This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee, CEO, LawSikho.

Do you ever think of that?

It is a pleasure to work with some people. While it is just terrible to work with others. 

Some people seem really good to work with in the short term, but in medium to long term, they turn out to be horrible. 

Who are these people? What is different about them?

Is it possible to succeed in today’s environment unless you are good to work with? I doubt that. You may have to find a government job or something like that where performance is not important to survive if you are terrible to work with, or you will be changing jobs every six months, blame the whole world about how it’s unfair and remain stuck in low paid positions.

And chalk it all up to bad luck. 

Almost all people who are blaming the whole world about their failures in life are terrible to work with for various reasons. 

Having hard skills or raw talent is not enough to succeed. You need to be someone who is good to work with if you want to taste real success.

Read this quickly and check if you fall into any of these categories by chance. 

#1 Manipulators

Many bosses rely on manipulations to make their employees work or just have control on them, and many employees rely on manipulation to avoid work or project themselves as better, more loyal, or hard-working.

Manipulations can produce results in the short term, but they get discovered sooner or later, no matter how smart the manipulator is.

Their bluffs get called and people quickly lose respect for them.

When I was young, I used to be highly manipulative. I thought it is smart to be manipulative. Over time I realised the real price I was paying for manipulating others.

Gaining trust of others is hard, but worth it. Manipulation leads loss of respect, morale and overall toxic environment,

If you see manipulators, calling them out is not enough, quit on them quickly.

#2 Angry bosses

Some bosses are so weak that they rely on anger and bluster to get their subordinates to work. It shows lack of leadership. It is one thing to get angry in a rare situation, but if you have to rely on anger to get work done frequently, then you are walking on thin ice.

It would be very hard for you to grow beyond a point. Most importantly, you will never have competent people working with you, they will quit very soon.  

I have had to fire good managers who produced results because they only relied on screaming at their subordinates to produce results. My only regret is that I did not fire them faster.

If you are an employee with anger issues, you are going nowhere anyway. 

Again, this does not mean its a bad thing to be angry in some rare situations that really deserve the anger. 

#3 Minimum performers

There are some professionals who want to do only the minimum work they can get away with. They refuse to take responsibility for situations they find themselves in. They do only what they are asked to do, and nothing else. 

It is hard to survive in today’s work environment if you belong to this category unless you are doing some minimum wage job. This is a recipe for getting fired from high paying jobs and staying stuck in jobs that don’t pay well and have no opportunity for growth. 

If you are not ready to go the extra mile to get the jobs done whenever required, you are a minimum performer.

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These people are harder to get noticed, except for the fact that they do not grow much in their careers. Sometimes they manage to hide in big teams where others pull most of the weight. 

#4 Damsels-in-distress personalities

You will find some people in most organizations who do not get work done and rely on colleagues to help them to survive. They always complain about their bad luck, difficult situation and helplessness.

It is a personality that some people take on to get through life. 

It works for some time until people get fed up of carrying their burden. Then they move to another organization and reenact the same drama. 

Do not think it is women who do this most of the time because I used the word damsel. It is pretty much common to find men who do this exact same thing.

#5 I-am-too-good-for-this employees

Many see their job as a mere stopgap on their way to do something much bigger. Which is fine, except that it is no excuse to not give their life and soul while they are doing their current job. 

However, they are so caught up in their fantasy that they are meant for something better, that they do not do justice to their present work.

No work is too small. High performers do not leave any opportunity to make a mark in their present work. They know the high performance in their present job is the way to move on to something better when the opportunity will arise. They do not laze around thinking that a job is a mere stopgap. 

I was part of a training program once, where they used to make me stand at the gate welcoming people with a smile and usher them inside. 

It was hard to adjust to it initially, from being the CEO of my own company to being a mere usherer/door keeper in an event. But the challenge was to do it with the mindset that I have to be the best at the world at it. I soon realized that I can make people feel welcome, raise their spirits and teach myself to be humble doing it. I realized that I can learn to do it with all the intensity and focus that is needed to do my job of a CEO. 

And therein lies a major power and secret of success. You are not too good for any job. You can take any work and elevate it to the level of world-class art. While you are at it, do not leave any opportunity to learn from it, and do not leave any opportunity of making a mark at it. 

#6 Defensive personalities

These people are often high performers. However, no matter how good you are, you are likely to make mistakes, having blind spots and there would always be opportunities to improve. These people can’t take criticism or anyone pointing out how things could be better. 

I-am-already-doing-everything-I-can defensive personalities hate anyone telling them what could be improved and always respond with counter allegations and denials. 

The slow down the growth of the organisation and are despised by leaders who are responsible for growth. 

#7 Over competitive personalities

It is one thing to compete and grow. It is another to not understand that collaboration is very very important. 

In a workspace, it is cardinal crime to even try to stop or prevent other people from growing because you are afraid they will outgrow you. Any good organization will spot you and try to reform you, failing which they will throw you out. 

Being competitive is very good and encouraged, being a jerk is not.

#8 Superstar bullies

There are superstars who bully their colleagues and even get away with it due to their star status. This is absolutely toxic for the culture of a company and needs to be checked.

Your performance is not an excuse for your poor behavior or mistreating colleagues.

It is hard to fire superstar bullies because they often tend to be the best performer in a team or occupy senior positions. However, long term success requires such people be put in their place.

Did I miss any?

Please let me know in comments/responses.

Be the kind of colleague who is competent, respectful and a delight to work with. That’s hard to beat.

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