Keeping Score at Work Isnt Doing You Any Favors (Even if You Have the Most Points)

Keeping Score at Work Isnt Doing You Any Favors (Even if You Have the Most Points)Keeping Score at Work Isnt Doing You Any Favors (Even if You Have the Most Points)Who does the most work in the office? Who gets the most attention? Who does most of the cleaning in the house? Who buys the most presents? Who calls who the most?The answer is this No one cares about the silly scorecards inside your brain.When people keep score, theres only one outcome resentment. In social psychology, thats called the egocentric bias. The term was first used by Michael Ross and Fiore Sicoly in a 1979 study. They looked at stuff like cooking, making decisions, causing arguments, or any other things that are a part of relationships and found that nearly 75% of married couples overestimated their contribution to the relationship.Basically, its natural for us to take credit for achievements and blame others for losses. Were not aware of our egocentric attitudes. Thats why you have to train yourself to stop ke eping score. Its unhealthy and only causes conflicts.You Have Nothing to ProveI think theres a relationship between keeping score and self-confidence. Keeping score is something you do to prove a point and feel good about yourself over someone else.But heres the thing If youre confident, and you believe in your ability, theres nothing to prove. Just play your part. Its none of your business how others behave. If youre upset about something, thats an entirely different story. If you feel that your colleague is doing less work than you, say it. Dont get all frustrated by convincing yourself that you do it all and theres nothing you can do about it. When it comes to work, people may sayYou deserve more money because you do all the work.You should stop working hard because they dont value you.You might think your friend is giving you good advice, but this type of thinking isnt helpful at all. Ill keep it real with you dont complain- act. Play the Long Game and CollaborateIm not saying t hat its OK if youre in an unequal relationship, personally or professionally. But life isnt fair. Either change it or get out. Stop thinking in concepts like fair. Its completely meaningless and has no useful function. It only causes conflict because its subjective.Instead, I look at relationships like a long-term collaboration. I dont worry about keeping score, because I know that, over a lifetime, the score will always be equal- because we all chase the same goals. In the end, everything will even out anyway. Just do what you have to do, and dont think about who did the most work.If you really want to achieve things in life and get actual work done, you have to collaborate with others. Youll never achieve something on your own. Keeping score is a dangerous trait that you should avoid at all costs. You have the ability to change yourself, but ultimately you cant change others. You can only make them aware of something. If others decide to change, thats great. If not, thats not your problem.Just understand that this is your life, and that means you decide who you spend your time with.And if you want to achieve something that matters, you have to surround yourself with good people. People who care about collective results.This article was originally published on DariusForoux.com. It has been republished here with permission.Photo of people collaborating courtesy of Hero Images/Getty Images.