As a team, we strive to be insanely committed to customer service. We really do. Some of our core values are positivity, teamwork, flexibility and innovation. We've even put systems in place to help prioritize the moral fiber of our team. We love our job, these values are easy to commit to. But, sometimes, they're harder to practice in the daily grind.
Even when we love our jobs, personal pressure can consume us. Even with good intentions, sometimes our projects can become the priority. Over time, our task list becomes our "precious" and we forget we're on the same team with others who don't share our "precious".
As a team, we acknowledged this reality of our human condition and agreed we needed something more; something practical to prevent us as individuals from getting out of sync. Something that moved our job out of the leading role and into the supporting character. Something we could refer to daily, if needed, to remind us what the win really is.
So here’s what we did. We scrapped our job descriptions and completed this exercise.
- Answer the question: “At the end of the day, if I’ve done this, then I’ve done my job.”
- In your answer, remember to demonstrate the benefit to others trumps the task.
- Keep your answer simple and short enough to easily remember and recite.
- Include your individual strength theme to help maximize impact.
Here's what we came up with ...
Flexible and nice to others?
I'll put that on my goals for 2010. In the meantime, I need something slightly more accurate.
Posted by: Jeremy Scheller | Jun 09, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Flexible and nice to others?
I'll put that on my goals for 2010. In the meantime, I need something slightly more accurate.
Posted by: Jeremy Scheller | Jun 09, 2009 at 12:17 PM
This is very helpful. With the constant project juggling, I have to be able to answer the question at the end of every day - Have I done my job? Makes it much easier to answer when you know what the job is. I have a list of tasks that are part of my job description. I can check things off everyday but I need to ask myself - What did I do today to grow the Kingdom?
Posted by: Greg on the Run | Jun 09, 2009 at 12:06 PM
Kem, this is awesome. I've been in the middle of thinking through some similar issues with my team. Your handy-dandy PDF cheat-sheet outline comes at the perfect time. Thanks!
Posted by: Brad Abare | Jun 09, 2009 at 11:50 AM
How about this:
“Be flexible and nice to others as I shred technology, communication and design projects with my mad skills.”
Posted by: Kem Meyer | Jun 09, 2009 at 11:45 AM
I thought this was brilliant when I first heard it a few weeks ago.
Plan to do it for myself, but don't know what to do about writing 1 description for the 5 hats I wear?
Posted by: Jeremy Scheller | Jun 09, 2009 at 11:42 AM