Impact of your behaviour
Top revenue performer = efficient.
Low revenue performer = inefficient.
True or False?
If you were a water pumping station responsible for pumping out water to the general public who would then drink your water – what condition would your water be in? Would it be clear, clean and refreshing, or dirty, metallic-tasting and cloudy?
Have you even taken the time to stop, check, see and taste your own water; moreover the impact of your water upon everyone else – your team mates, clients, bosses, friends and family?
Are you taking responsibility for your behaviour?
Responsibility - is all about taking the time to test our waters and from there taking the appropriate measures to rectify that which we are ill-emitting, is being cleansed so that it is harmless and drinkable for not just ourselves but for all others too.
In taking responsibility for self, there can be efficiency gains for the company also: for someone who is taking real care and respect of how they are operating at work (in how they address, greet, deal with their client, manage their team, or conduct business etc), is taking care of their water and the ripple effect that this/their water is creating. Deal with a client in a distracted or preoccupied state of mind, and the business will often not be won, or the client or message lost. Arrive at work irritated or frustrated and the day continues in that momentum often trickling into team flow. The water has not been, and is not clear.
Ripple effect
The issue is whether we are actually choosing to be aware of the ripple effect of our water – which flows from us and from there to all others both at work and outside, and if not – then why are we choosing to not be aware of our effects? – this is being irresponsible and it is also being inefficient.
Inefficiency costs us personally, professionally and also the business/company. Yet this is the way in which most products and services are made, manufactured and delivered – fast, speedy, quick, or hurried towards a target or deadline without real care and attention to the trail that is being left behind. The speediness or end result is congratulated without attention being paid to the way in which it was produced or serviced - the trail - and therefore consumed by others.
Sales people in particular know all too well that: delivering a sales call with agitation or in desperation is something that can be picked up or ‘smelled’ by the client – and to avoid doing this.
Hence it is vital to check ourselves – that is, the state (our water that then leaves our trail) in which we are choosing to operate in.
Real responsibility
If we could actually or tangibly see what we are emitting or emanating (our trail) - that it looks, tastes or smells awful then we would take notice surely? – but the tendency is to not, to not see let alone be honest with ourselves over that which we find horrible or foul, and moreover that we could be operating such a way. Yet this is what taking responsibility is – not just looking at what ‘end result’ is produced, but how/in what way that ‘end result’ is carried out, and then changing it and our approach when required.
Inefficiency
The things that can allow us to stop and taste, smell and/or see our inefficient ways of operating are in our everyday working practices, and staring us right in the face.
So do you choose to be aware, OR are you choosing to carry on acting as if normal soiling yourself and others around you?
Is your distraction, daydreaming, disquiet, dissatisfaction, boredom, lethargy, idle-chat or gossip, quip remark, tiredness, rash decision, time short-ness, last night’s excesses, mis-typed and sent emails, lost sale, won sale, sadness, angriness, headache etc etc –adversely or indirectly affecting others around you? If so, then this is not what ‘being efficient’ is.
Taking or being responsible and therefore being efficient - is all about recognising, being aware and stopping to check in with ourselves when we know or can feel we (our waters) are ‘off’, and then making new choices to deal with our inefficient and irresponsible behaviour regardless of how ‘successful’ we are/amount of revenue being produced etc.
If we want to say to a client that ‘we, our recruitment agency, consultants are responsible (recruiters) that/who act with integrity’ – we must start to consider/all individual employees to consider, whether we are being responsible first for ourselves and in EVERY area of our life (in and outside of work), and then also to all others we may come into contact with. There can be no integrity without first responsibility.
So in answer to the very first question, True or False – it could be said that the clarity and cleanliness of a worker’s waters is what determines whether or not they are truly being efficient (and hence responsible).