Ask about your colleague’s needs

What is important for you in your professional role so you find balance in everyday life? Maybe it means leaving work earlier so you can pick up your kids? Doesn’t it feel good when a colleague covers for you during the last ten minutes so that you have time to run to the bus? What happens if you begin to make efforts at work to accommodate other peoples’ needs as much as you try to accommodate your own? By using the dual concern model, researcher Carsten De Dreu shows that if you keep your consideration of others on par with your consideration of yourself, it leads to a more cooperatively-oriented means of working, which means more problem-solving strategies and fewer conflicts.