At every meeting we go around the room and all directors and/or GMs will share their "WAC Moments". A WAC Moment is any moment where a team member goes out of their way for a member or fellow teammate. This is one of our core values and is essential for our success.
A few weeks ago one of our directors' WAC Moments was when one of their staff put away some inventory that was delivered. Everybody laughed and nodded their heads in agreement. He took initiative and put it away without being asked to do it - how amazing!
Nothing against our director or the person that put the inventory away, but have we become that lazy as a culture that simply doing your job earns you praise for going "above and beyond"? (psst - the answer is yes). So many people just "get by" and do the minimum that when somebody actually does what they're supposed to be doing everybody is in awe. I watched something yesterday called "The Boys of Fall" on ESPN as I was biking and the head coach at Alabama, Nick Saban, said something along the lines of how he doesn't think people want to be extraordinary; most people just want to be average and that's ok for them. At first I thought that was kind of a pessimistic, negative thing to say, but it's true.
I shared some rules from Og Mandino's "A Better Way to Live" a couple weeks ago and I encourage you to live by Rule #2 - Today, and every day, deliver more than you are getting paid to do.
Those rare people that want to be extraordinary and work hard at it are some of the most successful people in the world - be one! Don't just get by or be average - dare to be great, work to be great, and believe in greatness and you will achieve it.
So very true... However it's become pervasive in our culture to validate and congratulate not only "a job well done" but simply "a job done".
ReplyDeletePersonally, I believe this is a generational thing that will filter out eventually as we are currently bringing up a generation of kids whom were validated simply for existing, a-la Dr. Spock: "you're so special", "you're good at anything you do"
Market forces and the school of hard knocks will eventually give these "just enough'ers" the perspective they need to be truly successful.