Be a Role Model of Office Behavior to Enhance Your Career

Some of the more common categories of office behavior include:

• The difficult employee. Much like golf shots, there are different degrees of difficulty presented by this group. At times, they simply need a little extra TLC to become productive staff members. In other cases, they may require a “speak softly, but carry a big stick” approach. Managers and coworkers should try to identify the status and best approach to the difficult employee.
  
  
• The maverick employee. Always interesting, the maverick employee has little regard for authority, policies and procedures, and, often, other employees. If handled correctly, the maverick employee can become a highly productive performer on most teams. When controlled properly, they can become leaders in the workplace even though they continue to march to a different drummer.
  
  
• The model employee. Unless one is a pure salesperson, with their employment success dependent on their individual production, the model employee is the most popular choice as a team member or leader and a prime candidate for promotion and a long career with their employer. Even those classified as only modest performers are looked upon favorably by management as their behavior helps teams and departments function better, bring good team chemistry to their workplace, and typically support company policies and procedures, even when they may disagree with them.

Now Being an Office Role Model Enhances Your Career

Being an office role model may come to you naturally or you may have to focus on this behavior a bit more than others. However, being viewed as a model employee typically enhances your immediate and, possibly, long-term career progression. Don’t worry, you don’t need a degree in psychology to understand the process and the result.

Most companies can be compared to athletic teams, the military, or a research group seeking a cure for a disease or condition. In any of these successful groups, the sum of the parts equals more than the individual contribution levels added together. Whether you consider it good chemistry, members with complementary skills, or a group commitment to excel, the team achieves positive results in most situations.

Those members who are office role models contribute beyond just raw performance. If you are classified as an office role model, you typically also –

• Help diffuse personality conflicts when otherwise stable team members are having a “bad day.” You may not even realize you’re helping in these situations. But, employees having a difficult workday, often because of outside the job personal problems, witness your model behavior and outward calm. This often turns down the volume of negative feelings plaguing the cranky staff member.
  
  
• Impress both co-workers and management with your self-assurance and enthusiasm for the job and the company. Unlike the difficult or maverick employee, who typically need to perform at high levels to be completely accepted by management, the model employee, even without super performance, receives appreciation and positive daily reviews for bringing this healthy behavior to the workplace consistently.
  
  
• Bring a sense of “team” versus individual superstar status to your group, which usually improves overall performance. Once again, your role model behavior on a daily basis instills a strong sense of team play in your department. Even if you have a well-respected manager, your consistent model behavior actions will be even more effective in creating a fine-tuned team. Often this behavior makes your manager look even better to senior management and your behavior and contributions may make you a prime managerial candidate.

Notice that none of these attributes of the role model employee focus on individual performance. While you risk neutralizing all of these positive contributions by delivering low performance on a regular basis, you lessen the need of rising to individual superstar status to enhance your career by opting for a role model attitude. You do enhance your career prospects by behaving in a manner that management treasures, you often help improve the performance of the difficult employees on the team, and even help control the maverick employee that needs some workplace constraints to flourish. Just as your model office behavior helps in normal operations, in a down economy, your choice of behavior is more important. Your model behavior will help reduce the added stress of the remaining workers after layoffs or downsizing actions.