When someone new joins the team, people want to know what to expect so they begin to talk. When that talk is negative it can be detrimental to the new person’s reputation and make it harder for them to have a positive start with the team. This negative talk evolves into fear mongering because there is uncertainty as to who someone really is and how they may change the social norms of the group.
Despite the fact that we have all been victims of stone throwing character assassinations and have had to spend time undoing the damage caused by the words of others, we all engage in this activity. This happens even though we all have had to work hard to change the perceptions others have about us.
No one is perfect. No one does what they are supposed to, how they are supposed to all the time. Everyone has a past, everyone has learned lessons, improved and grown. Everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt. They deserve an untainted opportunity to demonstrate how good they are.
Allowing yourself to be biased about someone robs you of your own growth and development because maybe, just maybe, you have something to learn from that person. Taking the stones and throwing them further will prevent you from doing so, or worse delay whatever it is that you needed to gain from knowing them.
Keep the Following in Mind When Someone New Joins the Team:
Open eyes – Have the desire to expand how you view possibilities and problems. Intentionally see with more clarity and notice the things you have stopped seeing about yourself out of habit. Be observant of what is and more open to what might be.
Open mind – be successful by looking at situations with a different mindset. Seek out learning opportunities and understanding in more creative ways. Design your life to be more spacious, loose and fun. Let go of old thought habits and beliefs that keep you small and don’t serve your desire to be your best.
Open heart – be comfortable with vulnerability and risk. This is the hardest one to achieve but worth striving for. Having an open heart enables you to act with adoration and not fear.
Change is hard and no change is greater than having to work with someone new. Don’t allow other people’s opinions to make that change harder. When someone new joins the team and you are being told who they are, they likely have been told who you are. No doubt both of you want the chance the rise above past reputations.
