The Importance of Being Selfless at Work - Part Three

This is part three in a three-part series of being selfless at work. If you haven’t read parts one or two yet you can read part one here and part two here.

Altruism at work is hard. You’re already busy with your own work and the idea of volunteering to do work that’s “unnecessary” can just seem dumb. But being selfless at work doesn’t mean volunteering to do busy work for other people. It means helping others both within your normal scope of duties as well as above and beyond what is expected of you.

Is volunteering to coach your daughter’s AYSO team more work? Of course, but you choose to do it, and wouldn’t you consider it busy work. The same goes for being selfless at work. You’re offering to help people at your company in ways that they genuinely need, for purposes that will have meaningful value. Just as you’re making an investment in your daughter’s life, the lives of the other players, and the community, you’re making an investment in the person you’re helping, the department they work in, and in your whole company.

To that end, no one knows how you can help, until you share with them what you can do.

Inter-Department Advertising

This might seem more selfish than selfless, but bear with me. In the course of your socializing throughout the company, you will likely discuss what it is you do for the company. When it comes up, give one or two sentences on the services you offer to your customers (whomever they are inside the company) and include an example or two on how you could potentially help them in the future.

Again, this may sound more selfish, because you’re advertising yourself, and while that’s not exactly selfless, you should think of it this way. You’re advertising your services to potential customers, and those services are for their benefit, not yours. The difference is that, unlike a business, you aren’t being paid anything additional for helping others. Just as a charity isn’t considered selfish for advertising their charity services to those in need, neither are you for wanting to help your internal customers.

Here’s a real-world example:

At one of my previous employers, part of my scope of services was internal enterprise applications. However, just as in every company, there was always an element of Shadow IT around many corners. I talked to people all around the company to learn what they did and didn’t like about the tools they used, so I could try to improve their experience. Regardless, people will sometimes go do their own thing anyway.

In one of my casual conversations with one of the VPs in our Marketing department, they were complaining about how they didn’t like file shares but loved Dropbox. They went on to list the reasons why, and in that conversation I learned that the issue wasn’t the file share, or that even Dropbox was so much better, it was that they were trying to use a file share instead of using a Digital Asset Management tool. I explained to them that this is precisely why I was there and how I could help them with this. We talked a little more about their requirements, then I went back and found some potential solutions. I presented those solutions to them and told them that while we don’t have specialists who can run these tools, we could hire someone for that job. There was a little negotiation, but in the end, we helped them pick the tool, they bought it, we provided basic administration of it, and we operated it for them. They finally had a great solution to managing and sharing their assets internally and with partners, and by offering to do all of this for them, I got another advocate for my teams’ services.

Given every organization in a company is a service organization, it’s important to advertise your services to your customers. Whether you do this formally or through your informal networks, and by not desiring nor expecting anything in return, you’ll ultimately be rewarded with good karma, learning, and new relationships.

Selfishness in Selflessness

Selfishness is not a reason to be selfless.

At this point, you should have noticed a pattern across all of these reasons for why being selfless at work is so important. To be truly selfless, your motivations need to be pure. You have to start from a place where you’re taking these actions without thought for yourself. If you’re doing it because you know it’s going to come around to benefit you, that it’s good karma, or because you’re playing the long game, your co-workers will notice, if not immediately, then eventually. And while I think it’s important to play the long game, I also think it’s important to keep your intentions clean.

If the outcomes are the same, though, why does it matter? Don’t they have the same effect? Perhaps, but motivations matter. If you give money to a children’s cancer research charity because you want the tax write off, is it the same as if you gave the money because you genuinely cared for the children that research helps? That’s obviously a greater philosophic question, as both achieve the same end result, but I believe motivations, or intentions, matter. And society, or more accurately, those individuals around you who know you best, will eventually know the truth about your motivations and intentions.

One Last Thing...

A little note about balance. If you’ve been shouting at me asking “but what’s stopping people from just taking advantage of you all the time at work!” then you’ve reached the part of the topic for you.

You’re right, there are lots of people at work, and in society at large, who are more than happy to take advantage of you, manipulate you, you name it, to further themselves at your expense. This is why there should be balance. Don’t be naïve when you’re selfless, be smart about it. Don’t take selflessness to the point of never getting your normal job done because you’ve said yes to too many things. Don’t keep score, but if you’ve discovered someone abusing your selflessness, stop being selfless with them and say no. If someone is taking credit for your work, you can let them and people around will eventually figure out they didn’t do the work, or don’t wait for that and just stop helping.

Finally, there can also be naivety in your pureness of intentions. The purity of intent to help can’t be allowed to blind you to terrible outcomes as the best of intentions can have ruinous results. See the history of Communism in the 20th century for examples of good intentions leading to terrible outcomes.

Conclusion

Being selfless at work makes you a better co-worker to your teammates, a better leader within your company, and a better provider to your customers. You’ll be a happier person knowing you’ve helped others, and you’ll be a better human for doing so without expecting anything in return.

Start right now by asking the next person you talk to how you can help them. Then ask the person after that. Help them understand how you can help them. Don’t stop asking people at work how you can help until someone takes you up on the offer.

Then do it again next week. And the week after. Start small, set a reminder for yourself, and make it part of your routine. You’ll be glad you did.

I’d love to hear from you about what you think. Do you think being selfless is a good idea? How are you selfless at work?

Want to hear about another topic? Something on your mind you want to talk about? I want to hear it!