We don’t forgive necessarily for the sake of others, as we do it for ourselves. We do it to unburden ourselves from anger and resentment. Recent studies show that forgiveness is a good idea even in professional settings.
Did your colleague steal your lunch? Or did he claim your work as his own? Well, that’s unfortunate, but maybe you should try to forgive him. Why? Because it’s good for you.
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Negative feelings, such as anger or resentment can:
- Disengage you from your work
- Increase your aggression
- Give you headaches
- Make you less inclined to collaborate
- Increase the chances of depression
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Since you are forced to work with the people who mistreated you, you may be tempted to avoid open conflict. Or to try ignore it and ruminate about it on your own. That’s not a solution, since it fosters a stressful environment. Moreover, there will be no chance of people correcting their behavior.
Forgiveness, however, can repair broken relationships and reestablish trust. It makes us more compassionate and able to concentrate on the tasks at hand, with our mind not wondering how to get revenge.
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The studies have offered some suggestions about what we can do so that we can cultivate forgiveness at our work place:
- Be a forgiving leader, the rest will follow
- Apologize when you are wrong, it will rebuild trust
- Address conflict openly and objectively
- Work on a common task, it will create new points of reference
Try forgiveness! It’s free and does everybody involved a great deal of good. Please share this!
