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Play to Their Strengths

In his book The Four Agreements: A practical guide to personal freedom, Don Miguel Ruiz says that one of the four keys to a happy life is to be “impeccable with your word.” In other words, always deliver on your promises. People who don’t keep their word can be a source of utter frustration in the workplace.

Chris has a hard time enduring committee meetings because people don’t keep their word. The head of a committee he was asked to serve on distributed a packet of material she wanted the group to review before the first meeting. On the day of the meeting, one colleague came in extremely late and some of the others hadn’t bothered to read the materials. Chris wanted to shout, “Why don’t you stop wasting my time!”

You can’t change your colleagues, but you can change how you relate to them so that you get more than disappointment out of your working relationships. Make suggestions that will play to colleagues’ strengths rather than their weaknesses.

A colleague with strong research skills but poor writing skills might be the perfect partner on a two-person project as long as you both can agree you’ll direct the writing. A capable colleague who tends to arrive late to meetings should be allotted time at the end of the meeting to present a report, rather than at the beginning. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. You’ll experience a lot less frustration if you play to the promises your colleagues can keep.