Yes — How this word could be hindering your professional growth

Do you feel overwhelmed at your job? Do you feel you don’t have enough time to complete your tasks?

If you answered YES, you need to review your list of collaborative activities.

Have you ever stopped to think that being collaborative in the workplace, may be causing you burnout, tiredness, lack of time, lack of focus and even hindering your career growth?

That’s right! Companies demand collaboration like never before! But, if you do not know how to set some limits, you will enter the list of professionals with a high level of stress and overwork.

Recent research published in The Wall Street Journal reveals that people are increasingly collaborative in the workplace and that this is not exactly a good thing. This is because the more they dedicate themselves to helping a co-worker or a team, the more they lose focus on their essential activities and in the medium and long term cause harm to themselves and to the company where they work.

As much as it is uncomfortable to think — and act — to answer NO to a coworker, to stop attending a meeting or another, not to answer all emails is a question of survival. Allow yourself, otherwise your next professional assessment will make it clear how unproductive you were in the activities that were up to you.

It is curious to think that this complacency is an ingrained condition of many people, especially women. Think about how many times you helped revise a work done by your friend, translated a document to help understand a subject, or even attended a meeting as a listener to then have information to be able to collaborate with colleagues responsible for the project. Research in The Wall Street Journal shows that this collaboration takes place even in different time zones. Wow!! Helping people is very pleasurable, but when we realize, our to do list is still in the middle and the week is over and, of course, this will impact on your performance evaluation and may hinder a possible career rise.

Collaboration is healthy and important for our day-to-day activities in companies, but whenever possible, ask yourself if you are the best person to solve that particular problem for which help was requested.

How much is being collaborative helping or hindering your professional growth?

Think about it!

Take care.

Thais Gama, Clinical Psychologist