"Me" and "We" Contributions
This is a post is in the Useful Ideas series.
When discussing contributions, it’s often important to address both the me and the we.
This can apply in many situations:
- both accomplishments & problems
- both personal & professional
Addressing both the “me” and the “we” is important not just because the personal and the collective are both important, but also because of the systems and relationships between them are important.
Example:
- When I interview someone and they focus on what their group accomplished, I don’t get a useful understanding of their capabilities & skills. When I interview someone and they focus on what they personally accomplished, I wonder if they work well with others. When I interview someone who addresses both, I can better understand the whole picture of the environment they were working in and how they made an impact in that environment.
That’s a very good point. I’ve mostly been the interviewee although I have been on the occasional panel. Modesty tended to interfere in talking too much about myself when I was younger, but I have learnt to work in both me and we. It is difficult because we so often work in teams rather than by ourselves. I worked in public service communication teams teams for a lot of my career and teams were often big. But it’s not hard to describe how we collaborated in projects or even day-to-day work.
Of course, many people being interviewed are quite nervous and forget many of the wonderful things they intended to say in the interview!