I have worked with hundreds of clients
over the past 20 years from consulting
to manufacturing to contractors. One of
my coworkers early on in my career was
told by his boss that “300 people want
your job.” This was the response to my
buddies concern over a work related
issue. Unfortunately, that sense of
empowerment wasn’t, and isn’t specific
to that employer. All too often I speak
with people from all levels within an
organization and too many feel that a
job is just a job and each is only
accountable for their own actions.
I genuinely hope that this way of
thinking is becoming a habit of the
past. Just think, if no one cared either
way about the growth of their company,
the safety of their fellow employees or
the work product and customers what
would happen to that company? What
effect would it have to the employees
and their families? I still remember
that time in my career when I realized
that my individual performance, no
matter how exceptional I thought I was,
made absolutely no difference if I
didn’t work well with others.
This quote found its way into
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conversation a few weeks ago;
“reasonable requests made of
reasonable people should end in a
positive result.” Instantly,
the conversation I was having with my
colleague made sense; some people just
don’t see the big picture. You don’t
need to like everyone to work well with
them. From the perspective of a safety
manager, if I ask an employee to lift
with his legs, not his back, or get help
from another…that is fairly reasonable.
He acts accordingly, the job gets done
and he doesn’t injure his back…positive
result.
I can’t think of ANY job in our industry
that isn’t made easier and results in a
better outcome when you work with
someone else who is on the same page.
There are days we can’t seem to get
people into the same book let alone the
same page… but we still try.
In a recent employee meeting I made the
following analogy; there are 54
employees who are married to 33 wives
who together have 47 kids. That is 134
people whose security is dependent on
the company. It’s difficult to look at
things the same |