Saturday, April 2, 2011

Colleagues

You cannot control the behavior - or the thoughts and perspectives - of those you work with.

Though their behavior may sometimes reflect on you, you also cannot control those aspects of your reputation which are informed by your colleagues' actions. Besides, a reputation is only a useful tool - it is in no way part of who you are. As a tool, if it is dulled by someone else, you must simply work to sharpen it again.

You can only evaluate their actions within the scope of your own knowledge and experience and adjust your behavior accordingly. If you can mitigate the harm that your colleagues may be causing, you should; if you can advise them on a better course, you should. If they persist in what you consider to be mistakes and you do not have the power to stop them, you can only respond to the damage they cause.

All of this said, you are sometimes reluctant to speak out against behavior that you find inappropriate because of the damage it will cause to your relationship with your colleague. This is unacceptable. True, you must weigh that damage against the benefit of the confrontation, but the confrontation itself is not something that is inherently wrong.

As with anything: decide within the context of the situation, do all that you can to set things right, and let the rest go.

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