Traits of
People
Who Make
a Positive
Difference
By Dan Coughlin
W
hen I think about organizations my thoughts are
built on a single premise: Most people want to
make a positive difference in their organization and
any person, regardless of his or her title, can make a positive
difference in an organization of any size.
Traits of Difference-Makers
2015 Issue 1 |
THE
SCORE
22
Some people become positive difference-makers and
others don’t. Since we can’t determine who is going to be in
which group based on their labels, what is it that causes some
to make a positive difference and others to not?
I think the difference between the two groups consists of
internal traits. Here are five traits that I believe make all the
difference; and all five of them are traits that can be learned and
developed.
Trait #1
Maintain the desire to make a positive difference
in your organization.
I believe that the vast majority of people start out
wanting to make a positive difference in the organization they
work for. They don’t start out careers or start
out in a new job saying to themselves,“I’m
just going to earn a paycheck and I’m not
going to try to make any contribution at all.”
So why do some people lose their desire
to make a positive difference?
First, it has nothing to do with their labels. I’ve seen
exceptionally intelligent people from great universities with
big titles and significant incomes lose their desire to make a
positive difference. They used up all their time and energy by
complaining about employees, customers, the government, the
economy, the industry and so on. It was their way of avoiding
having to try to make a positive difference. After a time it
became clear to me that they had no desire to contribute. At the
same time I’ve seen other people with virtually the same labels
work every day to try to make a positive difference.
I think people lose their desire to be meaningful contributors for two reasons: the culture at home and the culture at
work. While growing up, or possibly in their current home
situation, they may have received a lot of negative subconscious
programming regarding their career. They may have heard over