At the weekend, I invited my friend Wen Wen to dinner. As soon as we met, she couldn't wait to tell me that she didn't want to stay in her present company. If she wants to change jobs and has a suitable job, she will pay attention.
I was taken aback and asked her what happened. I suddenly wanted to resign. Wenwen said:
"I have worked in my present company for three years, and you know my business level. I have the ability, and my character is not bad. At the beginning of the year, the former boss took a leave of absence because he had to go home to give birth. Before leaving, he told me privately that he was not going to come back after maternity leave. Let me work hard this year, and it should be no problem to be promoted to her position at the end of the year. "
"This is not very good, the future is boundless, and you still have to resign."
"That's good. There is an employee in my department named Dahai, who joined the company last year. He is a very enthusiastic person. Usually I am always called by my predecessors. I also gave him a lot of guidance. He always likes to walk around the boss when he has nothing to do, and he does well. Last week, the company held a meeting and even gave him a promotion. Now he is my immediate superior. "
"It is normal for people to be promoted and transferred. You don't have to think too much, concentrate on your work, and the boss will see. "
"I can't swallow this tone, theory of qualifications, he is not as good as me, theory of ability, he and I are equal, isn't it flattering? I think he must be a relative of the boss and went through the back door. I can't stay in this company. "
There are not a few people in the workplace who have this mentality like Wen Wen. They blame their failure to get promoted on the flattery of their colleagues or the unfair distribution of their bosses. In this way, it is not only difficult to communicate well with colleagues and bosses, but also not conducive to her promotion.
Why is this happening in Wen Wen? Because she fell into the misunderstanding of "attribution bias". "
"attribution bias" refers to the phenomenon that most people inadvertently or completely intentionally attribute their personal behavior and results to others inaccurately. The most common are basic attribution bias and self-help attribution bias. It developed from Fritz Heider's "Attribution Theory".
Just like Wen Wen, if she can hold the idea of goodwill attribution and attribute the reason to herself, is it because her communication level is not high, or because the innovation ability of the sea is stronger than herself? If she thinks from another angle, many problems will be solved.
Second, the adverse effects of attribution bias can be seen everywhere in the workplace.
Disadvantages 1: Make yourself a "consumable" at work.
In the workplace, do you often hear such a voice:
"My team didn't finish last year's performance, mainly because the company didn't give me enough authority, the efficiency of approval at headquarters was too low, there were subordinates with low ability, and customers were picky. The overall market is not good this year, and the competitive pressure is particularly great! "
Does that sound familiar? Faced with their own failures, people often attribute them to external factors. Simply put, I am where I am today because of you.
But in fact, this is a cognitive bias. Only when people realize that failure stems from their own behavior can they learn from their mistakes, otherwise they will become consumables of mistakes and gradually become depressed in repeated dissatisfaction.
You know, failure in the workplace is an opportunity to learn, and you don't have to feel embarrassed or worry about being punished. Only by making good use of the growth-oriented thinking mode can we find opportunities for self-improvement more clearly when we fail to achieve our expected goals, and be more willing to accept challenges rather than find reasons.
Disadvantage 2: automated thinking leads to stereotypes.
I have a girlfriend, Xiao Jing, who is a product manager. She is a well-known energetic beauty. She is absolutely at ease to cooperate with me, and her professionalism can definitely be used as a benchmark in the workplace.
However, her colleagues are not so friendly to her. Xiao Jing told me more than once that the male product manager of the same company often said behind his back: "In this line of work, women only need to dress up beautifully and coquetry every day." When there is a need to cooperate at work, it is also embarrassing, that is, I fix my views on female product managers and ignore the differences between us.
In the workplace, the biggest obstacle is not others, but inner self-expansion. Stereotypes not only affect how others feel about us, but also affect our self-cognition.
When we understand and explain other things, we often add our own subjective prejudice. In extreme words, when we explain anything, we may be "eating the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain."
The prejudice caused by stereotype will bring destructive consequences to work, produce negative feelings among colleagues, and lead us to make discriminatory and biased behaviors step by step.
Disadvantage 3: "Self-interest effect" breeds double standards.
Dacheng, the leader of Xiao Wei, is an exquisite egoist. Last week, he assigned Xiao Wei a job. Because he didn't know his subordinates' workflow, he didn't know what to do. At first, in order to save money, he asked Xiao Wei to do it according to method A, but after a while, he saw that his competitors used method B, which cost more and had better effect, so he reprimanded Xiao Wei.
After throwing the pot to Xiao Wei, she asked Xiao Wei to follow Method B, so that Xiao Wei could overturn all her previous work. She also said to Xiao Wei: I told you to spend more money, and the effect is the most important thing. The way to save money is far from reliable.
Ming Dacheng chose to use cost-saving methods at first, but later blamed this choice for being wrong.
In the final analysis, I just don't want to admit my mistakes and take this responsibility. The final result is too far from the goal. Starting from self-interest, double standards blame others for mistakes.
People with double standards like to be lenient with themselves and strict with others. They are always confident in themselves and impatient with others.
In essence, the reasons for this behavior are very complicated, but in a word, it is the influence of self-help attribution bias. For things of the same nature, they will make diametrically opposite judgments according to their own likes and dislikes, interests and other reasons.
Get rid of "attribution bias" in three or three steps and become a smart person in the workplace
Since "attribution bias" has such a great influence on the workplace, how should we avoid this deviation? You need to learn the following three methods.
(1) break the "habitual defense" and establish a "green light thinking"
When we feel that our views and dignity may be challenged, our first reaction is not to think about whether the other party's challenges and doubts are reasonable, but: someone dares to oppose me and fight with him! At this time, our habitual defense came into being.
Habitual defense is not terrible, what is terrible is having habitual defense and not knowing it. How can we break this defense? The answer is: building a green light thinking means that when you encounter something new, don't reject it first, but understand it, find its value and abandon the "habitual defense".
For example, Qian Qian is a person who is used to rude communication. Every time she communicates with her colleagues, she will say to her colleagues, "You don't know the situation." "You listen to me first!" "I'm pressed for time and don't have much time to listen to your nonsense." As a result, the relationship with colleagues is very tense. If she wants to improve, she can do so.
1. Listen and think carefully.
When communicating with colleagues, you should first listen to their opinions and understand their opinions before expressing your own opinions. Don't listen or judge. Look at the opinions put forward by others objectively, don't rush to deny them, and give yourself time to think about each other's rationality.
Think about it carefully, although this view is different from my past practice, it still has some merits. How to use it to help yourself, integrate colleagues' opinions and their own ideas, and improve a new plan?
Full communication
After colleagues fully express their opinions and communicate with each other, they may generate new ideas, avoid discussing for a long time and discovering that what everyone said is not the same thing, build trust among colleagues and increase the cohesion of the team.
3. Distinguish between "me" and "my point of view"
For example, when a colleague and Qian Qian say, "Your plan is missing something!" At this point, Qian Qian's first reaction was that she would lose control and say, "You don't understand, don't talk nonsense!" "
Most people often unconsciously tie "I" and "my point of view" together, which will interpret others' questioning of our point of view as denying themselves.
We should make it clear that "I" and "my opinion/behavior" are different, and don't bind ourselves to questioning our own views.
(2) Use the "balance wheel" tool to clarify the key elements.
In today's freely chosen society, we rarely have the patience to adapt to those dissatisfied jobs, but we will choose to leave, thinking about changing jobs and hoping that the next job can do what we like, but is the next job really your ideal job?
For example, Pinkley was "tired" of her current financial work, so she jumped ship to do design. But when she changed her new job, she didn't achieve the expected goal. On the contrary, she misses making financial statements.
This is because the essence of "job burnout" that Pinkley feels is not "burnout" but "attribution bias", and she can analyze it for herself through the tool of "balance wheel".
1. Create your own balance wheel.
Create a life balance wheel, and then fill in the following contents in turn
Career development status
Financial status
Personal health status
recreational activities
Composition of family members
Friends and confidants
Personal growth planning
Examples of self-worth embodiment
2. Analysis of the present situation of scoring system
According to the current situation, score yourself in each field according to 1 as the worst and 10 as the most satisfactory.
During the grading process, ask yourself three questions.
Which field's score is improved, which will drive the scores of other fields to increase together?
Which field do you want to change most?
What can I do to improve my score in this field?
3. Finding the short board of the balance wheel is the key to the problem.
After the balance wheel is finished, finding the lowest sub-field according to the score is the key reason of the problem.
For example, in Yue Yue's Balance Wheel, she found that she scored very high in the field of "career development status", on the contrary, the lowest score was "financial status". It turned out that Yue Yue's lover lost a lot of money in his investment last year, and the family's economic situation suddenly became tense, which led to a lot of psychological pressure on Pinkley. She blamed all this on the fact that her work did not bring her the salary she wanted.
The seemingly simple balance wheel can clarify the key point behind one thing. Many times we are confused because we don't know ourselves. Balance wheel can visualize very abstract problems and avoid "attribution bias".
(3) Cultivate the motivation of "self-transcendence"
Jobs said: I especially like working with smart people. Why? Because the biggest advantage is that you don't have to consider your own dignity.
Why did Jobs say that? Don't smart people have a bottom line?
Actually, it is not, because smart people know dignity and face, but they have no time to maintain face. They want to grow and improve faster and achieve themselves better, so they pay little attention to dignity and face.
For example, Xiaowen recently jumped ship to a new company. After the probation period, the company didn't give the promised benefits. I heard that all the colleagues in the original company were promoted, which made Xiaowen depressed and made frequent mistakes in his work. The boss also hinted whether he was not suitable for the position. If Xiaowen doesn't want to face unemployment, he can do so.
1. Create a "personal vision" list.
Most people have a superficial understanding of real vision, and "vision" is what we really care about most. Knowing what we really want to do will make us full of enthusiasm, so in the face of setbacks, we will continue to stick to it and have a clear vision, which will naturally improve efficiency.
Just like Xiaowen, first of all, what is the first purpose of his job-hopping? What on earth did I come to the new company for? Is it blind job-hopping? Or is it a deliberate choice? Make a list of your vision first and make it clear.
2. Keep the creative tension
When our vision is clear, there will be many difficulties in the process of realization, which will make us anxious, but it is the gap between reality and vision that pushes us forward.
Xiaowen is an indomitable character. Now he clearly realized that he resigned in order to get in touch with a higher platform, so he devoted himself to his work, regardless of salary and position, and soon gained the trust and attention of his boss.
3. Face the conflict directly and achieve transcendence.
The higher the self-level, the clearer the conflict, the more calmly you can finish your work, concentrate on realizing your wishes, cultivate the necessary patience and observe the reality objectively.
This means that we won't make attribution bias's mistake, we can see where our problems are, we should find the reasons from ourselves first, and what we can do to change the status quo and surpass ourselves.
If you meet attribution bias, you should try the above three methods. Only by getting rid of "attribution bias" can we go further in the workplace and improve our ability and competitiveness.