Above & Beyond: The Extra Mile

Yesterday I happened to watch an episode out of an old television serial that had aired quite a few years ago called ER (Emergency Room). It revolves around doctors, nurses and other staff, and how they handle situations that arise out of the emergency room. In the episode that I watched yesterday, one of the doctors who is taking care of his father who has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, brings his father home to stay with him. They have never had a good relationship all their life, but he decided that in these days, he would take care of his father. It's a tumultuous time – the father is not really easy to get along with. One day his father reminisces and talks about the time that he was in the Navy – how his greatest thrill was to be on a ship watching the bow slice through the waters and ride the waves. His eyes lit up with just the thought of being out on the sea. As his son Mark watches this, he decides to take his wheelchair-bound father onto a boat. There's a wonderful picture of father and son on the boat, enjoying the wind in their faces.

As I watched it, I thought to myself – there's a level where we do the things that we are supposed to do because it's duty, a duty of a child to his parent. And then, there are things that we can do that go far beyond that. I think that's what the extra mile is all about. It's going beyond what duty calls for and that's a good perspective for all of us as we look at our work spaces and ask ourselves the question, "in the company that I am in, do the people who report to me or I report to, go the extra mile? Or do we just say: "This is what is expected of me," and then don't do anything further.

Attitude Trumps All

On previous talks, I have touched on attitude quite a few times. I remember once talking about how attitude tops performance even in appraisals. I had quoted from an article by Shruti Sabharwal and Devina Sengupta who had said that in Microsoft's Global Technical Support Center in Bangalore, performance rating was not linked to the aptitude, but to behavior and the ability and willingness to learn from the problems that the people were solving. It was linked to willingness to share knowledge and the doggedness and persistence in solving problems were very high on the desirability charts at the company. In fact, Microsoft junked its performance review system doing away with targets for engineers, and instead judged them on behavior and the way they performed the task rather than what they did – looking at the how rather than the what in terms of an appraisal and found that there was a 20% increase in employee satisfaction within that year.

Attitude seems to be very important in the scheme of things. Zig Ziglar once commented, "Your attitude is more important than your aptitude," and I remember rounding off on that. But he's also been credited with saying, "Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude." That's a nice pithy way of saying: How high you go depends on the kind of attitude that you have, not so much the skills and the aptitude that you have, though that is important as well.

APPRECIATION AT WORK

Last month I was at a conference where Gary Chapman was speaking. He wrote a book a few years ago called 'The 5 Love Languages' which went on to sell 6 million copies in English alone and has also been translated into 40 languages around the world. It has become quite an important book in terms of relationships of knowing the different love languages that we all use and to be able to know and use those particular languages as we deal with our families.

Raising the Bar

Good morning friends, it’s good to be with you again this Tuesday. It’s a Tuesday that’s winding down – the end of a financial year, appraisals and assessments, etc and I was wondering what I could talk to you about on this ultimate Tuesday of this financial year.

This English idiom came to mind: ‘Raising the Bar’ and while this may have nothing to do with an evening tipple, it has everything to do with setting a higher standard. The etymology of raising the bar comes from the athletic field of pushing harder, striving or doing something better.

Creating the High-Performance Organization

I recall a conversation I had with a friend some years ago. He told me how important a good team was in successfully implementing a vision. I remember his advice. He said, “When you find the people that you want to work with you or who can bring value to what you are doing, go after them and get them. Don’t be bashful in going after good people.” I always remember that and have found it to be so true. You only have a small window to be able to get the right people to work with you, towards the goal that you have. It’s important to get people who are like-minded, people who know enough about what they are doing and where you are headed and also people who are loyal to you and to the cause.