by Bill Wallace on July 28, 2010
Are you one of those people who can’t say no? Are you the helpful person when you see a lot of other people selfish with their time? Do you sometimes wonder why you’re always stuck doing things and “being helpful” when others are off doing things they love to do?
Then maybe you are over-over-delivering!
In being part of a professional service there is such a thing as doing too much for your boss, your clients or anyone who just asks you.
The problem is you deliver so much that people come to think of you as the “go to” person. In a normal sense that is great. It’s good to be needed and it’s a great feeling to be able to support others with what you do. But there is a line where Super Service Provider runs into the phone booth and turns into the mild mannered Door Mat.
I’ve been in this situation and I know others who have been as well. I know this because a while ago I decided that my default answer would turn from “Yes, sure” to “Um, not right now” or even, “No, sorry!” And the reaction was priceless.
I wasn’t wanting to be mean or rude but the people who would ask me for favours were quite taken aback with my “non-cooperative” response. It was like they knew that if they asked they knew I would help. When I didn’t, they were a little miffed. I had to hold my ground and I could see I had disappointed them. I didn’t explain myself, what they were asking was outside my brief (key point). And, to be honest, I didn’t want to have the time to help. Other items were demanding my time.
Priorities
It comes down to priorities and what you are at work to do – to accomplish the tasks assigned to you within the brief of your job.
It fine to go outside that brief every now and again to help others. But when it gets to “doormat” stage, you have gone too far.
If you are a service professional (physio, podiatrist etc) this can be seen in terms of giving services away for free or for a greatly reduced fee. It means you may not really value what you do and you are setting a precedent with a client (and possibly a reputation in the market) as a pushover.
If you are an admin person, it may mean that while the professionals are leaving with a cheery wave, you still have 30+ minutes before you go home, doing work they are supposed to have done or finishing your own work because you were “helpful” during the day.
At first you see it as helping out, but in the end, you are doing work you are simply not paid to do. In the long term, you become resentful.
Stick to your brief
The key is sticking to your brief and doing it professionally.
- If you are a professional, charge for what you do, be very careful with what you give away. A small favour one day may turn into a loss situation with supplies (e.g. tape etc) later on.
- Know what you can give away or reduce the fee on … and stick to it. A great personal manner will override any concerns of fees (unless of course you are charging double the market rate!)
If you are in a support role, always be helpful but don’t do for your boss what they should be doing themselves, not always easy but the point above applies to support staff as well “A great personal manner will override any concerns.”
Learn to say “no” a little more often to the right things and you’ll find the respect for you and you role (Professional or Support) will grow. Relationships at work will improve and the atmosphere within the building will be on a far higher level.
Deliver what is needed.
by Bill Wallace on July 11, 2010
In trying to run a business successfully there are so many things a person needs to be able to do. But there is ONE thing a person MUST do if they are to be successful.
This is not a magic fix thing and it isn’t necessarily easy. In fact once you get this one thing bedded down it will likely be challenged for quite a while until it becomes second nature.
It should be what you are known for and respected for. Some will love it, some will be put off by it.
It will win you many clients but at the same time it may cause you to lose a few. If you do it right, the clients you lose will be of no real concern long term, though it will be painful at the time.
The one thing is what Jim Collins and Jerry Porras call a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal“, or a BHAG.
The BHAG is imperative for any business to break out of the average and become a business of significance and definitely a business of Choice (Big C) rather than commodity (little c). Everything done in the business then becomes defined by the BHAG.
You can go here for an illustration and you will see how the BHAG determines how your business is seen in the marketplace. You will also see that how you are seen is totally dependent on you and your BHAG.
The BHAG defines the strategies you will take as a business. It will compel you to do things a certain way. If the BHAG is loosely defined then the strategies will be harder to define and more vague. This will damage or hinder your progress. So the BHAG must be well defined and very discriminatory (in a legal fashion).
The strategies then will allow you to staff correctly. The staff you bring on board must be catalysts to you achieving the BHAG. “Just anyone will do … won’t!”
The right staff means the right values and the ability to share your vision to help you achieve your goals. Here, again, is where being able to clearly define and articulate your vision to others is so important.
The staff/team are those people who will put in place activities to help you achieve your strategies. This is very important. The day to day activities can be seen as humdrum, run of the mill and not nearly as exciting or motivating as the BHAG. But without the strategies and activities there will be no BHAG.
But what goes on day to day becomes your culture. Culture has been defined as “the way we doing things around here” and every business, by intention or without intention, has a culture. Positive or negative. Constructive or destructive.
The culture then defines how people within the business think about the business. “It’s great to work here” versus “This place is the pits!” It defines the internal reputation of the business. If people thoughts about work were plastered on a TV would you be happy with what you see and read? That is your internal reputation. A reputation is not defined by one good day and not by one bad day. Every person and every business has those. A reputation is formed over time and that is what you have to work n. If you look at one day as a measure you’ll lose too much sleep.
The culmination of all this is that the internal reputation you form over time will define the external reputation to the market. What you and your team think internally is inevitably what the market will see and how your business will be reputed.
To shortcut all this: your BHAG defines how the market sees the business and will determine your success. But if you look at the steps in between, you’ll see that how the market/clients view you and your business is totally up to you, your team and defining the BHAG as well as you can.
