Source: This article was originally published on CNBC.
Written by: Courtney Connley, CNBC Make It
How you share your energy with others has a huge impact on how you’re perceived, both at work and in your personal life.
In order to succeed, you need to develop a clear understanding of how you impact those around you, and whether you might need to make adjustments to your behavior. When you get right down to it, there are really just two types of people in the world and your energy level defines those people. And for the sake of your career, you better figure out which one you are.
Everyone can be categorized as one type or the other: an energy-giver, or an energy-taker.
You’ve definitely seen both. Energy-givers are filled with positivity, they’re solution-focused, they always leave you feeling invigorated. Energy-takers, with their negativity or neediness, or both—they tend to suck the oxygen out of the room.
If you’re an energy-giver, you’re likely to go far in your career because of your encouraging outlook and approach to others. If you’re an energy-taker, you may have a rough road ahead, and you’ll likely need to compensate your bad energy with a huge amount of intelligence.
To determine which energy level you omit, ask yourself these three questions:
1. When was the last time I encouraged someone?
One key trait of energy-givers is that they have no problem pouring their energy into others’ success, without an agenda attached. Energy-takers, on the other hand, are often just concerned with themselves.
Ask yourself when you last encouraged someone freely, in a situation in which you had nothing to gain from their advancement.
2. Do I initiate group events?
Energy-givers are eager to do things with other people, and will often initiate activities like a weekend hiking trip, a holiday gathering or even a small pizza party.
Energy-takers rarely step up to plan the events, but will tag along for the fun.
3. Do I think people are generally good or evil?
Yes, there are good and bad people in the world, but the difference between an energy-taker and an energy-giver is that the latter person is an optimist who sees bad people as only a minority in the overall population. Meanwhile, energy-takers rarely notice the good in others. Rather, they often view life and work as a rigged game to be out-smarted.
If you determine that you’re an energy-giver—great. You’re already on track to having a successful and fulfilling career.
But if these questions have forced you to admit that you’re an energy-taker, you’ve got some heavy psychological lifting to do if you want to change for the better.