What I learned from a TED talk by Adam Grant

Changing track from last week, in the next few weeks I will cover the lessons I learned from some great TED talks. I will start with one talk that helps us build great organizations.

Do you feel safe offering help?

If you have thirteen minutes, It would be great if you listen to this complete TED talk by Adam Grant. But in case you do not that much time, reading few lines below will help you get the gist of it.

There are three type of people in any organization, Givers, Takers and Matchers. Givers like to help others at a cost to themselves and Takers help themselves at cost of others while Matchers take the Tit-for-Tat approach. You can imagine that the Givers will be at the bottom of the productivity table, as they waste their time helping others. But you will be surprised to note that almost invariably, Givers are also at the top of the productivity table and they are the ones who end up in leadership positions. Takers rise quickly but are shot down at higher stages as their behavior pulls whole teams down, but when Givers rise to a level, they get noticed more and can take whole teams with them to new heights.

But if Givers are good then why are they also at the bottom. The trick is culture! The one that you create as a leader. Are you making it safe to offer help? Or is it that your organization allows vulnerable people to get hurt? Givers make their organizations stronger and more successful. But wrong cultures can weed them out instead of the Takers. If you continue to tolerate people who set bad examples but produce good results at cost of others, you tell the Givers to stop.

Adam says, there is one simple way to identify the takers. But you will have to listen to the talk to find that out!

As leaders, I would hope that you can foster a culture where people are happy to offer help and are recognized for their sacrifices.

Stay tuned for more next week.