Do The Easy Stuff Perfectly
Every company or work group has one or two superstars who can get away with ignoring administrative duties and breaking rules. These folks are so consistently brilliant with technology or sales that the manager is forced to tolerate their disrespect for policy. If you are one of these people, we see that silly grin on your face. If you know one of these people, we feel your pain!
Here’s what you may not know; management may be forced to tolerate the behavior for a while, but they do not like it. If they find an occasionally brilliant, disciplined replacement who will submit status reports on time and show up for meetings, the superstar is history. There is more job security and long-term success in doing the easy stuff perfectly and being occasionally brilliant.
Learn how to manage your calendar and to-do list so that you remember when things are due and have ample time to do them early. For example, if status reports are due on Tuesday by 5pm, set aside an hour on Monday afternoon to prepare the report. Early Tuesday afternoon, review the report you prepared and make changes, if needed, based on what has happened in the last 24 hours. Submit it early.
Manage your inter-meeting commute. If you are scheduled to be in a meeting in another building at 2:30, add an appointment on your calendar at 2:15 to give you time to walk over.
Answer your email. Email has replaced phone calls in most companies for efficient communication. Email can be good because it allows the sender to write whenever he has available time, and you may answer when you have time. A phone call requires that you both be available at the same time, often resulting in a frustrating game of phone tag or, worse, the “increasingly long, over-explanatory voice mail” game. However, the advantage of email for quick, convenient communication is completely lost if you allow your inbox to fill up and do not read and respond to incoming messages quickly. Stay current on reading and responding to email. Set expectations with your co-workers about what will receive prompt attention and what will not, and ask them not to game your system.
Be sensitive to your company’s position in the market and know who your competition is. For example, if you work at Dell, don’t bring an HP laptop. If you work at Freescale, try to bring a Motorola phone. If you don’t know why you need a Motorola phone at Freescale, you didn’t do enough homework on who your new employer is and why they might care.
For goodness sake, if you’re working at Hershey, don’t break out a Nestle Crunch bar!
This is Easy Stuff. Do it perfectly.
Original author: Christine Lambden. Reprinted with permission.
