Five to Thrive Week 20

UMD’s Thriving Workplace Initiative is making the University of Maryland a great place to work by providing tools and support to foster engaged, inclusive and empowered faculty and staff across campus.

Each Monday, its Five to Thrive list offers five strategies crowdsourced from research, experts and our own UMD community to help your workplace thrive.

Want to build a Thriving Workplace? Here are this week’s tips:

• Have candid, supportive conversations about soft spots. Help employees devise strategies to strengthen those areas.
• Avoid the void: Pushing out information does not equal effective communication. Present it in forums where you can garner feedback and reaction.
• Ask “What do you need from me?” It can turn a colleague’s idea into reality. Be sure to follow through.
• Share the wealth (of learning): If your budget allows only one employee to participate in a specific training, professional development workshop or conference, ask that person if they’d be willing to share what they learn in with the rest of the team during a staff meeting or brown bag session.
• Don’t be afraid to bring in outside perspectives, whether you’re developing a newsletter, creating a more organized system or tackling a new project. Look for people who have done it before successfully; campus colleagues often welcome opportunities to share their knowledge and experience.

Want more tips? Visit the Thriving Workplace Resource Library here or sign up for Food for Thought Friday, which delivers strategies to your inbox each week. Send an email to thrivingworkplace@umd.edu with the subject listserv to subscribe.