Nov18

How to Make Small Talk

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How to Make Small Talk

Over time, we’ve lost the art of making small talk. Maybe it’s because of the growing belief that we no longer need it. As many people would say “cut the small talk and get straight to the heart of the matter”. Maybe instant messaging has created a movement that replaced this art with funny emojis and colorful stickers. Maybe most of us just don’t know what to say.

Whatever the reason is, let’s admit that we’re slowly losing the art of making small talk. What we really are losing is an opportunity. We’re losing the opportunity to connect with other human beings, the opportunity to learn new things, the opportunity to make new friends, the opportunity to network.

Face it, you can’t start a conversation with a complete stranger by talking about partisan politics and climate change deniers. That will ruffle a few feathers even before you start making friends. Conversations are best started on neutral grounds. Then you let the conversation flow and see where it takes you.

Starting conversations is easier if you know the person because you already know which questions to ask. However, how do you start meaningful conversations with people you barely know? What do you say? How do you ask better questions? Try these conversation starters.

Ask for recommendations:
“What are you watching on Netflix (or insert other movie streaming service here) right now?”
This is an opportunity to learn about things that other people find interesting. You can ask them for recommendations and ask why they’re watching what they’re watching. They get to regale you with their good taste and expertise on the show and you get some suggestions to add to your watch list.

“What are you listening to on Spotify (or insert other music streaming service here) right now?”
Alternatively, you can alter and use the previous question for getting recommendations for reading and listening lists. My personal favorite is to ask what they’re listening to on Spotify right now and if they have any interesting playlists or podcasts they can share.

“You’re from (insert neighborhood), right? Any good places to eat when I’m in the area?”
You can get some cool recommendations of places to eat or hang out for dinner and drinks. To make it interesting, you can ask which hole-in-the-wall joints have surprised them or which coffee shops are the best to work from. Alternatively, you can ask what activities are a must-do when you visit that neighborhood.

Ask for advice:
This may need a lead-in question. First, you should know what the person’s interests are and go from there. If they’re interested in plants, you can ask “what plants should I get for a home office?” If they’re into petcare you can ask “where do you buy your pet supplies?” If they like online shopping ask them where the best deals are. Again these questions are a chance for the other person to act as the expert and an opportunity for you to learn.

The point is for you to exercise your listening skills and create opportunities to learn while giving the other person a chance to be heard. How about you? How do you start conversations with people you don’t know? How do you make small talk? Share your tips with us in the comments. Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Nov11

What is Social Loafing and Why it Shouldn’t be Tolerated in the Workplace

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What is Social Loafing and Why it Shouldn’t be Tolerated in the Workplace

So you were on your way to the office pantry and noticed that the coffee maker wasn’t working. Like a professional representative from any tech support company ever, you try the universally tested troubleshooting standard of plugging and unplugging, turning the thing off, waiting 1min, then turning it on. The pesky thing still isn’t working so you just walk away knowing that you’ve tried the best you can in a maximum effort to fix the coffee machine. You walk away thinking “well, I tried to fix it. It’s not my job to make it work.”

But did you really give your best effort in fixing the coffee maker? Was there anything else you could’ve done to fix it? Did you try to report it, maybe? Be honest, did you really do your best?

Social loafing is the social psychology phenomenon of low performance and reduced productivity. It’s when someone makes fewer contributions to a group effort than they would if they were solely charged with the responsibility. In this case, you didn’t try to fix the coffee maker because you’re confident that someone else will. In other words, it’s not doing your best or doing just the bare minimum because you think someone else will deal with it. Basically, when any number of people can potentially take it upon themselves to fix the coffee machine, social loafing says a high percentage of individuals in the group will assume that someone else will pick up the slack and try to fix it. Hence, the social loafing phenomenon.

How do you get rid of it at the office?
Social loafing is inevitable. It will occur in team projects and anywhere teamwork is required. Some will always try to get away with being a “free rider”. The way to discourage it is to empower the employees. When employees feel that they can make decisions and have free agency over how they do their work, they will naturally take initiative in working toward completing tasks and projects.

Managers should trust their team to make the right decisions – that will reduce social loafing in itself. Hire smart people and people you can trust – then get out of their way and let them do their work. Most social loafers are that way because they think they don’t have the capacity to make big decisions. They won’t take the steps to introduce new ideas to a team or suggest new ways to attack a difficult project because they think that’s not their job. But if managers give them the power to decide and trust their judgment, they will see many more people stepping up and taking the necessary steps towards improving team projects.

Are there any instances of social loafing in your office? How do you address that? What tips do you have to reduce social loafing at the workplace? Share them with us in the comments. Remember to stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Nov4

3 Steps to help you Prioritize your Workload

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3 Steps to help you Prioritize your Workload

Are you being eaten alive by your inbox? Are you drowning in a mountain of paperwork? Are you eating lunch at your desk because you can’t step away from that project? Are you being overwhelmed with work?

On any given day, office workers can juggle multiple projects and tasks while keeping an eye out for email replies and deadlines. It’s enough to make an employee feel overwhelmed. Driven employees fall into the trap of taking on too many tasks. When the usual productivity tricks no longer work, how can you get your groove back and get some work done? To prioritize your workload, ask yourself these three questions:

Is it important?
When you’re drowning in tasks and projects, the very first (and most important) thing to ask yourself is “is this important?” Ask this for every single task and answer honestly. You have to decide what tasks are imperative to your project. Things like ‘answer emails’ and ‘make copies’ are low-value tasks and can wait until you have time to work on them. Be sure you only work on tasks that have a direct impact on achieving your objectives or can contribute to the success of your project. Be ruthless in cutting out low-value tasks, at least until you can get back to a more manageable workload.

Is it urgent?
The next thing to ask yourself is “is this urgent?”. These tasks are usually low value but have to be completed, otherwise, it can lead to a negative outcome. For example, booking a meeting room will not directly impact your project but not having a meeting room can lead to not being able to discuss the project with stakeholders. Make sure to give yourself a timeline. You need not spend a lot of time on urgent tasks, they are usually completed in 5mins. Anything longer and you’re wasting valuable time that should be spent focusing on the more important tasks. Urgent tasks are usually comprised of dealing with the daily crisis. Get them out of the way and shift your focus.

How do you decide?
Here’s a tip: not everything is important or urgent. The business will not fail overnight if you drop the ball.
Just make sure you do not drop a huge ball. Knowing which tasks are important takes a lot of practice and a lot of introspection. You have to be honest with yourself and not blow the importance of tasks out of proportion. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Most people fall into the trap of ‘overwhelm’ by taking on too much and saying ‘yes’ to everything. There are a few things you can do: to push back, delegate, or ask for more time. Each of these can buy you more time to manage your workload.

How about you, how do you manage an overwhelming workload? What are your tips on prioritizing a huge workload? Share your workload management tips with us in the comments. Remember to stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Oct28

Starting a Tradition at Work

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Starting a Tradition at Work

Starting and celebrating traditions at work is a very important aspect of employee well-being. It encourages employees to get to know one another better, build camaraderie, and have fun at the same time! Sure, you might have your occasional corporate volunteerism activities where you organize clean-up drives or volunteer at an elderly home for a day. However, these are different from building traditions that are pure celebration and 100% fun.

Here’s an idea, since Halloween is coming up, why not start a Halloween tradition. Halloween isn’t connected with any particular religious practice, and most people love the festivities associated with it anyway, so it’s the best way to insert traditional celebrations into your daily work rotation. After all, it is the second most widely celebrated and largest commercial holiday. The first, of course, is…you guessed it… Christmas.

A fair reminder though: if you do decide to make an event a yearly tradition, make sure that it is not mandatory. Unlike regular work, celebrations are not part of the regular work agenda. It should be voluntary and employers must not put unnecessary pressure on employees to participate.

Plan the activities
If you don’t have an events team in place, you might want to group together and form a cross-functional committee to plan and execute the Halloween activities. The exercise of planning an event will build teamwork, spark creative thinking, and enhance organizational skills. You can ask in-house departments to take turns planning the events out. The rotation will be good for creativity as fresh ideas will be generated for every event. It also gives them a chance to transfer leadership and responsibility and no one team or group will carry the burden of planning work events. Everyone can take turns planning, participating, and just enjoying the celebrations.

Here are some Halloween related activities to get you started:

Costume party
People will always enjoy an excuse to dress up. While you won’t be getting candy for your efforts, a costume party is a fun way to show off employee’s individuality and creativity. You can plan costumes around a theme like famous movie stars, superheroes, villains, music icons, national costumes, the ’80s, Netflix shows, etc. You can also give out awards like the best costume, scariest costume, funniest costume, most creative, etc.

Halloween buffet
Food is always a huge draw in any gathering. Though the event will not be mandatory, people will always come for free food. So, plan a buffet or potluck. You can have Halloween breakfast and serve pumpkin and apple pie with assorted fruits and pumpkin lattes. Or have a Halloween luncheon or dinner with Halloween themed entrees and drinks.

Halloween decoration contest
You can divide employees into groups or even via existing departments and offer a major prize for the best-decorated work area. If teams don’t have specific work areas, they can pick an area to decorate (like a lobby, break room, pantry, etc.) or section off their shared work area per team.

Do you have your own Halloween traditions at work? How do you celebrate? Share your stories with us in the comments. Stay humble, hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp

Oct21

How do you measure your career success?

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How do you measure your career success?

It’s hard to measure success. Others perceive success as an amazing job title, others define it by a big salary, while some believe they’ve made it when they get the corner office. A lot of us fall into the trap of measuring success against other people’s standards. However, like any other area of our life, career success should be defined entirely by your own standards. Each has their own career path to embark on and what works for others may not be a perfect fit for you. 

So what should be the measure of career success if it’s not to be measured by salary, job title, or office real estate? Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you measure if you’re successful in your career.

No Sunday Night Blues

Do you dread going to work on a Monday morning? Do you experience Sunday night blues? Are you thinking of quitting your job at the slightest provocation? If you feel like getting a root canal is better than another day at the office, you are unhappy at work. Something different happens to people who are successful in their careers. They are excited to come to work and look forward to the week ahead. If you can honestly answer “are you happy at work?” with a resounding “yes!”, then congratulations to you. 

Making Waves

One of the biggest motivations for employees is relevance or how much clout they could exercise. Do you feel like just another cog in the wheel or do you think you’re making an impact at work? The answer to this will probably be the bar for how you measure career success. You see, people who know that they are influencing change and feel that they are making valuable contributions to the business go on to have successful careers. If you can confidently say that your opinions are valued and that you are appreciated at work, then congratulations to you.

Learning and Growing

Over time, you will develop a unique set of skills that makes you good at what you do. No one else will have the exact same skillset as you. The lessons you have learned and the experiences you have acquired will help you along your career path. However, trainings, certificates, and accolades will not only get you so far. The true measure of success is how you use your skills and what you have learned to improve yourself and help the people around you. Do you use your learnings to improve the business? Do you inspire and nurture future leaders? Do you create opportunities for yourself and for others? How do you react to failure? What challenges have you overcome and did you improve as a result? If you are still learning and continuing to challenge yourself to grow and improve, then congratulations to you.

How about you? How do you measure career success? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a comment. Stay humble and hustle hard.

Written by Jaie O. TheHelp