When was the last time you gave a helping hand to your colleague? Experts say it doesn’t matter what kind of help one gives, what is important is to always be helpful as this comes with a lot of benefits as far as your career is concerned. For instance, Prince Aime Lionel Murara, the deputy national coordinator in charge of operations and partnership in Education for Nations and Humanitarian Africa (ENHA) believes that helping out, it’s a golden opportunity to create a more positive workplace and most importantly, it builds a stronger work relationship. He says that from his experience, he has realised that when you give a helping hand to your colleagues, it strengthens your reputation and opens opportunities within your working environment “When you consistently help others, those you are working with would definitely want you around them, especially in their teams. Also, this is one way of inspiring others to do the same,” he says. Diana Nawatti, an educator and counselor believes that helping out colleagues on different matters or issues exhibits a leadership skill in someone. She explains that this attitude demonstrates one’s leadership skills to even their boss and others too. Both of these things, she notes can be of higher benefits to one’s long-term career, especially when challenging projects or promotion opportunities arise, depending on where or the kind of organisation they are working for. Besides, she goes on to note that when you are a leader, it means you are able to bring out the best abilities in your team members and most importantly, motivate them to work together in achieving a shared goal. “A good leader is also organised and keeps the team on track and focused to avoid delays, this is very crucial in any working environment as it comes with vast benefits,” he says. Faustin Mutabazi, an education consultant in Kigali says if you are more willing to help out, it’s no doubt that you as an individual are destined to achieve more, and earn more, over the long term than those who don’t. In other words, he says this generates long-term success in one’s career. In addition to this, he says this habit also teaches one valuable new skills to help them in their daily life. “Helping a colleague let’s say with a task that seems to be hard or simply overwhelming to them helps opens up to learning opportunities you might not be exposed to otherwise,” he says. Nawatti says that when it comes to improving your work performance in general, helping out is one of the skills that would lead to this. She explains that helping others consistently means that you are helping not only your organisation to improve but also, making a difference in others. Meanwhile, Nawatti advises that it’s also ideal to always assess your own workload before helping others. This, she says will help avoid interfering with your productivity and prevent you from any problems with your supervisors. How can this be achieved? Murara says being a good listener in different ways is important when you want to help others. He points out that first and foremost; listening allows one to identify how best they can be of help. It also enables one to figure out what the other person really needs. He adds that listening also portrays one’s empathy skill, which is very vital when it comes to helping out others. Since most people might shun asking for help yet they need it badly, Mutabazi says it’s important for someone to always look for signs that might indicate that colleague is in dire need. Also, he advises that it’s essential to go beyond and look for changes in behavior in a person. “When you notice signs that a colleague needs help, then it’s just ideal to find a way of approaching them and asking them how you can be of help,” he says.
