Avoid those unsavory team moments

Dear companies, 

If you are looking to reduce direct friction between your employees and create a near perfect cordial environment, try giving your employees the work from home option. And make Skype your official communication and team building channel. Life becomes much easier!

Pinging and occasional calls eliminate the rough edges of face to face communication. Your employees will share roses, roll on the ground laughing, smile at the right places during a team pinging session, thank profusely with respectful bows, and even blush perfectly. They will master the art of expressing themselves and ‘communicating’ the right way with colleagues using a wide range of emoticons. 

When deadlines are missed, clients are mad, bosses are unhappy or colleagues are backstabbing, they can always let off steam with the exploding, head bang or swearing emoticon. Easy as a pie :) No hurt feelings. All iizzz well.  Here, there is no room for the nuances of face to face communication – the content sneer on a senior’s face, the victorious look of a budding star or the furious, about to explode look of a manager. In fact, you can easily keep chemistry out of office equations – no flirty and mischievous smiles of young (and even old!) fellas, no sparks flying, and therefore no office romances. :(

Here is the best part. When a colleague/boss is pinging with a bad review or a grievance, employees can suddenly go offline (no power!). They can leave the conversation window halfway, swear aloud in their home offices, and return to the chat window after cooling down. A sad emoticon to the rescue! Simple eh?

So cheers to remote communication!

Feedback - Take it with a huge pinch of salt!

How often we take our boss' feedback at face value and launch into a hostile debate over the errors they point out or suggestions they provide! Most of us have a tendency to hold our boss at fault for being less than appreciative of our work. Well, for peace to reign, all we need to do is step back and breathe. In most cases, we are only over reacting. Well, doesn't it help to appease and reassure our narcissistic self that we are the best by painting a less than perfect caricature of our boss or clients!

Let's face it. Feedback bristles against our egos. However, it is important to stay calm and think professionally. While taking criticism to heart can impact our confidence, ignoring positive, constructive comments on our work can hinder improvement. If we seek growth and aim to nurture our skills, the trick is to be objective.

So let me end this post with a grand cliche. Take it with a pinch of salt! It won't hurt :)