It is not enough that you are highly accessible to your colleagues; your colleagues must also benefit from the interaction. After all, if accessibility doesn’t benefit your colleagues, what’s the point?
- Low Access + Low Benefit. Due to your behavior, you are at risk of being inaccessible to colleagues in your organization and industry. In many ways, you are creating a self-fulfilling prophecy – you are not accessible to colleagues and, at that rare moment that they gain access to you, your colleagues do not benefit from the interaction.
- Low Access + High Benefit. While your colleagues benefit from their interactions with you, their ability to gain access to you is inconsistent. You are at risk of creating frustration on the part of your colleagues, which may lead to them to go elsewhere. It is common for colleagues to say to one another, “She’s a great resource if you can get to her.”
- High Access + Low Benefit. You have created a strong environment of access for your colleagues. However, your colleagues are not benefiting from their interactions with you, eroding their interest in coming to see you. You are at risk of being viewed as irrelevant.
- High Access + High Benefit. You are demonstrating the right behavior for your colleagues to access you and feel that the interaction is benefiting them. Your high level of being accessible is positively contributing to your visibility in your organization and industry.
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Ed’s new book Drive Your Career: 9 High-Impact Ways to Take Responsibility for Your Own Success – Coming this fall!
Have you listened to Ed’s new podcast called Be Brave @ Work? It’s all about saying what needs to be said and doing what needs to be done. Listen here!
