Recognise your ability to make a contribution

Zachary Aldwin Milkshake in the Boardroom
Most people have come across different types of job descriptions at some point in their lives. Depending on the imagination of the author and the type of company that it applies to, job descriptions list a range of tasks, key result areas, minimum requirements etc. Let us stop there for a moment. “Minimum requirements” is an attention grabber. The problem with such a job description like that it results in you doing the bare basics to avoid a reprimand and just enough to justify your salary at the end of the month.

You will not do anything outside your duties. You will not volunteer any information that may improve the company.

You stick to the demands of your job. You fail to do any great work. We have all met people in that category, you probably employ a few.

These are the people who walk past litter in the corridor because “it is not my job description” to pick it up.

Sometimes it is not always the individual’s fault. Periodically the systems, especially rigid ones, inadvertently limit their staff.

When doing the job and doing the right thing do not line up then you have a management problem.

I had this with a previous Internet Service Provider. I was using a WiMax system and the service had gone downhill without anything changing my end.

My first attempts at dealing with the support staff were to be told that it was clearly a fault with my machine even though the system gave me a wonderful signal and performance when using the same laptop in a different location.

Eventually I got through to one slightly brighter individual who was not just reading down a checklist of possible faults.

He pointed out that it was a signal strength issue, apologised profusely, but there was nothing he could do and he doubted it would improve.

I switched providers.

Somewhere the technicians had no power to either be honest about what was happening, and when they could be they could do nothing to fix my problem.

The system lost the company a customer and the technicians could never do great work.

Great work, work that stands out, our best output should be that which we are most eager to share and release into the universe with the satisfaction of ‘I did this”.

More often it is not our best that we offer. Instead we settle for a mediocrity that gets the basics done and rationalise it with half baked excuses about not getting paid enough, “I am not the one” and company policy.

There are other limitations to doing great work, not just a badly written job description or a rigid system.

We have been conditioned over the years to work for applause and recognition. Social media has made this worse than ever, we post, tweet and tag based on the number of “likes” and views we will receive.

So as we get older we create an expectation for feedback. It is a belief that people will respond to our work in a prescribed manner.

The sad reality is that often this anticipation is misplaced.

You should work not because of feedback or applause but because you can.

The response will always be less than your expectation of it, it will always disappoint. Living life for the reaction others will always let you down because one day they will forget to clap.

I get this with writing. I love receiving emails in response to this column, but that is not the reason I write.

If I wrote because I wanted comments and rated my success on it then I would be sorely disappointed a lot of the time. I write because I can.

Often we avoid exceptional work because of fear. The most obvious fear here is that of failure.

There is also the fear of having our work rejected. Not to be overlooked is the fear of success.

This is the fear of “when I actually succeed will more be expected of me”. It is a poor excuse for holding back your contribution to the world.

The curse of average binds us and like a leash on the leg of an eagle prevents us from soaring.

The grading system at school labels people as average. Mass production meets the needs of the average person.

Unconformity gets us labelled as deviant. Being an average student does not mean that you cannot produce great work.

Shackling yourself with a burden based on someone else’s assessment of you twenty years ago when you were at high school is a refusal to acknowledge the freedom and growth of a being a mature adult. Recognise your ability to make a contribution and move on past the limit.

Doing great work, bringing your best to the table, is not a matter of being paid or being owed something by society.

It is an issue of the heart that embraces the fact that you can achieve it regardless of the reward, it may cost you a bit of extra sweat and time, and you may never get any recognition for it for you deserve none.

But at the end of every day, when you put your work out there, you can be satisfied knowing that you have helped add greatness to the world.

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