Are you scrupulous with your relationships?

Greater competitiveness and greater engagement at work lies not in grand company strategies but in making the work between people easier — and more human. 

The term ‘scrupulous’ originates from Latin and, more specifically, refers to a small pebble or sharp stone. People who are scrupulous in their work attend to the smallest details with care and concern. In organisations, it’s typical for annoyances in our relationships or small negative actions against us to be ignored. Perhaps because the ‘task’ is more important or ‘work isn’t a place to talk about hurt feelings’. We ignore the pebbles in our shoes and keep walking.  

At Tuff, we often refer to ‘pebbles’ in our relationships. Small things that can be powerful annoyances when we don’t give voice to them — often flourishing into resentments and barriers to communication.

At Tuff, we often refer to ‘pebbles’ in our relationships. Small things that can be powerful annoyances when we don’t give voice to them — often flourishing into resentments and barriers to communication. We start to act weird around people if the feeling doesn’t go away, all because they occasionally speak over us in meetings, or always work late when they know we can’t. Anyone who has tried to walk with a pebble pressing into the sole of their foot knows it starts to feel bigger and bigger the longer we leave it. Until it cannot be ignored any longer. 

Conversely, when we are more scrupulous with our relationships at work we talk about the slights and small offences. Without judgement or manipulation, we can discuss an annoyance that we have. Often, if we do it the right way, we find out that we misunderstood the intention and perhaps the person was completely unaware of the impact they had. A sort of ‘magic’ happens when we talk about our grievances. They seem much smaller – the pebble, when it’s not in our shoe, is just a pebble. 

We believe relationships as a talking point between people are essential to good leading and good ‘teaming’ and we help organisations to do this either through our leadership training or team Tuff Collaboration Coaching.