It is Saturday morning and I am doing cat box duty. Oy vay. But it must be done, or the house will smell like, well, a cat box. So, there I am digging and scraping, sifting and dumping. A thoroughly enjoyable task, yes?
But it struck me that either I did my chore to the best of my ability or the house will start to compete for Outhouse of the Month. Not the desired outcome. Short term, no one, not even the SO, will ever know I cut corners, or that I did less than complete work. Conceivably, I could take shortcuts for a goodly while before my poor work gets noticed.
You have to know how my two active brain cells work. While one of them is doing the scooper duty, the other one started comparing my cat box to our work with customers. Have I been doing my best work with my customers? Internal and external?
The sales team reaches out – do I give them everything I have regardless of probable outcome? Does my pre-sales effort reflect the best face to the customer with whom we would like to work? When I am doing a project are the outcomes short of expectations or do I exceed the minimums just because it is the right thing? Will my efforts result in the customer talking about CDW in a positive manner the next time they have a peer ask how things are going?
A long time ago (…in a galaxy far, far away…) I learned that integrity is the most important leadership trait. Do what you say you are going to do, do it to the best of your ability and knowledge, give credit where credit is due, and always seek to improve – both personally and professionally.
Like it or not, we are all leaders in some fashion. I have official things that I am tasked with – do I accomplish those tasks with my best effort? As a leader, do I give the subordinate co-worker my finest? Part of being a leader is following. Do I give my manager and dotted line managers everything they need and then some? What about my peers? When they ask for help, do I blow them off or do I do everything I can to help?
On delivery projects, we are expected to lead the team both from a technical and a business perspective. Do you treat that customer’s environment like it is your own? Did everything you did with your project reflect your absolute best work? When you saw something that you would correct, did you bring attention to it and offer solutions? Would you be willing to accept your work if you were the recipient of that work?
And here is the bottom line: Much like the cat box, if you do less than your best, sooner or later something is going to stink. I much prefer good smells.
