Coordinate Your Activities
much you know until they know how much you care.” This is
very true.
The fourth “C” stands for Courtesy. One of the best ways to
approach employees and team members today is to treat them
as if they were volunteers. Imagine that they have given up
their time voluntarily to come to work for you at no pay. If you
think of them as volunteers, working for you out of the goodness
of their hearts, without pay, you will treat them very differently
than the old-school way of “Do it my way or hit the
highway.”
The practice of courtesy requires that you speak politely
and respectfully to each person. You treat them at all times as
if they were important customers of your business. You say
“Thank you” for everything they do for you.
Perhaps the best management principle of all is what I call
“Golden Rule Management.” Treat every person who works for
you exactly as you would want them to treat you if you were
working for them.
It often happens in our turbulent economy
that a person who is a manager today finds himself or herself
working for a subordinate a couple of years from now. Be sure
to treat everybody who works for you today as if you might be
working for them at a future time. This will keep you on your
best behavior.
Be a Good Team Player
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander
in World War II, was the embodiment of a great team player.
Using the skills of diplomacy, combined with tremendous
patience and backed with iron resolve, he was able to bring
together the leaders of different armies and weld them into an
overwhelmingly effective fighting force. Without losing sight of
his objective, to liberate Europe, he was able to balance and
compromise conflicting interests to unite everyone in pursuit
of a common goal.
Rudyard Kipling wrote, “The strength of the wolf is the
pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf.” The team is
only as good as the individual team members. One of the most
important qualities of a good team player is that she is totally
committed to the success of the team and of the organization.
In other words, she is committed to winning, to victory for her
group.
Your goal is to be totally committed to victory. Everybody
is watching and everybody notices. Everyone knows who
makes the greatest contribution and who does only the bare
minimum.
Napoleon Hill once wrote that “No one can ever stop you
from going the extra mile at work.” Always look for ways to
make a greater contribution, to put in more than anyone else.
In staff meetings, always volunteer for assignments. Keep looking
for opportunities to do more than anyone else. Continue
raising your hand when something needs to be done. The
important people are watching and noticing.
The very best team players are those who volunteer for
assignments and then get the job done quickly and well. Getting
a reputation as a hard worker who does the job quickly
will open more doors for you than you can possibly imagine.
There is an old Chinese saying, “He who would rule must
learn to obey.”
The most successful people in business today
were outstanding team members and employees in their
younger years. As a result, they were continually paid more
and promoted faster, over the heads of the average employee
who just does what he has to do to avoid being fired or laid off.