If you ever had the chance to watch Celebrity Apprentice, you will see the blame game. In one experiment, the participants were asked to write about a personal failure and note who was at fault in that situation.
Do you take your job seriously?
Is it just me or do more of you get the idea that there are more people in the business messing around then taking a job serious? Whatever you do in life, you should take pride in that job and take that job seriously.
It is a hard road to a successful career, or at least success in your job, but to do anything at all you need to have a great sense of purpose. Taking the job seriously is the only way you are going to do anything important at all.
In this day and age, where employers are lying off workers by the hundreds, we should be more in tune with our own job. Last week, I talked about factors to getting and keeping a job. This week, let’s focus in on why it’s important to do your job.
In talking with one of my co-workers, who attended a training class last week, they came back excited about some of the things taught in the class. Motivation is the key to a lot of jobs. If you are not into it, how can you do well?
Have you ever gone into a place that had a waiter or greeter and they are so dry and hardly want to speak to you? Makes you wonder why they are in a job dealing with the public and are unfriendly.
It’s sad when you spend the whole day complaining about the things that’s not right and all you contribute is 8 hours of messing around.
It’s like an alcoholic who is denial. They never see the faults or what they are doing wrong. Soon as you mention it to them, they holler… I work hard. How productive can one be coming in at 10 a.m. taking a 2 hour lunch coming back at 4:15 p.m. and leaving at 5 p.m.?
First of all, that’s not a full 8 hour day. But, I am sure they want to get paid for eight. You know you are serious about work when you give it due importance. Do you see every work assignment as a growth opportunity? Do you view yourself as a competent employee? Do you go to the office regularly?
An affirmative answer to most of these questions indicates that you are pretty serious about your work and value it amongst other top priorities in your life. Playfulness and negligence can hurt one’s career. A serious outlook is essential toward the work we do, to excel in it.
Do you take your hobbies seriously? I bet you have something that you do for fun you take seriously. Maybe you root really hard for your football team or take pride in being the best switch hitter in the local softball league. Chances are you are going to spend time practicing or buying the best equipment to have the best chance of being successful.
Take that same passion and use that during your working hours.
It will make you a lot better at your job and will show off your best qualities. When you care about the job, you are going to work harder to make sure the job is done right. Time will be spent on the smaller nuances of the job that separate the good from the great. Instead of avoiding the boss, you will go out and make sure you spend some time interacting. Instead of saying no to a client, you will go out of your way to at least try to make the client happy.
If money motivates you like it does me… then why not work a little harder and put in more time to make more money? You would spend less days complaining about not having any money.
All this dedication will lead to higher paychecks and greater career success. Co-workers will respect your professionalism and will notice that you are the type who can come in each day and make a difference. Even if you hate the job, you have to admit that the respect you will get is at least almost worth it.
Take your work as seriously as you take your hobbies. See what happens to your career and how the same level of passion and commitment to excellence will take you places you might not think were possible for your career.
Have you noticed there is always one who wants to prove to the boss they are the only one who works hard but refuse to help their co-workers if they need help? Working on a job, your managers take notice to your attitude and you will never move up in the company.
Stop trying to blame everybody else for your mistakes and short comings.
Being surrounded by people, who blame others for their failures, whether at work or at home, can leave you prone to do the same. Interestingly, odds are the reason those people pass the buck isn’t to evade responsibility, but to protect their own self-image.
Affirming core values and personal competencies is the best way to eliminate defensiveness. Using your mistakes as a learning experience, regardless of who was ultimately at fault, can keep you from propagating blame.
On the other hand, if you’re being blamed unfairly, try to use the experience to point out someone’s mistakes tactfully in the spirit of learning how to improve performance in the future, rather than pointing an accusatory finger.
If you ever had the chance to watch Celebrity Apprentice, you will see the blame game. In one experiment, the participants were asked to write about a personal failure and note who was at fault in that situation. In both situations, people were more likely to blame others for a personal failure if they had read the version of the article in which the individual blamed others for policy or business failures.
But, when everyone comes in the room around Donald Trump, fingers are pointed around the room on who didn’t do their job. The one good things about it is, everyone is face to face… they are not back stabbing you and then smiling in your face like they are your friend.
