04/12/2022

How to Ask for Help at Work

Key: Stop apologizing

You can’t do it alone.

That’s not an insult—it’s a reality. There aren’t a lot of jobs left that people can do in complete isolation. There aren’t a lot of problems left that can be solved by lone geniuses. Performance is a team sport, one that requires we help each other.

At the same time, many people struggle with how to ask for help at work. Generally, this hesitancy comes from one of two possible places. The first is the assumption that people will reject our requests for help. But research shows the opposite; people are on average 48 percent more likely to help than we assume before asking. The second is the illusion of transparency. We assume our need for help is obvious to other people, but most often it is not—probably because they’re struggling with their own problems and waiting for others to notice.

Please select this link to read the complete blog post from David Burkus.