Dear employee, do you know you may not be as “safe” as you convince yourself? Today, business mogul, investor and mentor Mr. Patrick Bitature posted on his Facebook page and said:
“As your business grows and becomes sophisticated, you must learn to employ people who are smarter than you. My top managers have got to show me that they can do what I cannot do. Otherwise, why would I need them? When you work with people who are smarter than you, you can comfortably leave them in charge as they take care of your business.”
I choose to be silent about the hiring wisdom in that tip for employers and focus on the value advice for employees. In essence, Patrick – whose recent book launch I was privileged to moderate – is asking:
“Can you prove your relevance to your employer by humbly demonstrating your areas of absolute competitive advantage over him/her? Can you justify your stay in that workplace by proving the irresistible value you bring on board?
Here, then, is the bitter but liberating truth: Hiring you out of the many other willing workers is not a charitable act of kindness even when working with a charitable organization. And you should never take on that mindset of feeling entitled to favour. You’re hired for the perceived and expected value in you. Period.
The wisest of them all, therefore, will focus on catapulting his/her usefulness through intentional personal development, by quantum leaps, in the shortest time possible so as not to be tolerated but celebrated and truly needed. This is why you should stop being at the mercy of the employer and simply be at their admiration due to how much you contribute to the hitting of targets, meeting of mandates, and achieving the mission.
Looking Deep Within:
So, today, I kindly invite you to try out something noble: boldly challenge yourself with these seven soul-searching questions that every employee must urgently answer:
1. The Loss Challenge: If I wasn’t in this workplace, would this company / organization lose anything or, like they say, the difference would be the similarity?
2. The Profit Audit: Am I a very profitable asset to my employers or a “doodad” — like Robert Kiyosaki calls it in the Cashflow Quadrant? In other words, am I viewed as an important investment or a mere expenditure?
3. The Joy Thermometer: Do I make make colleagues excited whenever I enter the working space to serve with them or they rejoice whenever we part ways, away from each other?
4. The Value Meter: Do I really focus on bringing substantial value TO the table or I largely focus on taking substantial value FROM the table?
5. The Exceptionality Test: Are there areas where I am so good — in fact so better than my employer — that he/she therefore cannot do without me, or my not returning to work tomorrow morning may not have any significant effect on the operations at all?
6. The Motivation Telescope: Is my chief motivation to make a positive difference through my fulfilled responsibilities or to raise dust through an agitation for my labour rights?
7. The Relevance Litmus: By the way, while I may be great in my own way and in the different areas of my life, am I relevant in a sense of being great in the much needed aspects of my job? (It’s one thing to be great in what you do but it is another thing to be greatly relevant to your current area of posting! You can be both excellent and irrelevant.)
Over to you now! You can rebrand yourself, repackage your value, and exponentially catapult your contribution beyond the sky. I look forward to hearing from you soonest! You’re free to leave your comment and share the article to spread the inspiration, or rather the challenge.
#YouWillManage
| Live . Love . Lead |
