If you work in an office or in a job where you work in conjunction with others, you are a part of a team. Ostensibly, you are committed to a common purpose . . . and then there are those other times when you or they may not be pulling their weight.
What happens when you do that? I think it can be well summarized in a story that member or friend telling me for when he went to Harvard business school.
The question was asked of the class, “what do you do to change a problem employee and improve their performance?” The answer the professor was seeking was that you take them aside, counsel them, see if there is a skills deficiency, explain how what they do has importance to the team into the operation so that they’ll start performing better.
There is a student whose father operated multiple businesses in Asia who started laughing. “You take that person and put them in the middle the room in front of everyone and you fire him. You humiliate him and his family. You make it clear how difficult is going to be frame to ever find work again.”
There is an impact on having an off day. Others are affected answer job. Trust may be lost unless you let them know that you are feeling off and it’s a temporary thing. Your team starts to believe that being at 100% capacity isn’t necessary.
“Oh, it’s only one day,” you may rationalize to yourself. But what if it’s one day for everyone. Our people outside your organization affected? How about those inside your organization?
You may think 60% is good enough. It isn’t.
In football, every time a receiver catches the deep ball and beats his defender for a touchdown, I remember one coach in particular we talk about how that defender would always pull up limping as though he had pulled a muscle. He called it “losers limp.”
That’s what you’re doing. Showing the losers limp.
Champions pushed through in all sports. It’s what they give themselves permission to take shortcuts that they start to lose more often.
Your team needs you. Show up. Deliver.
Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2019
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a career and leadership coach who worked as a recruiter for more than 40 years. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1600 episodes and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice” and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
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