Are You Working Today?
Life is about choices. Often so is the work that we do. If you are working today, what is your motivation?
In the United States sports are big business. One sport or another many people show up to cheer on a team or curse an opponent.
We see it in many places, American Football, Soccer, Baseball, and even various forms of Motorsports.
Have you stopped to think about, “What is the goal?”
Often it is the collective enthusiasm of beating the opponent, the competition, or winning the championship.
What is the talk in the locker room? Do you think anyone in professional sports is talking about how they will lose?
Are they talking about the controversy among the team? The mistake from two weeks ago? How a couple of seasons ago there was a bad decision?
Unlikely, unless they have a twist on those aspects to increase motivation.
Working Today?
Your job and the work that you contribute to may be similar to professional sports. Are you arriving with a plan to win?
Today I’m going to close the sale.
Let’s be sure to ship 150 packages today.
Let’s build today without any mistakes or errors. Total quality.
One aspect that is always true about sports and our work, winning today (short run) is important but winning the championship (long run) is a collection of on-going wins.
Employees cannot sacrifice integrity just to win the game.
Maintain Integrity
Closing the sale in the system in the final hours of the day with the hope that the customer will buy tomorrow doesn’t work.
Throwing a few extra packages on the truck that will ultimately be refused at the customer site isn’t winning.
Fudging a little on quality to say, “We finished it, ship it.” will come back to harm your future reputation.
Are you working today?
Go do work that matters, work you are proud of, and work that will win the championship.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
