[VIDEO] Get the most out of the givers in your workplace

In this world there are two types of individuals: givers and takers. As the names suggest, givers give freely of themselves and their time, willing to help whoever needs it. Takers, as the name equally suggest, are in it for themselves. They first figure out their piece of the pie, and worry about others only after, if ever.

Research shows that in the workplace, those who have higher success and achievements are the givers. But there is a caveat to this: because of their giving nature, they can also be the lowest performers.

Adam Grant is a top-rated professor and author of two best-selling books, Originals and Give and Take, in which he explores topics on human psychology. His TED Talk below, "Are you a give or a taker," has been viewed over 7 million times.

In this video, he discusses how to get the most out of the givers in your workplace to keep them performing at the highest, not lowest rung. It boils down, he argues, to three simple guidelines:

1) Protect your givers. Help them understand and implement the "5-minute favor." They can help others, but limit their time to 5 minutes. Otherwise, givers are all-too-likely to experience burnout.

2) Encourage help-seeking: Too often, people view needing help as a weakness. By encouraging everyone to seek help when they need it, you fundamentally encourage an ecosystem of givers.

3) Get the right people on the bus: Surprisingly, having one taker on the team affects the company by double the impact of a giver being on your team. For this reason, screen people ahead of time and weed out the takers before they come on board. 

To hear the full discussion plus more tips, watch Adam's video below!