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Fire Your Boss! It's the Only Responsible Thing to Do
You may have been raised to think that firing your boss and becoming your own boss is an irresponsible, impulsive, and selfish thing to do. Think again. Firing your boss may be the only responsible action to take if you want to build financial...
School Bullying Stopped: 5 Ways to Stop Bullying with the Facts!
School Bullying Stopped: 5 Ways to Zap Bullies with Facts! By Paula McCoach http://www.bullyzapper.com So, there is a bully that you just can’t catch! You have been trying for years and no luck! Well, I have learned with good documentation,...
Science Toys are Intelligent Toys
My son Jack had been quietly playing with his Meccano
set when we heard him scream, sweet!
What a cool toy, my friend Dave said, it's a ferris wheel . It's a solar powered ferris wheel, said Jack.
Dave asked me, How did you get him to...
Service Leadership: Creating A Bulging Bottom-line Life
Sevice Leadership in the 21st Century means delivering on-purpose and with concentrated intent toward transforming the mental processes and environment where we succeed by serving the whole of the organization and not merely the top ranking...
Transitioning portable careers for global military families
Mention virtual business or portable careers in the military community and typically you think of the military spouse, veteran, or military retiree jump-starting their own business - - keeping in touch with clients, colleagues or a combination of...
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Don't Settle
Chuck was the best of the twenty-four candidates. Still, he didn't have exactly what I was looking for and my instincts warned me of his unusual personality. Yet the skills required for the job were specialized and he had most of them, and I'd been interviewing for five months, and my boss wanted the position filled before the budget process started. No, he might not be perfect, but he would be ok.
So I hired Chuck. As a new manager, it was a decision I came to regret. Chuck turned out to be a marginal performer, never grew into the job, and drew frequent complaints from his teammates. It might have taken me five months to hire Chuck, but it took me eighteen to fire him. Still, I'm grateful for the experience. Chuck taught me a lesson I applied in my next twenty years in management: don't settle.
When you settle, you choose mediocrity. Don't settle for the best of the worst. Keep looking. Don't settle for something that's barely okay. Push to make it better. Don't settle for average work from others when exceptional is needed. And don't settle for delivering good when you're capable of better. Expect more from yourself. Then expect more from others.
Whenever I've settled, the work or decision comes back like a boomerang, reminding me to keep my standards high. As W. Somerset Maugham says, "It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it." I know that's been my
experience.
There's a story I like about Phidias, a Greek sculptor working on the Acropolis. As he was finishing a statue of Athena, which would stand a hundred feet high next to a marble wall, an onlooker asked, "Why are you chiseling strands of hair on the back of her head where no one will see them or even know they're there? "I'll know," replied Phidias.
I wish I would have found a cabinet maker with that same attitude when we were building our home. When we moved in, we discovered tops of cabinets uncapped and unstained. It's true no one would see them. But, it was not the quality of work we expected, paid for or wanted. The cabinet maker had settled for mediocre. But we didn't. We had him do them over.
People who are winning at working know when good is not good enough. They operate like Phidais, not our cabinet maker. They understand that quality work is not an accident. It's a deliberate focus that starts with high personal standards. People who are winning at working don't settle for mediocre. Not in others. And not in themselves.
(c) 2005 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Sign up to receive Nan's free eColumn, Winning at Working, at http://www.winningatworking.com. Nan Russell has spent over twenty years in management, most recently with QVC as a Vice President. Currently working on her first book, Nan is a writer, columnist, small business owner, and instructor.
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