Let me help you understand something… doing your job gets you NO extra credit at all. Showing up on time, finishing your work, making sure your work has been done correctly, being courteous to co-workers and customers, staying until you are supposed to leave… that is what you are paid to do. I am getting tired of people who expect special recognition, an award, a big tip or raise – for simply doing their job.
It is like when the guy from the commercial cleaning crew that cleans my office tells me with great fanfare and excitement: “We wiped down all of the desks, vacuumed the floors, washed the windows, cleaned the bathroom and emptied all of the trash cans.” Then breathlessly waits for me to tell him how awesome that is. But I am thinking, “Well, no shit, that is what I hired you to do – so what?” However, if after he rattled off that list of tasks completed he said, “We also put fresh flowers on your desk and noticed that you were out of Diet Coke, so we put a 12-pack in the fridge for you.” THAT is awesome – that is special – that deserves some special recognition!
Don’t get me wrong, I am a HUGE evangelist for “creating a culture of catching people doing things right,” and I clearly understand that praise and recognition is critical to developing highly engaged and loyal employees, but I am not going to throw you a party just for having a pulse. I have been surprised lately by employees at some of my client companies that are angry and surly because they did not geta raise or promotion when it is abundantly clear to me that they have not done anything special to earn it. They seem to believe that if they just show up and put in their time they should eventually become Vice President. No, all that gets you is NOT fired!
I read an article about one of the top chefs in the world and they asked him his secret to success. His answer?
-
Be completely intolerant of mediocrity.
-
Strive every day in everything you do for true excellence.
-
Be incredibly customer-focused.
-
Be highly innovative so you can continue to delight your customers.
That is a great list; that is how you become the best in the world at what you do. Anything less is simply doing your job.
Your thoughts?
.
I can’t agree more with you John. You are the legend. That’s what I do at my workplace and I am only one with my attitude and crazy customer service focused. But still nobody cares . They say they do by words but the action is different. And I still don’t give up. Why because the customers pay for our service in advance and rely on our word we give them every time they pay money to us for first class delivery service. Spot on.