You get easily flustered. Even the easiest deadlines seem to make you nervous. You get angry easily, even when you realise that it was unnecessary. You misplace anger on your juniors and try to hold the fort in front of your seniors. When these things happen, you should acknowledge that you may not be in complete control, and need help.
Often, we are so confident about our abilities, that it seems a weakness to ask for help. But it is not human to know everything about everything. It is possible, that someone else might be more competent at a particular set of skills, and you would only learn something by asking for their help.
So, how do you set aside your ego, and ask for help in the most appropriate way at work?
Give It A Go Yourself
It would be lazy to ask for help without trying something yourself. You need to explore all the possible solutions before you start crying ‘Fire!’. In this way, you remain in control of the situation, and even the person giving help understands that it is a genuine call for need. They would help more readily if they knew you are not pushing your work on them needlessly. But this does not mean you torture yourself for hours and days. If you are convinced that you have done all that you could do, knock on the door and ask for help.
Richa Shah, Senior Manager at The Network, says, “Ask for help for something that is beyond your clear scope of work. It means that you are asking for help to maintain productivity and save on time. If it is something that you should ideally know, but are seeking help to cover your own limitation, then the person may see through the ruse. There is no shame in asking for help when it facilitates work productivity.”
Don’t be vague when asking for help. The person might feel that you are out of the water. Instead, you should ask for help in clear terms, regarding what you need and why you need it. In this way, you also do not create a picture of self-victimisation. This not only shows that you have thought through the problem on your own first, but also that you are not asking for a free handout, that you are trying to get the job done together.
Image Credit: starindia
Give And Take
You cannot ask for help from someone whom you have refused assistance before. This means you have to remain helpful throughout, as you might never know whose help you will require in future. This is not a case of scratching each other’s’ back, but the simple ethic of being courteous and helpful to create a positive work environment.
These approaches will make it easy to ask for help at work.
