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I’ve been mulling two semi-related work habits/beliefs that I think really contribute to individual & team success. I see them in a lot of people I admire and to be honest, they are habits that I’m glad I’ve naturally adopted.
1) There is Always More You Can Do
A few months ago, my coworker/direct report said to me “Well, I finished my all my stuff for today so I’m taking off early.” She does a great job, but her attitude didn’t rub me the right way. The next day I told her:
“If you feel pretty ahead on your work and you’ve been putting in long hours, sure, an early day is fine. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re actually DONE with all your work.”
You are NEVER done.
There is always more you can do - more industry research to do, more analysis to perform on the metrics you track, more phone calls could be made to a potential clients / partners, more practice on the presentation you have next week, more emails to write (perhaps to a coworker saying “thanks for your help on project X”), hell, more icon cleaning on your desktop to perform.
People who are sucessful get ahead because they recognize that the number value-adding activities are endless and are always doing much more than is strictly required, because you don’t achieve great thing by doing just enough.
2) Take Initiative / Responsibility for Improving Everything
If you don’t like some aspect of your firm or your work life - salespeople aren’t closing, the payroll process sucks, your boss never responds your emails, the press releases the PR team sends out are super-bland - don’t just blame someone or throw your hands up in frustration.
Do something about it.
Build relationships with the various departments and stakeholders so they trust & respect you. Learn about what they do and study industry best practices. Ask the HR team if they’d like feedback from the staff, have a meaningful conversation with your boss, forward your PR team a press release you like, talk to customers about what closed the deal for them and send the insights to the sales team. I hate it when people say “that’s not my responsibility” because it is a sign of apathy and helplessness that is not productive.
I’m not advocating shirking your own job responsibilities, just that you ought to proactively address other areas if you feel you can help the firm improve its performance.
These ideas may be a little off putting to some people and it’s possible that they can backfire (burn out & angry coworkers come to mind) but I do believe that people who adopt these mindsets will ultimately add more value to their organizations and be more successful.
From the 2008 National Student-Athlete Development Conference
Bio: Pat Williams is Senior Vice-President of the Orlando Magic, which he helped co-found in 1987. He traded for Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Penny Hardaway, and drafted Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. In 1996, was named one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history.
