-Karthik Gurumurthy
Look closely at these practices and a common thread appears. Taking ownership of problems, respecting people’s time, building bridges between colleagues, leaving things better than we found them, serving without seeking credit, expressing sincere gratitude, welcoming newcomers: at first glance they might look like a list of workplace tips, the kind of advice found in a quick article on getting ahead.
Yet none of them is really a trick. A trick is something we use to get a result. These practices are something deeper. Each one is a way of honoring other people. Respecting someone’s time honors their life. Thanking them honors their effort. Introducing them to others honors their potential. Welcoming them honors their need to belong. Underneath every one of these small acts is the same quiet message: you matter.
The philosopher Martin Buber described two ways of relating to others. We can treat people as objects, useful means to our own ends, or we can meet them as whole human beings, worthy of respect in themselves. Workplaces, with their targets and titles and deadlines, can easily pull us toward the first way. Colleagues become resources, meetings become transactions, and people become roles. The practices described here are, in a sense, a steady choice to resist that pull and to keep seeing the person behind the position.
Many African traditions express this through the idea of Ubuntu, often summed up as “I am because we are.” It suggests that our humanity is bound up with the humanity of others, and that we become fully ourselves through how we treat one another. Work, seen this way, is not just a place where individuals pursue their own success. It’s a shared space where we either help one another flourish or quietly hold one another back.
This is why the people everyone wants to work with aren’t necessarily the most brilliant or the most ambitious. Brilliance is admired, and ambition can be impressive, but neither by itself makes people feel safe, valued, or understood. The colleagues we treasure are the ones who make others feel respected, supported, and seen. They lift the mood of a room without trying, and they make hard days lighter and good days better.
So perhaps we’ve been asking the wrong question. Most of us spend our careers asking, “How can I succeed at work?” It’s a fair question, but it keeps the focus on ourselves. A deeper question is, “What kind of presence do I want to be in other people’s working lives?”
The beautiful irony is that the answer to the second question often answers the first. People who make others better tend to be trusted. Those who are trusted tend to be given responsibility, and those who carry responsibility well tend to be asked to lead. Success, in the most lasting sense, often comes not from climbing past others but from helping them rise.
In the end, our careers will be measured in many ways: titles, achievements, milestones. But the measure that may matter most will never appear on a résumé. It’s how people felt when they worked alongside us, and whether they were glad, in some small way, that our paths crossed.
Leave a Reply