Are you a giver or a taker?

Day 41 / 365

Givers are people who are concerned with what can they do for them. Takers are the opposite, they are concerned with what can others do for them. You would have surely seen both these type of people around you at work or at school. So do you think you are a giver? and if so is it of any advantage to you to be a giver?

Some of the worst performing people are givers

In his study of numerous schools and workplaces, Adam Grant found that unexpectedly the worst performers in each of these places were givers. These were people who were so busy doing things for others that they couldn’t get their own work completed. They took on too much spread themselves too thin and they paid the price.

The silver lining here is that although these people sacrifice themselves, they make the organizations better.

givers spend a lot of time trying to help other people and improve the team, and then, unfortunately, they suffer along the way.

So if the worst performing people were givers, who were the best performing people?

Some of the best performing people are givers as well

We would have thought that takers might be the best performers, but the study found that they were average at best. Takers did rise very fast, but they fall very fast as well. We can say that for the takers, what goes around comes around.

In every job, in every organization I’ve ever studied, the best results belong to the givers again.

So we have givers at both extremes. We have givers who are performing exceptionally well, and on the other hand, we have people who are generous at the expense of their own careers.

We know how important givers are for the success of the organizations. What can we do to ensure we have more and more givers at the top?

Creating a world where givers can excel

How do we provide an environment for givers to thrive, and to encourage more and more people to transform into givers? Adam makes 3 suggestions-

• We must make sure the givers don’t burn out.
• We must create a culture where help-seeking is the norm. Some of the successful givers are people who know its ok to ask for help themselves as well.
• One bad apple can spoil the barrel. The focus should not be on getting more givers in, but instead on weeding out the takers.

This story is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — Are we in control of our own decisions?