Theme A: Create Your Support Group

Section List:

Section 1: Like and Respect Your Colleagues

Section 2: Trust Others and Give People the Benefit of the Doubt

Section 3: Communicate Openly With Anyone and Everyone

Section 4: Seek Out People Who Appreciate What You Do

Section 5: Try to Help Others Be More Effective and Look Good

Section 6: Appreciate Everyone’s Unique Contributions and Abilities

Section 7: Set Appropriate Expectations

Section 8: Actually Commit

Section 9: Take Care of the Little Things Immediately

Section 10: Build Bridges Rather Than Burning Them

The first enabler for a wonderful work experience is a supportive environment. You cannot act on your own within an organization: you affect many others in the company and need the help of a lot of other people.

Your first task is to build friendly work relationships, help others see the value you bring to the company, and create the opportunity for others to support you as an individual. This, of course, takes considerable time and effort. The payoff is that this can dramatically increase your ability to have some control over your freedom. Even if you end up with no more job control, working with a group of people who like and support you helps make work less stressful.

Creating a group of supporters is definitely within your control. You start with your managers, co-workers, and others with whom your job brings you into contact. As you change groups and jobs over the years, you have natural opportunities to enlist more supporters.

You also want to look for people who have unusual power and influence upon the larger organization. Find opportunities to work with them. Even volunteer for tasks outside the normal scope of your job. This greatly improves your chance for creating friendship and support.