Social Contract with me
Chanced upon a good idea: declaring (publicly) the social contract for anyone who works with me.
Though I often mention this in bits and pieces to new people I work with, I guess stating it here makes it official and also a good mirror for myself:
- I will be transparent with you, and thus I expect you to be transparent with me. I won’t deliberately hide my cards (I know how to, but I only use it in competitive situations), and if we are to work together, we better be honest with each other.
- I will always assume that you have a point of view that I haven’t considered, and I expect you to do the same. It’s not exactly to give each other the benefit of the doubt (that’s too generous), but to engage each other is to essentially engage in learning, where we are each other’s teacher.
- I will always try to help. As long as I have breathe and it’s something I can do, I will make sure that if you come to me, I will try my best to help you. I might not look the part, or feel the part, but deep inside I believe that if you come to me, you need my help. And the same happens the other way – I won’t look for you for help unless, well, I need it, so I hope you would care.
- I need space. You need space. Thus I’d appreciate an honest allocation of time before energy is spent on any kind of social interaction, whether it’s for work or pleasure. My introvert bubble is still pretty alive despite my imposter effort to look the part as an extroverted entrepreneur.
Yup, that’s it. Last week I told my kids to give me space too, so no exceptions 😉