One Key to a Healthy Workplace Culture: Willing Characters

One of my most treasured possessions from a decade of leading teams as a senior manager is my collection of annual team photos. Each picture shows me who some of the main characters in my story have been and it is not lost on me how deeply influenced I have been by my peers in the group, from the most senior members to the youngest interns – the 23 year olds.

I contrast that with stories from right after I graduated college. One version of the story is a bunch of friends hanging out comparing notes on who had the worst boss. Usually, it was the boss that told you what to do and then reemerged to see if you got it done exactly the way they wanted. The other story – albeit a much more rare one – was a friend who confessed to me that, on Monday morning, from his supervisor, he would get a list of things to accomplish by Friday, and, if my friend really wanted to, he could have the list done by Monday afternoon. He used the balance of his work week to research places and activities that he was far more motivated to engage in than his actual job.

In both of the above examples, the main problem was not with the competence of the people doing the jobs or the competence of their bosses. The problem was a general lack of investment in one another. My point is this: the work place functions best when people are willing characters in on another’s stories.

What does it take to be a “willing character”?

First, genuine interest. We live in a world of casual interest. Casual interest is going to sound like, “This is just my job, and these are just people I work with. We just need to help each other get the job done.” To be fair to that idea, yes, you do need to get the job done. But remember, there are a lot of people looking for good talent and simply “getting the job done” to receive an incremental bump in pay is not that difficult. Genuine interest—on the other hand—is asking questions and listening to answers. It’s finding out what really makes someone tick. Genuine interest acknowledges that you play a role in helping a colleague enjoy their job and doing it well.

Second, openness. Really, the question is about opening yourself up to people with whom you spend a lot of time (by way of example: my wife and I have noticed seasons in our marriage when we have spent almost twice as many hours in a given week with co-workers than we have each other). You never know the insights and impacts that a willing character on your team might have on you. Also, don’t be surprised if they are younger than you and have only been around for a month. More than once in my time as a manager, I've been both inspired and instructed by a younger teammate who took a different approach to solving problems...and not just with the newest technology!

Third, time. In our insta-culture, where time seems to equal money, time is extremely valuable. As a senior manager, I set aside an hour a week for other leaders I supervised and prioritized regular check-in times with interns. And sometimes, the conversation veered from the immediate project at hand. But it seemed that because of that time we spent together there was a wonderful sense of connection to each other that more than made up for the hour we spent together talking about something besides work. These were moments when we discovered not only that we were willing characters in each other’s stories, but essential characters.

Being invested in someone’s story at work doesn’t mean you have to be best friends with them to be healthy and successful. The work place actually has fantastic potential for providing people something meaningful to do with their time and with others. In fact, work might be the only place many employees find meaningful activity. Especially when it comes to the younger generation of workers, there is an

eagerness to have mentors and models play a role in their story as professionals and help make their work transformative. For people looking to retain the best young employees, being a willing character in their story is not an option, it’s a necessity.

Finally, the best managers and mentors will not only be a willing character in the stories of their young employees, but will allow young employees to be a character in their own story as well.