The article is called "5 Surefire Tips to prove yourself before your Boss."
Full link : http://www.breakingnewsonline.net/2009/04/5-surefire-tips-to-prove-yourself.html
Thank you Ranjita - I enjoyed reading your words of wisdom.
24/7 News Network (By Ranjita Patra): One of the most important aspects of a manager’s job is to manage the employees; it is also the most challenging part of a business. A boss can either create a team unity or keep himself aloof. All of us are given choices every moment on every day. How we respond to difficult situations is a choice. A good employee refers to the person, who performs above expectations. When an employer is evaluating a potential or current employee, there are some characteristics that are found in dedicated, hardworking and above average employees who fulfill their obligations and more.
Enthusiasm
As every individual is special in their own way, in a particular field he/she can prove his/her Excellency. Find out what the skill is and make yourself an expert. If you want your employer to see you as an important employee, make yourself irreplaceable.
Be flexible and accessible all the time, & above all be honest, be helpful. Doing work on time and stepping in during the need, will differentiate you from others.
Strong Work Ethics
Finishing up your work on deadline is not going to help you to survive. In some organizations, finishing the work before time & asking for new project, and sharing some innovative ideas for company growth, can enhance employee’s sustaining chance.
Maintaining a solid work ethic demonstrates that you are the type of person, who puts his/her best foot forward each day. You will be respected for your work ethics and dependability when others can rely on you to get the job done.
Teamwork
Every workplace has workmates, with different personalities. Just because a co-worker’s personality doesn’t initially click with yours doesn’t mean you can’t get along with them in the workplace. If you’re not getting along with your teammates, take a look at yourself.
While you can’t change others’ behaviors, you can change your own. It does not mean to change your personality, rather change your outlook towards the requiring situation. Put your personal feelings aside, and focus instead on your teammates’ positive contributions to the team.
Professionalism
Maintaining professionalism and discipline are the most vital requisites for the growth of an organization. Show respect to everyone -- superiors, peers, subordinates, and especially customers. Be an active participant, when there are some important discussions about the company growth.
Gossiping at work place spoil the good reputation of a company in a little time span. To being a good example for others never say “That's not my job”. Your willingness to do so will be noticed and appreciated!
Communication
Proper expression of your feelings towards the requiring situation in your workplace is as vital as your work itself. Humbleness in your behavior is admired by everyone, on the other hand one negative response affects both production and productivity of an organization. This is probably one of the most under appreciated social skills that people are often talking about themselves.
This type of behaviour affects their reputation among colleagues. Focus your attention outward instead of inward in a conversation. If you are not satisfied with the decision of your management, Hold that courage to express your point of view, instead of blaming the management.
A Satisfied employer can satisfy its employee in every manner.
24 comments:
Trevor,
While I do not necessarily agree with every point in the corresponding article, I do agree with the general premise. As you and I have shared recently, I spent years in health care, initially as a firefighter/paramedic, then as an Emergency Room R.N., in charge of the E.R. from 7p-7a for 7 night stretches. I say all this to emphasize and underscore the core point of the article.
While in those lines of work, I experienced something on a daily basis that takes one WAY beyond the "typical" workplace politics. Something that is probably closer to being a soldier in combat than being a "workplace team member." That's a bit of an unfair analogy, I admit, as people in our armed forces have been placed in situations that most of us non-military can not begin to imagine. But I digress (slightly.)
As a firefighter, a paramedic, or an E.R. nurse, there is quite often NO MARGIN and NO ROOM for workplace politics and games playing. You have to totally trust that the person working beside you knows their stuff. You have to know (without stopping to think it over or call a meeting to revisit job descriptions, etc.) that every single player is going to step up to the plate and know exactly when and how to swing. If someone doesn't, to put it bluntly: you don't just have a bad day -- SOMEONE DIES.
I also trained firefighters, first responders, and E.M.T.'s. One point I always made with them repeatedly seemed to some a matter of semantics, but some "got it" and knew how very, very serious I was: "I don't want you to tell me or make me believe you are 'behind' me. I have to KNOW that you are right beside me. Don't tell me you've merely 'got my back.' That implies that if something goes wrong or I screw up, you will step in. I can't live with a delay while you make a decision as to when to become a participant. You are either working in tandem with me are we're not going into that fire or responding to take care of that heart attack or trauma victim, because we're not truly prepared to do so."
In the medical field, I worked with a hell of a lot of people that I would not dared to have any sort of "outside the workplace relationship" with; however, I had to know -- beyond any doubts -- that when it came to the work they were 100% prepared and 100% committed to doing what they came there to do without any hesitations or reservations. They were either totally in, or they were totally out. Unfortunately, during my tenure, I was forced to make the call more than once that a player was not, in fact, ready for the game. Cut from the team.
If anyone for a second things I'm exaggerating for effect, just imagine yourself or your closest loved one in a true "live or die" situation. Would you want the care of a team that is busy with politics, second-guessing one another, thinking constantly "What's the other person's motive? When are they going to screw up? Because they always do!"
Under these working conditions you most definitely learn some very quick and very hard lessons about trust and work ethics. And it is translatable.
Whether the "patient" is a human being, a client for a consulting firm, or the manufacture or repair of a widget, teams are much more effective if every member will put aside the B.S. politics and get in the game -- TOTALLY in the game. And in these tough economic times -- when one of the patients is the very business itself -- the need for this is more important than ever.
I'm not at all saying their is no room for individualism, exploring diversity, etc. But if those things are dealt with in the right time and place (up front, before the game even begins) there is a much, much better chance of successful strategy and implementation. Patient saved. Everyone is satisfied that they are on the right team. Perhaps ending up being someone's hero when all is said and done. Even if the patient still doesn't make it, people can more often than not tell whether you did your best or were only partially committed. They see it. They know it. They remember it. And that determines whether they turn to you again in their time of need.
If the patient is a client or customer instead of a true medical patient involved in a life or death struggle, wouldn't the same general principles be equally applicable? Anyone that disagrees would not end up being MY "provider of choice."
- Dan Gunter -
Dan – How great to see you commenting on my Simplicity Blog - I appreciate your input and its good to continue our conversation from the Tom Peters Blog!
I am so pleased to see you stress the importance of ‘politics avoidance’ in mattes of life and death in healthcare. As a patient I don’t want the surgeon operating on me to be playing politics – I want total concentration on the job in hand. All members of the healthcare team need to have that same focus from the surgeon right through to the people cleaning the floors. When the team breaks down the patient is at risk.
Brilliant to hear how you’ve pulled people up for not meeting your standards – that’s very reassuring Dan.
I’ve recently got engaged in conversations about ‘whistle blowing’ in healthcare. In the UK National Health Service there is an explicit whistle blowing policy for employees to bring to the attention of managers any concerns about quality of care issues. It still needs the manager to act on the information given of course.
Thanks again Dan – I hope you will be a regular visitor.
Trevor,
Can you contact me by email or phone at your convenience? Tried to find an email address for you, but no luck. I want to talk with you directly on this topic and related matters. Would appreciate it. Go to my website at www.eastalabamamedia.com for a phone number or email address.
Thanks,
Dan
Trevor and Dan,
Don't think the analogy to being a soldier in combat is off base base at all...in fact it captures the thought precisely. When or if a member of the team screwed up, other people got hurt or killed. That was our approach in the military to teambuilding and training because you trained the way you would fight and fight the way you trained.
Trevor...most excellent topic as always.
Dave,
I hold our military men and women in VERY high regard. Perhaps to the extent that I feel guilty using the "military/combat experience" as ANY sort of analogy to business. And I certainly don't want to offend any soldier.
On the other hand, I know from very serious experience (having been in and having dealt with life or death situations) that the analogy is both apt and poignant. I've harped on it for years.
I am wrestling a bit with a decision to take this analogy to the next level in order to get people to REALLY consider it. So much so that I have a decision and some possible very serious plans to make about the matter.
I think it could actually be life changing (both inside the workplace and outside.) Events of the past few days (which I'll spare you the details of) have me to the point that I'm looking for some kindred spirits to join me in a potentially MAJOR project.
I didn't become active on Tom Peters' blog or this one for that purpose. It's really the other way around, to be quite honest. The idea has eaten away at me for yours and I don't think I can just push it aside any longer. The dialog and discussions I've been involved in over the past few days have actually turned the heat up under this idea in my head and I think I may have reached the point of no return. "Put up, or shut up," so to speak.
Trevor, I was thinking farther about this topic and wanted to share a post I did several weeks ago that included a video on "The Power of Teamwork". that was written a former pilot in the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels aerial demonstration team.To me it captures the essence of the type of work environment that Dan was talking about.
http://www.foundations4.info/2009/04/together-everyone-achieves-more.html
I personally haven't seen the concept of teamwork captured in a way better than these nine core concepts...
The above video is great. But with all due respect to whomever put it together, I have something more powerful in mind. Hard-hitting to make people think really hard.
I have got to make this happen. I will not look back one day and ask "What if...?" Time to go to work. I'm dead serious. I won't rest again until this is achieved.
Trevor,
The last post was me...you think I would know what the publish button meant by now.
Dan...I was in the Air Force for 24 years. Members of the armed forces, Firefighters, Police, EMT'S are many other professions that are dedicated to public service may find themselves in situations where in the course of their jobs they might not return to the home they left that morning. In my opinion...protecting the public is protecting the public.
Dave,
I took my work very seriously and approached it with that very thought in mind more times than anyone will probably ever know. Eventually, I moved from the notion of "Get it right or I don't go home at 7 a.m. tomorrow" to the notion of "Get it right or you watch a family needlessly grieve that their loved one won't leave this E.R. alive."
I considered the lives of my fellow firefighters, medics, medical team members, and patients as all equally valuable to my own. I can't honestly say I valued them "more than my own," because that could have caused me to take chances that could in turn jeopardize someone else. And you can't do any good for someone else if you go and get YOURSELF killed.
Dan,
I absolutely agree When lives are in the balamce you have to approach things with that mindset. The linkage I see with teams and the Blue Angels is that they too operate in an environment that is as potentially unforgiving as you can find yourself in. An item missed on a checklist by a support team member, a pilot who is to fast, to low, not focused...folks get hurt for sure. Excellence in this case isn't exceeding expectations, it is he minimum level of performance each team member must bring to their role daily to keep folks alive.
Dan and Dave – what a fascinating exchange – thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Dan - I will definitely get in touch and maybe Dave can join us in a Skype conversation. Dave and I speak regularly on Skype and there is no reason we can’t make it a three way call.
I suspect we can all learn from each others given our combined experience of management (over 100 years plus experience between us)
Dave - I loved the video and it has many messages about team work in business.
I believe in self-managing teams under effective leadership. I have always argued we hold ourselves to phenomenally high individual standards at work and in an effective team those standards will be even higher because we do not want to let down our team mates.
I’m sure the three of us can collaborate on some interesting work and it will be a real blast!
Dave & Trevor,
Time to chat. Seriously. Feel free to delete this message after you get it, but I'm itching to talk with both of you. Call me at (334) 444-6796. If you're not in the middle of something today, it would be a good time. I want to talk with both of you about my idea and see if you are interested in getting involved. We'll explore it more from there.
Dan
Wow, what a fascinating conversation. Although I'm not an RN I've worked in health care for over 20 years. I think this exchange captures the intensity and focus of a code blue. I have been and am proud to be part of that team who responds when that blessedly rare disaster occurs. Politics and personal conflicts are gone. Everyone is focused solely on the patients. Notice the plural form. The code team is focused on the critically ill patient. But what about the other 15 or 20 patients. The nurses and techs who step in to take up the slack by taking care of the nurse's patients, while she cares for the one who coded, are also a vital part of the team.
As for the military analogy, I too hold our armed forces in the highest esteem. On the other hand, long time coworkers and friends and I sometimes refer to each other as having been through the wars together. While not entirely analogous, it does seem apt.
John
John,
You are not the only one who finds this thread interesting, quite obviously. Oddly enough, this conversation expanded into an "across the pond" three-way call this afternoon/evening. I thank my two colleagues whole-heartedly for taking time out for a "sidebar," which I feel certain is a precursor to something even more substantial.
I truly appreciate your comments about how the rest of the team jumps in to make sure no patient's care is interrupted in a time of crisis. In the hospitals I've been involved with, the "code team" consisted of personnel from throughout the facility, which is pretty much the norm. A "Code Blue" call meant instantaneous disruption of some sort to just about every major department and patient care unit. Yes, care for the other patients definitely had to continue, which in one hospital I worked with meant the an RN on the med/surg unit went from caring for 5-10 patients to suddenly having 10-20 until things settled down. If we had a multi-casualty MVA arrive in the E.R., this could well mean for the remainder of a 12-hour shift. Everybody had to adjust instantaneously. No calling meetings to decide how. You just did it. Nobody quibbled over being "dumped on," treated unfairly, or having a higher than normal workload. You just did what had to be done. When the shift ended, you reported off to the incoming team, went home, slept it off, and came back to start all over the next day.
Nobody in this discussion is saying that the individual team members did not have occasional differences of opinion or that there were no "politics" in the facility. Any place you work has those issues. If there are two or more people involved in anything, there will be issues sooner or later. The difference here is that in the "heat of battle" (sorry, but it is agreeably an apt analogy) people rose to the occasion and all B.S. stopped. It wasn't the time or place for it. To whatever extent possible, they had to be prevented from happening or at least dealt with before everyone began doing their jobs.
And that is where I see the need for and benefits of a different level of thinking for teams with less critical missions. As I told my esteemed colleagues this afternoon, I sometimes find it (sadly) ironic that people go home from desk jobs, jobs in retail, warehouses, etc. totally stressed out over a workplace disagreement or an issue with a customer. Don't get me wrong -- these things are no doubt important to that individual. But sometimes I wish people who are literally worrying themselves into an early grave over it could experience -- just once -- the feeling of working with a team that you just KNOW is going to perform correctly when the heat is on. They have to, or somebody dies.
Teams like that don't just happen. They are built. No, "built" isn't exactly the right word. They are developed through a lot of careful planning, practice, and experience. And the more they plan, practice, and experience things together, the less significant their differences become. Yes, they are ALL still very unique, diverse individuals. Each is especially trained and practiced in fulfilling a particular role in a crisis. And everybody else counts on that person to do it and do it right.
An equivalent level of training, planning, preparation, and practice can be achieved in an office, an accounting department, a warehouse, a retail operation... you name it. Unfortunately, all too frequently teams fail under even a little pressure. With today's economy and level of competition in virtually every industry and business, failures are even less likely to be survived.
John – thanks so much for your input – I value your comments. Together we have 55 years of working in healthcare my friend!
My late beloved Dad often used an expression about the best leaders he ever worked under. He used to say the most effective managers "Would always be there in amongst the muck and bullets when needed." This saying apparently goes back to the trenches in World War One and as far as I’m concerned the military analogy is very relevant in healthcare – particularly the emergency care setting.
Dave Wheeler one of my closest friends in the US and a regular commenter on Simplicity Blog has a long military career behind him and Dave is one of my greatest mentors on all things leadership!
By the way John – you may enjoy my latest Blog posting ‘On the Stage’
Dan - the three way link up is exciting and a perfect illustration of the effective use of modern technology. I’m still excited to be absolutely fascinated by the power of modern technology to create and strengthen links between like minded folks regardless of distance and time zones. I look forward to more discussions over coming weeks with you and Dave.
Needless to say I agree with every word of your comments above! The most crucial words to me are:
“Teams like that don't just happen. They are built. No, "built" isn't exactly the right word. They are developed through a lot of careful planning, practice, and experience”
Take a look at an article I recently had published on 'Training Zone.co.uk' at this link about the importance of having a dream and within it, building a team.
http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=194689
Trevor, et al,
Another very interesting and apt analogous thought comes to my mind in revisiting this discussion this morning. It has to do with trust between team members and is, in fact, a simple question:
"Who packs your parachute?"
If it's someone other than yourself, would you jump out of a plane while wondering "Did he get it right this time?"
‘Who packs your parachute’ is a great test of team loyalty!
Trevor,
Agreed, but with a qualifying comment...
I am all for loyalty. But not BLIND loyalty. It's loyalty built on real trust that takes a team to unprecedented levels of performance. That sort of trust does not simply happen. It is cultivated through effort -- often great effort -- involving training, practice, dedication, and taking whatever steps are necessary to put irrelevant differences aside when it's time to focus on the task at hand.
Of all the medical, firefighting, and business education, training, and experience I've ever had the pleasure (or displeasure) of mentally processing, by far the most wonderful and powerful for me, personally, is witnessing a high-performance team jump into action and do the seemingly impossible. Whether it consists of winning a football game or saving a life. Regardless of the ultimate "stakes," the theme is universal.
I remember one season over 30 years ago when I played football (soccer) at a reasonably good level. We had a team that played all the matches (over 30 matches) with only 13 players. No one ever seemed to get injured or be unavailable - we all felt a duty and an obligation to each other and it worked. We won two trophies that season and we had a terrific team spirit but we had to work at it and keep working at it. You are right Dan - these things don’t just happen.
Trevor,
No, they don't just happen. We can throw words like "synergy," "teamwork," "comradery," etc. around all day. And we can talk about how wonderful it is when these things occur. But the plain and simple truth is, it almost unfailingly takes a LOT of HARD WORK to achieve. Unfortunately, people will rarely invest the energy, time, and overall effort needed to achieve it unless they are truly "inspired." I'm not talking about "motivation," which is an entirely different creature. I'm talking about the deep down, gut feeling that takes control of your mind and heart and says "I will not rest, I will not quit, and I will not be satisfied until I do whatever it takes -- regardless of the sacrifice -- to reach this level."
I'm no fan of motivation. You can "motivate" someone with an electric cattle prod. Motivation rarely gets people to truly commit to the task at hand. Instead, it gets them to the point of "working their way through it." On the other hand, give me a team of truly "inspired" people and I would not be surprised if we could rearrange our solar system.
Inspired people reach levels that motivated people rarely even dream of.
To me, our friend Tom is not a motivational speaker. He is an inspiring speaker. He leaves you with that restlessness that says "I've got to..." Not merely "I want to..."
I agree about Tom – I was fortunate enough to see him for a day long seminar in London two years ago – the most inspiring person I’ve ever seen in leadership and management. He was ‘on stage’ for 6 hours – 4 x 90 minute sessions – amazing energy and amazing inspiration.
I often say there is no such thing as an overnight success – it may take 40 years to become an overnight success. Nothing beats hard work.
I actually have a copy of the video from the Worldwide Lessons in Leadership satellite broadcast from 1999 (the one I mentioned to you on the phone.) Having been there for Tom's ENTIRE, unedited presentation, I will admit that the filmmaker part of me does NOT envy anyone who has to edit video of Tom. He might be able to go at it for a long time, but he still has the "leanest" (for lack of a better term) content. It's ALL sustenance to me.
I NEVER get fed up hearing/watching Tom! :-)
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