Database of Work Behavior (330 Entries)

Work behaviors are the expected and actual human behaviors that occur in job or organization. These are relevant to productivity, business outcomes, risk, safety and the job satisfaction of employees.

All (337)

Professionalism (34)

Productivity (18)

Organization (15)

Problem Solving (18)

Leadership (46)

Communication (25)

Cooperation (19)

Creativity (18)

Conflict Resolution (20)

Professional Development (20)

Attitudes (30)

Negative (83)

Accepting constructive feedback	Accepting help
Acting entitled	Addressing issues early
Adhering to policies, processes and procedures	Adjusting goals based on feedback
Analytical thinking	Apologizing as necessary
Attention seeking	Authoritarianism
Avoiding confrontation and difficulties	Avoiding distractions
Avoiding new responsibilities	Avoiding over-complication
Avoiding personal attacks or insults	Avoiding responsibility
Avoiding teamwork	Avoiding tunnel vision
Awareness of change and trends	Balancing risks and rewards
Being able to pivot quickly	Being accountable
Being adaptable	Being approachable
Being arrogant	Being consistent
Being dismissive of ideas	Being disrespectful
Being flexible in roles	Being judgmental
Being open to new ideas	Being overly competitive
Being passionate about your work	Being passive
Being patient	Being precise and accurate
Being punctual	Being resourceful
Being responsible	Being unreliable
Being willing to change direction	Big picture thinking
Blaming others	Breaking down tasks into steps
Bringing personal problems to work	Bringing politics to work
Building relationships	Building silos
Building trust	Care in your work
Celebrating small wins	Challenging the status quo
Clarifying ambiguities	Clear and concise communication
Clearing issues	Collaborating across departments
Collaborative	Combining different perspectives
Comfortable with ambiguity	Committed
Communicating long-term goals	Communicating meeting agendas
Competitive spirit	Complaining excessively
Completing tasks with minimal supervision	Complying with regulations
Connecting people	Conscientiousness
Consensus building	Considering unintended consequences
Constantly delaying decisions	Continuous improvement of processes
Continuous learning	Contributing original thoughts
Correcting mistakes	Courteous communication
Creating systems and automations	Creating transparency
Creating unnecessary drama	Critical thinking
Criticizing colleagues publicly	Criticizing your organization publicly
Cross-functional collaboration	Dealing with ambiguity
Dealing with conflicts respectfully	Decisiveness
Defensiveness	Defusing tense situations
Delegating work	Delivering consistently
Delivering urgent work	Demonstrating commitment
Demonstrating courtesy	Demonstrating curiosity
Demonstrating determination	Dependence on structure and rules
Developing potential in others	Developing processes
Developing standard procedures	Diligence
Diplomacy	Disengagement
Dishonesty	Disregarding company policies
Disrespectful communication	Disrupting traditional thinking
Documenting knowledge	Documenting meeting minutes
Documenting processes	Drawing from different influences
Driving change	Emotional outbursts
Encouraging experimentation	Encouraging open discussion
Encouraging others to speak up	Engagement
Ensuring safety	Enthusiasm
Ethical behavior	Exaggerating problems
Exaggerating successes	Excluding others
Experimenting	Exploring different perspectives
Failing to acknowledge mistakes	Failing to prioritize
Favoritism	Flexibility
Following up	Forward-thinking
Frequently seeking validation	Gathering data and evidence
Giving credit where it's due	Giving up too easily
Going above and beyond	Gossiping
Growth mindset	Handling difficult situations professionally
Handling multiple tasks efficiently	Handling problems promptly
Handling unethical behavior	Hands-off attitude
Hoarding information	Holding grudges
Holding oneself and others accountable	Holding others back
Identifying and addressing unprofessional behaviors	Identifying conflict
Identifying milestones	Identifying quick wins
Identifying root causes of issues	Ignoring deadlines
Ignoring team goals	Imagining future possibilities
Implementing quality checks	Inability to recognize failure
Independence	Inspiring confidence
Interrupting others	Involving stakeholders
Keeping an open mind	Keeping meetings brief
Keeping stakeholders informed	Lack of candor
Lack of focus	Lack of initiative
Lack of self-awareness	Lazy behaviors
Leading by example	Leading team efforts
Learning from failures	Learning new skills
Lifelong learning	Listening
Listening with empathy	Long-term strategic thinking
Low morale	Maintaining a schedule
Maintaining confidentiality	Maintaining focus
Maintaining objectivity	Maintaining organized workspaces
Making excuses	Making tough decisions
Making unrealistic demands	Malicious compliance
Managing one's own emotions	Managing risks
Managing stress	Managing time blocks
Managing time efficiently	Mediating disputes
Meeting deadlines	Mentoring junior colleagues
Micromanagement	Minimizing downtime between tasks
Monitoring work progress	Negative attitude
Neglecting duty	Not fearing failure
Not respecting privacy	Offering compromise
One-upmanship	Optimism
Organizing	Outgoing & social
Over-explaining obvious things	Over-promising, under-delivering
Overcoming obstacles	Overreacting
Overworking others	Participating in workshops and seminars
Passive-aggressive behavior	Paying attention
People-focused	Perfectionism
Persistence and resilience in problem solving	Planning ahead
Playing the victim	Positive mindset
Pragmatism	Presenting information concisely
Preventing escalation of conflicts	Prioritizing work
Process-focused	Procrastination
Producing quality work	Professional networking
Promoting a sense of belonging	Promptly communicating issues, problems and challenges
Providing clear instructions	Providing direction
Providing resources	Providing timely feedback
Pursuing additional education	Pursuing certifications or qualifications
Quiet & reserved	Reading industry-related books and articles
Recognizing emotions	Recognizing potential
Reflecting on past mistakes	Reframing challenges into opportunities
Reframing problems	Refusing to adapt to feedback
Reliability	Remaining calm under pressure
Remaining impartial and fair	Researching issues thoroughly
Researching topics related to your work	Resistance to change
Resolving conflicts	Respect for privacy
Respectful attitude	Respecting emotions
Responding effectively to emergencies	Responding promptly
Responding to criticism with professionalism	Results-focused
Reviewing and revising plans	Reviewing deadlines and adjusting as required
Risk-taking	Rudeness
Rushing through work	Saying no to low value work
Scheduling breaks and downtime	Scheduling meetings
Seeing mistakes as part of the process	Seeking challenges
Seeking clarification	Seeking common ground
Seeking feedback	Seeking professional growth
Self-motivated	Setting a clear vision
Setting career goals	Setting clear expectations
Setting clear roles and responsibilities	Setting daily goals
Setting deadlines	Setting high standards
Setting realistic deadlines	Setting time limits
Sharing information openly	Sharing successes and accomplishments
Showing up unprepared	Speaking confidently
Speaking up	Staying calm
Staying current with industry trends	Staying humble in success
Staying organized under pressure	Storytelling and compelling narratives
Summarizing meetings	Supporting colleagues
Supporting team	Systematic analysis of problems
Tailoring communication to audience	Taking calculated risks
Taking credit for other people's work	Taking initiative
Taking long, unnecessary breaks	Taking ownership
Taking responsibility for development	Taking shortcuts
Talking down to others	Team engagement
Team work	Throwing others under the bus
Timely decisions	Toxic positivity
Tracking progress toward goals	Trusting teams
Trying new types of work	Undermining authority
Unprofessional behaviors	Unwillingness to collaborate
Use of humor, play and free thinking	Using calendars and schedules
Using constructive feedback	Using data to inform decisions
Using design to solve problems	Using evidence and facts
Using plain language	Using positive reinforcement
Valuing input	Versatility
Volunteering for additional tasks	Volunteering for challenging assignments
Welcoming ambiguity	Willingness to share brave ideas
Win-win thinking	Withholding critical information
Withholding support	Work ethic
Working independently	Working well under pressure
Workplace narcissism

What are Work Behaviors?

Work behaviors are the ways that employees act and think in profession situations. These include standards of professionalism and productivity such as being friendly or diligent.

Definition of Work Behavior

The ways that employees act and think while working.

Work behaviors include your general attitude and mode of thinking such as being positive and analytical. They also include your communication, interpersonal interactions and actions you take. Important areas of behavior include cooperation, organization, leadership, creativity, problem solving, decision making, conflict resolution and professional development.

Expected Work Behaviors

Expectations for behavior are communicated to employees with artifacts such as job descriptions, policies and instructions. These are also encoded in workplace culture whereby employees are expected to conform to the norms of behavior that emerge within a team. For example, if everyone on your team is never late for a meeting, you would be violating team norms by being consistently late.

Behavior is complex and it generally isn't possible or desirable to create detailed specifications for how employees are to behave. As such, organizational behavior is shaped more by culture than by policy whereby expectations are often unstated.

Evaluating employee behavior requires human insight and pragmatism and can't be evaluating with rules alone. For example, you can tell if someone is helpful toward a customer or if they are being hostile but it would be overly complex to try to encode rules for differentiating between these two behaviors.

Actual Work Behaviors

Even where employees have the best of intentions to comply with policy and team culture, things can easily go off the rails due to pressures and stress that draw emotional responses. This can cause uncharacteristic and temporary poor behavior that can be reset with support.

One common element of poor behavior occurs due to conflict whereby the intensive pressure of interpersonal conflict can cause a wide range of less than ideal behaviors. This is so common that organizations view conflict resolution as a critical skill and process.

Summary

Work behavior is a primary element of employee performance. Expectations for behavior can be documented in policies, job descriptions and goals but is also greatly shaped by organizational culture.