What Would Buddha Do – Part 2

I wrote about What Would Buddha Do to Become an Enlightened Worker earlier. Continuing in the series, here’s what he would do to create and expand superb relationships at work.

Part 2: Cultivating Enlightened Work Relationships

• True leadership is service to other people.
• A tough demanding boss is like a tough coach who demands more from his athlete. Good leaders stretch your capabilities and provide regular feedback.
• Wise people admit they don’t know everything.
• What goes around comes around. This is the law of karma. Do a good job at work, respect your boss even if you don’t like him and let the law of karma work its way to him.
• Give unselfishly to your coworkers.
• Do your work without complaining.
• To influence others, you must have competence and character.
• Do something extra for others. Ask a stressed coworker what you can do to help.
• Offer to stay late to finish an important deadline. Ask coworker’s about their families.
• Bring home-baked goods to lunch and share it with everyone.
• Give others the benefit of the doubt and avoid making judgments.
• Listen more than talk.
• Let go of your ego and listen to other people’s feedback.
• Respect the learner or trainee. Teach her by invitation, not by command.
• When you are about to criticize someone, stop and ask yourself if you mean to teach that person or do you simply want to establish your own superiority?
• Take responsibility for the problem and the solution. Be personally accountable.
• If people are hostile to you, maybe you did something to deserve it. People are jerks to us now because we were probably jerks to them earlier.
• Don’t give in to your anger. Keep your mouth shut and do the right thing.
• If someone is bad-mouthing you, ignore him.
• Unconditional love and understanding in the face of hostility is the noblest of all human acts.
• Revenge is not sweet. An eye for an eye makes us all blind.
• Avoid negative people. These are the chronic complainers, whiners, and cynics.
• Survival at any cost, dog-eat-dog mentality, and war-like thinking in business leads to great social costs. We must see everything as interconnected.

Want more? I will post about Buddha’s wisdom on being a boss, dealing with customers, hiring people and more in the next few days!