Usually it makes you feel prouder to hear that people at your workplace envy you, since we wrongly apply the saying “The more successful you are, the more enemies you get”. However as professionals we need to understand that this has to do with people’s emotions not enemies.
Before we start each one of us need to answer these 2 questions:
- Why they Envy you?
- How to deal with it?
The answers are simple and complex, yet the one thing we are sure of is: “You”. Yes, we as humans most likely we tend to act or speak in ways that make colleagues around us uncomfortable with us emotionally.
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There are many reasons for envy to manifest itself in the daily workplace, following are main ones that come to my head:
- Feeling un-secured thinking that the other person will take your place
- Getting less compliments or attention than the other person
- Noticing strong qualities or potentials of the other that you do not master yet
- Panic over the closeness of the boss to the other person
While it is impossible to control people’s emotions, we can control our behaviors instead, to minimize such dis-comfort and dis-connection that can lead to professional conflicts and career damage by trying below simple practices:
- Evaluate the emotional maturity of the employees
- Establish elements that promote a “Team Culture”
- Organize open discussions and team “Building Assignments”
- Give incentives to encourage “Positive Competition”
- Encourage employees to show their “Hidden Talents”
There are plenty of tools and ways to keep that balance in your workplace and work together with colleagues to mutually over-come the emotional barrier that can hold learning opportunities from each other. Remember, we are like a “Puzzle” completing that beautiful image and if we lose a small part, we shall ruin it all.
Keep the circle POSITIVE.
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