7 Ways You Can Channel Your Energy to Positively Influence Others
Have you ever been excited about an initiative or project at work, but felt discouraged because you were the only one who was jumping for joy? Perhaps managers and colleagues have told you that you care too much, and that you should not get so invested in your work. While it may appear that your colleagues don’t “care” as much as you do, it’s likely that they do—you just need to find a way to channel your passion to help inspire them.
By using the energy and enthusiasm you have for your work, you can help motivate your co-workers to become more invested in the team, and help to develop a culture that fosters creativity, innovation, and learning through diverse perspectives. Here are seven ways to do that:
- Learn from colleagues in different departments. When you are launching a new initiative, look for colleagues who have experienced similar challenges and found solutions for their team. By gaining exposure to new ways of doing things and hearing diverse perspectives, you may find new solutions to drive your initiative forward, or even discover different ways to meet the needs of your team or customers.
- Build relationships. Throughout your career, look for a diverse set of mentors, life coaches, peers, and colleagues who share your passions and challenge you to continue to be better. These relationships can come in handy when you need stakeholder buy-in for big projects that may need help with funding, and can help you if you need to change your approach to make a project successful.
- Never forget the human element of a team. Appreciate all members of your team, whether they appear to be as excited as you are about a project or not. Remember, everyone shows their emotions differently, and that’s ok. The respect and appreciation you show them will affect how they partner with you in the future.
- Learn about your co-workers’ initiatives. Find out more about what your colleagues love about their jobs and what projects they are most excited about. Showing respect for their initiatives and learning about their individual styles will help you to form long-lasting relationships, and you may even find commonalities between the things that you are passionate about and those that excite them.
- Say yes to new things. It’s a good idea to step outside of your role once in a while and say yes to stretch projects or cross-functional teams, because this gives you an opportunity to learn about what’s going on in other areas of the organization, build new relationships, and connect the dots between different initiatives, which helps increase buy-in for your passion projects.
- Make your goals manageable and sustainable. It can be easy to let your excitement drive your actions; however, take a step back to make sure you have an actionable, sustainable plan in place before you start a project. Any bright idea or innovation needs to have ownership, deliverables, and metrics to foster continuous improvement and to track its success.
- Brand your initiative. Once your project is up and running, make sure to communicate how the initiative is helping drive the organization forward. Is it bringing in new customers or revenue for your business? Is it helping to foster stronger relationships internally or externally? Find the metrics that tie into your business strategy, and highlight how your project is connecting the dots between those goals. This will be the strongest way to prove its value and gain alliances and stakeholders to bring your project to the next level.
Hopefully these insights will motivate you to stay positive and continue to drive your passions forward, because the positive energy you bring to the table is an asset to any team!