Inner Excellence
What in the world is inner excellence? In order to learn about inner excellence, I need you to do me one favor. Please turn me off for a moment. Inner excellence is all about you. Although it will have an effect on family, bosses, coworkers, associates, vendors and everyone who you come in contact with, it really is only about you.
If you have the least amount of inkling to improve your lot in life, your career, your work and education, it starts with inner excellene. If you desire to be better than you are now, it will start with inner excellence. Here are a few examples:
You just finished up a job and cleaned up the work site. You’re about to leave the area when you notice a pile of dirt a few feet away. Due to its location, no one would ever equate this dirt with your work. You decide to clean it up anyway. This is inner excellence.
You worked on new technology today. You went home that night and spent fifteen minutes on the Internet looking it up and reading more about it. This is inner excellence.
You have decided to be a go to technician and outlined a small plan that will take less than twenty minutes a day to get there. This is inner excellence.
Once you begin to pay attention to inner excellence you’ll notice it taking on a life of its own. Its voice will get stronger. It will simply not let you walk by that pile of dirt, it will encourage you to develop and to be the best you can possibly be.
What are You Known For?
Midas – mufflers
KFC - fried chicken
Fed-Ex – overnight delivery
Wal-Mart – cheap prices
Oscar-Meyer – hot dogs
When someone mentions the name of a well known company to you, chances are an image or word will pop into your head. These images can be good or bad. What comes to mind when I say Enron? See?
Right now, if someone were to mention your name to a coworker or customer, an image or words will fill the movie screen in their mind. If you’re a hard working, conscientious person, that image will come up. If you are a slacker, that will come up too. The beauty of this is that you have a say in what images or words are associated with you. You don’t have total control, but you do have a say.
So if you want a customer to call your company back and ask for you again, (you do want customers asking for you, right?), you are going to behave in a certain manner around that customer. It’s sort of like dating. You go out with a girl who you really like a lot and you want to go out with her again. Everything you do on that date, you’ll do with the thought of going out with her again. That leaves a mark, doesn’t it?
See how this can work in a positive way for you?
Lets say you want to be known as the go to welder in your company. Right now however, you only have a year’s worth of experience. Start small. While you are building your welding skills, build you. No matter how talented you are, people will not want to deal with you if you are a butt head. Start small. Be respectful and nice to everyone who you come in contact with. Everyone. Never ever vary from this course. Stay on this track and you will be in demand for more than you can imagine. When the welding skill and experience kicks in, you will be the person everyone associates when the word welder is mentioned by your coworkers or customers.
Doing Things Right
Yesterday we spoke about Tom, Dick and Harry. We mentioned how easy it is to stand out from them by doing things right and doing what you are supposed to do at work.
This topic is so important and the opportunity to improve yourself is so within reach, we had to bring it up again today.
This is reality folks. It’s sad, but it is reality. Most technicians are not performing to the minimum expectation of just following company procedures. Need proof? Ask the person who processes work orders and invoices at your own company if the forms are being completed properly by all technicians.
Think about it, if you only do your job, do what you are supposed to do, you can separate yourself from the pack and stand out. Now of course, we know you are much more capable than that. But for now we are just aiming for small steps of improvement.
Tom, Dick & Harry
So, Tom went on a service call to Mrs. Jones’ house. Dick was there a few months later. And Harry followed Dick out to Mrs. Jones’ 5,000 square foot house. Suzie, your dispatcher, sent you out there last week.
Bob is your service manager. He hired Tom, Dick, Harry and you about four years ago right out of vo-tech school.
In Mrs. Jones’ eyes, in Suzie’s eyes and in Bob’s eyes, what separates you from Tom, Dick and Harry? How are you different? Are you different? Do you want to be different?
Of course you do. You want to stand out in a positive way from Tom, Dick and Harry. This way you become more valuable, you become a go-to-guy. With competent management, this should translate to more educational opportunities, increased pay, and perhaps even more importantly, an increased sense of meaning to the work that you do. You are making a difference and you feel it.
How? How do you become different, you ask.
This is going to be so easy that you’ll ask for your money back. Actually it’s a start. We’ll continue to show you how to stand out in articles posted under the You category. For now however, at work, you do the right thing, you do what you are supposed to do.
Remember, we’re all about small change here. You know that between the three of them, there’s no way that Tom, Dick and Harry show up to work on time each day. You know they do not follow company policy when signing out a tool. You know they are not neat, diligent and timely with their paperwork. You know they don’t keep a neat, organized truck. See? You know, you know, you know. By doing what you are supposed to do, you stand out.
Start small and begin to make a difference.
You wanna know something else? Tom, Dick and Harry are basically good guys. You want to see them succeed too. Your example and encouragement will begin to help. You’re still going to be different from them. You’re not going to be like every Tom, Dick and Harry. You’re going to be helping them out…in time. For now, keep after those small things. Comb your hair and wear a clean, pressed uniform.
Take Ownership
How many times have you heard “if Bob would only take ownership of his work.” I’ve had three discussions in the last two days with three separate people on the topic of job ownership. This is a very talked – about subject in the world of work. There are many variations as to what the meaning of job ownership is. Management quite often has a different definition to that of their coworker’s.
We’ve heard the term responsibility equated to job ownership. Take responsibility for your work. Odds are, if you’re reading this, you get that. Here’s another way to look at job ownership. Think that for every service call, every project, every interaction with a customer or coworker that you have, you leave a billboard sized picture of yourself in their mind. Think about that. Do you want them to relate that picture of you to something good? Or do you want them to relate it to a steaming pile of garbage?
People can try to force their view point of job ownership on you. That’s fine, especially if it corresponds to yours. If it doesn’t, just remember that billboard sized picture. You do what you do, act the way you do, because you care and because you do want others to equate your picture with your work. Not only then are you taking ownership of your work, you’re taking ownership of your self and career.
