The job will only be as good as the person doing the job. With that said, for there to be a marked improvement in the satisfaction of the job, the person doing the job has to show a marked improvement first.
At some point, you had better come to the realization that the job doesn't get any better, if you don't get any better. Your sales will get better when your sales skills get better. Customer service will get better when you get better at delivering customer service. Your results on the job will get better as you get better.
Every single person in every single job needs to understand that it is not up to the employer to make you better as an employee. Oh no. As a matter of fact, it is your responsibility to improve so that the company can improve. Once the company improves, they are in a better position to pay you more and to reward you more often. But if you’re waiting for the company to fall all over themselves to make you better so you can do a better job for the company, then you have your priorities backwards my friend. You will be sentenced to a lifetime of mediocre and unsatisfying jobs. The performance of an individual on the job is not the responsibility of the organization but in fact is the responsibility of the individual on the job.
The better you get, the better the job gets. It's such a simple philosophy that it escapes most people. You may want to believe that it's harder than that because as long as you believe that it’s harder than that, you have an excuse for not doing any more than you have to. Once you finally understand that it’s up to you to make your job better then you can't complain about it not being your responsibility. It's called being accountable. And my experience is that people just like you don't want to accept the blame (or the responsibility) for their own lousy performance.
But now here’s the real truth: better people offer better service, make better sales, get along better, communicate better, manage better and overall, make your organization better as a whole. But in order for that to happen, you have to be responsible for yourself, your work and the results of your work.
The moment you improve, life (including the job) improves.
When you improve yourself, you improve your thinking, which improves your decision-making, which will improve your choices, which will, by default, improve your results. Once you improve your results consistently you improve your circumstances. Anyone who works this plan at just fifteen minutes a day, one single coffee-break, sees outstanding results at the end of just one year. I guarantee it.
So this doing just enough to not get fired is a no-win plan. As a matter of fact, doing just enough to not get fired is enough in my books to justify getting fired. If you won’t take the initiative to improve yourself and your performance, then why should the company keep you around? You’re a boat-anchor. Think about that as you dust off your résumé.
3 comments:
Hmmmm... another great piece that's moved me to comment.
I like what you are saying to employees, in my words -don't be passive to your environment and instead, actively adapt to it.
The other piece here is around employee in environment. I don't know that we can isolate one from the other as you suggest.... The employee and the workplace are in constant transaction. They co-implicate and co-evolve with one another over time, all the time. Thus, there's something about the employee shaping themselves to their work environment (by having learned from it), but there's also the employee taking an active-adaptive stance towards shaping the work environment.
So, employees out there - improve yourselves, improve your thinking, improve your decision-making, choices, etc.... AND with this new found learning and knowledge, work to change your workplace.
We are each bosses and employees. We can each make a difference, moving from inside out.
Cheers,
Dan
(thanks again for this great reflection point!)
Wow.. what a load of crap. But it gets businesses to pay you money.. so obviously it works for ya.
The comment above pretty much says it all ... exactly the kind of people I was referring too in my column... and notice that he or she didn't have the courage to sign their name. No surprise.
Hey "Anonymous," show me on your job application the part where it said that the company would make you happy as one of the Terms of Employment and I'll gladly eat my words.
Kevin
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