness and to be in a growth mindset. We are constantly learning.
When someone does something that is deemed to be behaving ‘badly’ it is encouraged to take time to reflect on the process they had to get to that point. We don’t often exchange thoughts on how a colleague could have helped or what a colleague could have done to trigger a specific behaviour. We should always look inwards. How could I have made it better? What did I do that was possibly problematic? How do I help you to get where you want to go?
Cultural Impact is not focused on building skills, there are no secret recipes or shortcuts to good behaviour. People are a lot more complicated and nuanced than that. What Marie and the team here does is that we try to get our collaborators to reflect on what they do and what they need to do better. Helping people to get into that growth mindset and move forward while constantly being in learning mode are key. What we want is to bolster proactiveness and mindfulness that your behaviour has an impact on others as well as yourself.
In a nutshell, how you behave is important but the awareness of the impact of your behaviour is crucial.
We’ll see you next time for ‘C For Culture’.
Written by Farah Rani
17/2/2023