What can make the day-to-day grind more than a miserable slog through a never-ending to-do list is
camaraderie among a group working together toward a common end.
Career success can be gauged many different ways. To some, it is measured in bonuses, fat paychecks and generous benefit packages. To others, it’s defined by how much pleasure or joy is derived from the work itself. Still others may value the impact their efforts have on their community. Most people derive job satisfaction from a combination of all of these factors.
In my working life I have been gainfully employed in a wide variety of industries, from furniture sales to custom millwork design to managing editor for nationally distributed magazines to marketing director for a business school – all along pursuing my art career “on the side.” The thing that defines career success for me is being able to work in an environment where I support and am in turn supported by all the people I interact with on a daily basis.
My office is at Clemson at the Falls in Greenville, which houses all the Clemson graduate business programs – primarily MBA – along with a few other centers and institutes. Most of my job tasks consist of promoting the MBA program. What I like best about our team is the spirit of cooperation we all share.
But what’s even more fun is to see that same spirit of cooperation among the other groups in our building.
One of our busiest classrooms is near my office, so I am afforded many opportunities to interact with and observe the students. One day last week, the accounting students in that class spent most of the day working together in small groups scattered about in the hallways, developing projects together that they were presenting to a visiting professor. It was great to observe the way they approached the assignment, with a “we’re all in this together” attitude.
Earlier this week, I witnessed several members of the graduating class of MBA in Entrepreneurship students working together to refine their business pitch presentations.
These students are technically in competition with one another – they are presenting their ideas to a panel of judges to try to win $20,000 in startup cash as part of their final course required for graduation. But rather than trying to undercut one another, they chose to come together in support, each of them rehearsing over and over, giving and receiving feedback in an effort to make everyone’s presentation the best it can be. In competitions leading up to this finale, they have enthusiastically cheered one another on, genuinely celebrating the winner’s success as if it were their own.
We all know that to be successful in our careers we need to have the knowledge and skills to perform our job requirements, and it seems as if everyone I know is working harder and wearing more hats than ever before. These are the facts of working life. But the variable that has the most potential to make the day-to-day grind something more than a miserable slog through a never-ending to-do list is the genuine sense of camaraderie among a group of people working together toward a common end.
This camaraderie is born through small, seemingly unimportant gestures – the coworker who helps clean up after an event, even though it’s not their job – or the colleague who brings you a cup of coffee because they see you’ve been stuck at your desk on the phone for two hours and could really use a little pick-me-up.
No one does these favors expecting to be paid back – nor do they need to, because when everyone is working in this way it always seems to even out in the end. It is a hallmark of a great manager to be able to create this type of work environment, often seemingly without effort.
My goal in sharing these random observations is to inspire you to foster this type of true partnership among colleagues in your own job or remind you to appreciate it if you have it already, because in my opinion it truly is one of the best measures of career success.
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Darlene Fuhst is the marketing director for the Greenville programs of the Clemson College of Business & Behavioral Science.
