What Makes a Good Colleague?

This blog post proposes — based on my experience in international development — the key qualities of a good colleague or team member.

People come in packages made up a vast set of qualities, attributes, skills, quirks, and what have you. The seven I present here for your consideration just seem like the essential ones to me. Quite possibly, a few will apply outside the international development field as well.

Twenty years looking back

It’s now been 20 years since I began working in this field. (Back then, when looking ahead, 20 years seemed like an almost endless expanse of time; looking back, the period seems oddly brief. Anyway…) In May 2000 I arrived in Albania for an internship that turned into my first consultant job. I hit the ground running, unleashed after an unsatisfying career stretch alternating, sometimes daily, between a dead-end finance job and pursuit of a pie-in-the-sky acting career in New York City. Enrolling in a Master’s degree program in international relations was, finally, the pivot that launched what would become a far more rewarding career.

Two decades, several dozen countries, and thousands of professional relationships later, I can say that I fully subscribe to the following received wisdom: it’s the people who make or break programs and projects.

Fair enough, you say, but what kind of people? What sort of qualities do well-rounded professionals, the kind of people you want to work with and for, embody? And…what sort of qualities will make other people want to work with me?

Seven key attributes

1)      Professionalism. I use this as a catch-all term to encompass the range of behaviors considered “normal” in the work sphere, from reliability and trustworthiness to responsiveness and collegiality. There are many unwritten codes of conduct but it isn’t necessarily difficult to act in a professional way. Observing more seasoned colleagues is not a bad place to start. Nonetheless, I’m still surprised how some people fail to follow up with a “thank you” after an interview, or fail to respond to an email request. If you’re too busy, a simple one-line response along the lines of “I wish I could help, but I’m tied up with other work at the moment,” would not seem a lot to ask. Beyond the work itself, acting in a professional manner has implications simply for maintaining good relationships.

2)      Management ability. This ability is useful for everyone, even those not in charge of teams or departments. I refer to management in the broadest sense — using the available resources, or finding additional ones, to achieve a goal. You may not be in charge of other people if you are, say, a junior staffer or work independently, outside an organization. However, even then, if you can’t manage tasks, or your time and work relationships, you are inviting unnecessary agony into your life. Plan and prioritize what needs doing, in whatever way that makes sense to you. Plenty of people still keep handwritten daily and weekly “to do” lists. I get much satisfaction out of crossing off tasks as they get done. Managing relationships may be more of an art than a science, but it is a skill no less important for all that.

3)      Technical skills. These are the specialized skills for which we are usually hired: e.g. setting up a health clinic, running data analysis software, analyzing electricity tariff structures, conducting cost-benefit analysis, and so on. Such skills are developed through a combination of education, book learning and experience. With some adjustments, they can be transferable. Knowing how a state-owned water utility operates helps in understanding how a state-owned electric utility works.  Early in my career, I conducted a fair amount of socio-economic analyses of World Bank-financed projects. That stood me in good stead when I later expanded to USAID project evaluations.

4)      Critical thinking. We can also call this common sense. I include here abilities such as seeing the big picture, connecting the dots, asking the right questions, applying logic to a problem, seeing things in a new or useful way. Data analysis software is hugely important and has greatly facilitated our ability to analyze vast amounts of information. However, even in the context of artificial intelligence and machine learning, the performance of the human mind remains formidable. It has been estimated that our brains can process anywhere from 10 to 100 terabytes of information. While supercomputers now have faster processing speeds and storage capacity, the human brain is vastly more efficient. And humans can think and imagine, while computers can still only retrieve information and run algorithms. We probably still have a few decades before we’re overtaken by machines. Use the time to your advantage. 

5)      Writing. Not very distant from — and rather dependent on — critical thinking, is writing ability. Your colleagues and managers will be very grateful for your clear, succinct, and grammatically correct prose. This applies both at a structural level and at the level of sentences and even words. The gold standard in the English-speaking world, at least, is clarity: you should be able to explain things in a way that your grandmother could understand. I once asked a World Bank manager what, for him, was the most important quality he looked for in a consultant. Without hesitation, he replied “good writing skills.” Once you’ve finished the job, the documents you produced may often be the only tangible thing attributable to your efforts. If they are made publicly available, they will last and may influence the work of others.

6)      Experience. Essentially, this is the ability to apply the past to the present, and to place the current situation, its problems and opportunities, within a broader context. By definition, experience takes time to build. However, that doesn’t mean every person with 20 years under their belt has the same amount of sagesse.  Not all experience has the same value. The more work you do in a given time period, the more experience you will collect. That’s basic math. The more attentive you are, the more you will learn as you’re doing it. If you mindlessly play a piece 100 times on the piano, you probably won’t memorize it. If you practice with intent, however, you will learn it by heart even while playing it less. Diversity of experience, across countries, clients and sectors is key. As the author Stephen Covey pointed out, “Some people say they have twenty years, when in reality, they only have one year’s experience, repeated twenty times.”

7)      Energy and enthusiasm. None of the above counts for much if your work makes you tired, cynical or lazy. This the ace that young people have up their sleeve, to compensate for their lack of experience. The term “passion” is often used in this context, but I admit being lukewarm on the concept. In my experience, the people who bring too much passion to their work tend to be less than emotionally stable. You can’t sustain passion forever, and so it’s not something that can be counted on. Or, the passionate types are also ruthlessly ambitious, elbowing their way up through the hierarchy. Generally, colleagues or counterparts that run on passion are hard to be around. (Save your passion for the bedroom or the ballpark.) However, energy and enthusiasm channeled toward a project are very welcome traits in colleagues. They can be infectious, and even enhance the quality of everyone else’s work. They also go a long way toward compensating for weaknesses in other areas. The trick is staying motivated. Having a clear, overarching goal – which could be as simple as “I want to produce the best report on this topic that’s ever been seen” – doesn’t hurt.

Some reflections on the above

• There are, of course, other supremely useful attributes, e.g. leadership ability, diplomatic nous, negotiation skills, foreign languages, and sheer grit. They make individuals stand out in the crowd and open all kinds of doors. They are not absolutely essential however. You can have a satisfying and productive career without them.

• If you are the type of person who has a yen for self-improvement (which, since you’re reading this blog post, I’m guessing you might) you can do a little exercise: rate yourself along the above attributes, say, on a scale of 1 to 5.

• If you feel particularly deficient in one area, various strategies can be pursued. One is to diligently work on the areas you are weakest. That could entail reading, taking training, talking to people, as well as just being mindful. Another is to overcompensate, in a positive sense – aim to become brilliant and exceptional at one or maximum two things. A lot of senior experts, for example, may be bona fide curmudgeons, but they are valued — and tolerated! — because of their vast technical knowledge and experience.

• Very few people will score top marks across all attributes. The good thing is it that no one is expected to, either. That’s why most work is done by teams, not individuals. Even a book with a single author is almost always a team effort. Just take a look at the acknowledgements section to remind yourself of this.  It’s not a bad policy to be honest with people about what you can and cannot do.

• A corollary of the above is that the stronger you are in one area, the more tolerance others will have for your weaknesses in other areas.

• Keep in mind that these attributes are relative, depending on the circumstance and who else is in the room. On one project, for example, your 15 years may make you the most experienced person on the team, whereas on another, they may pale in comparison to your senior colleague’s 30 years.

Concluding thoughts

Every now and then I find myself working with someone who seems quite brilliant in all of the above attributes, and the question arises — is this person for real? Almost always, however, after getting to know them better, their weaknesses emerge and they turn out to be human after all… The weaknesses weren’t visible at first, or were not that irksome. That’s a skill too, of course, being able to conceal one’s faults.

It’s pretty difficult to be both human and perfect. And that’s okay. Not worth the effort, really. It’s good to remember that robots and AI come with plenty of built in flaws, glitches and annoyances, too (and that includes ridiculously macro-heavy MS Word and its I-know-better-than-you-what-formatting-should-be-used-here-but–maybe-I’ll-change-the-font-and-spacing-halfway-through-the-document attitude, pervasive flaws which Microsoft has not bothered to fix for over a decade). 

Finally, possessing the seven attributes I’ve described here is not just good for sake of doing exemplary work. It will also make people want to collaborate with you again.