“Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it.”

Winston Churchill

We’re hearing a lot about productivity at the moment – or rather, the lack of it. Keeping up with technological advances is certainly part of the answer, but I can’t help thinking that not everyone is making the most of their working hours and some people might even be knowingly wasting them – not you, of course!

Out and about with my trainer’s hat on, I hear horror stories of the amount of time being spent on non-work related social media, online shopping or other distractions. Or of team members dodging tasks they don’t want to do and frustrating their colleagues who end up doing the work for them so that targets are met. I’ve found that someone not ‘pulling their weight’ is the biggest cause of conflict in the workplace, especially when that person seems to get away with this lack of effort for a long time.

That’s why I’ve included work ethic as an interpersonal skill – people respect and like those who are willing to work hard as part of a team or organisation. That certainly doesn’t mean that we can’t have a laugh at work or spend time building team relationships with colleagues, it just means that we’re aware of our responsibility to do our bit conscientiously so that others can depend on us and we can depend on them. That’s a great culture to work in.