How to Be a Great Employee And a Greater Manager

by Robert Villegas

  You can create an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure Manual) for each service and/or business process. These books can provide valuable information that you can take with you into each meeting with associates. They will show how seriously you take the idea of making improvements in your company.

  You can also include (in these books) what you have learned about the company’s competitors; how they do things, what materials they use and what makes their products, services or business processes different from yours. This could provide valuable information and keep your company ahead of the curve when it comes to improving and serving the customer better.

  Taking Totally New Directions

  The premise of this approach is not that you want to improve your existing products and services but that want to invent a new product that better meets the needs of new or existing customers. To explain, let’s assume that your company offers gasoline products to customers for use in their cars and other machines. You could say that you are a gasoline company.

  But is this true? Aren’t you really an energy company since energy is the component of gasoline that the customer uses to improve his life? This broader perspective on your purpose serves the goal of keeping you focused on a broader scale. Consider what would happen if a competitor found a new method or a new product that provided more energy at a lower cost; a product that was not petroleum based but that did the job that petroleum does more efficiently and at a better price. Where would your company be if this happened? Out of business.

  To prevent this, your company can take a long-term approach by expanding its vision and be ahead of the game. It can develop other energy products and services that will help you stay viable. You can either beat your competitors to the new approach or you can have other approaches ready to put into action so your company stays viable.

  To stay ahead of the curve, you should keep abreast of all new research in the energy field, maybe even hire scientists who can give you an edge in developing new approaches. This will also help you to develop patents that could prevent your competitors from venturing into a new development that you have discovered.

  An important key to developing new ideas often involves what I call making new connections. A new connection in this context involves combining products, product goals and/or product characteristics. It could even involve connecting certain business processes in such a way that there is more integration in the company, reduced costs and increased efficiency (which could reduce prices and make the company more profitable).

  As an example of connection of concepts, we could look at electricity. Once it was identified by Franklin, its characteristics could be defined and those characteristics led to the creation of thousands of life-enhancing products that require electricity for power. In fact, even machines that required human labor as power were converted over and this reduced the human labor involved and significantly increased comfort, ease and productivity of those same men who were no longer using their arms or legs to power these machines. Additionally, electric motors (another connection) could now be used to power carts (once powered by horses and boats once powered by wind).

  Another key is the manager’s ability to generate and use wide abstractions. An abstraction is an unseen principle that is discovered in nature. Using the example above, “electricity” required a wide abstraction that was not directly observed or understood in nature. Once it was discovered, the wider abstraction of energy conversion led to the understanding of how energy is released in the world and how it can be created or generated to produce more power.

  So, the principle of energy conversion of electricity led to the wider principle of energy conversion in the world which put men on the path to discovering even more powerful forms of energy. This led, eventually, to the gasoline powered engine and nuclear energy plants. The limited field of electricity led to the wider abstraction of “methods of energy conversion” and man became even more productive without increasing the level of his manual labor. Instead, he used intellectual labor to design machines that created more energy than thought possible even a few hundred years ago.

  These examples are only a few of the basic concepts that have to do with creating new ideas. The key is to connect knowledge to reality and let it help you lighten your labor as well as increase your comfort and leisure. Example; the air conditioner.

  How is Your Vocabulary?

  Is your vocabulary business-centered and appropriate to the business world in which you operate? Are you often lacking in language skills, unable to express yourself clearly and intelligently? Do people understand you when you speak?

  Clear communication in your field is important. You pick this up in college so when you enter the working world, you display your ability to communicate through the “language” of your field.

  If you enter the working world without a specific education or experience, you’ll need to learn how to communicate with other employees. There is such a thing as business English that represents a general way of showing that you have respect for your bosses and your customers. This not only involves your speech but also your general appearance and personal hygiene. Don’t expect to get a job that requires you to be in front of customers if you sport tattoos all over your body and face. Also, be respectful; avoid argumentative behavior around your fellow employees and customers. Show that you possess a modicum of politeness, respect and good behavior.

  If you approach your job with the attitude that others should accommodate your language and vocabulary habits, you will negatively affect your chances of success. It is far better for you to learn the common patterns of speech and vocabulary in a business environment. Not only will it help you deal with your day-to-day issues at work but it will make you a more valuable employee.

  There is no benefit to expecting the world to make your habits normal. It just won’t happen unless your habits are already normal. This includes your ability to get along with your fellow employees. This habit of “getting along” makes your life much easier because it establishes common standards that are also accepted by most customers.

  Dealing with Conflict at Work

  Conflict at work is a very common problem. Sometimes, it proceeds from an employee who does not like his job or who has a bias of some sort. Sometimes, it is the boss who does not like his job or has a bias. It could also be an employee who does not like capitalism or is afraid of the assertive behavior of people who want to succeed. Sometimes it is mere jealousy of successful people and a desire to harm assertive individuals.

  It is not good to psychoanalyze people who have bad attitudes about their work and jobs. That type of analysis takes highly specialized skills that most of us do not have and it would be presumptuous to think that we could do it. The only thing one can do is judge their actions as good or bad for the company by a rational standard. How does one do this?

  The rational standard in judging actions in a company are what is the individual doing that is good or bad for the company. Does it harm or help the profit picture, the bottom line? Does it benefit the productive ability of other individuals in the company? Does it harm or help the company’s position in the marketplace as a good place to work? These questions and other similar questions can help you determine if an individual is advancing the long-term goals of the company. Decide by means of a careful analysis of these issues and, most often, you will be able to decide whether an individual and his actions and words are good for the company.

  A Boss You Don’t Like

  Sometimes, we must work with a boss that we don’t like. This could be someone we judge to be obnoxious, cruel, impolite or abusive. You must be careful about judging this individual by a rational standard and avoid judging him or her emotionally or according wrong standards. You do this by asking some important questions:

  Does this individual harm or help the profit picture, the bottom line?

  Does he or she benefit the productive ability of other individuals in the company?

  Does h
e or she harm or help the company’s position in the marketplace as a good place to work?

  If his or her characteristic way of acting does not negatively affect these issues, perhaps you are using an emotional or arbitrary standard when judging.

  Other questions you can ask are how does this individual’s behavior affect others in the work place and do others have the same view of this individual?

  The answers to these questions, if accurately made, can help you decide whether you should stay with this company, seek some sort of redress or try to work it out with the boss.

  I have been in situations where I hated my boss but I liked the company for which I was working. It was a chore coming to work and many times I hated getting up in the morning because I knew I would have an unpleasant day. In fact, many people in this type of situation may find that in the long-run they would be better off by learning to accept the situation and hope for a turn of events that are in their favor.

  If, on the other hand, this individual is too intolerable, you must do what you must. I don’t believe you have an obligation to save a company from disaster if the management of the company does not understand the company’s needs.

  How to Get Your Boss on Your Side

  Rather than engage in conflict with the boss, how about getting the boss on your side? Given that your boss is a rational person who understands his industry and how to run a successful company; the likelihood is that he will welcome an employee who can give him great efficiencies and more profits and, if he is indeed rational, he will also ensure that you are rewarded for those efforts. Why not, then, enlist him as your mentor who can help you rise with the company and earn more income?

  The key is letting your boss know about your aspirations and the kinds of facts, ideas and subjects that you need to learn to be a better employee. I learned early in my career that my boss could be my best ally and that he or she was more than willing to help me rise through the steps of the management ladder. If he liked the work I was doing, I knew he would help me in any way he could.

  Which brings up the point, how much are you doing creatively to make a difference in the company? Are you innovative, looking for new opportunities, new business process improvements? In short, are you seen as someone who is always pushing the limits and working to make a difference? The more your boss trusts that you are going to do an excellent job, the more he can concentrate on improving the company in other ways.

  At UPS, they had a great way of keeping the dialogue among managers going; and that was by having monthly and sometimes weekly one-on-one meetings to see how things were running, what was right, what was wrong and what could be done to make things better. These one-on-one meetings were crucial for letting other managers know that I was in the game and eager to do something to help the company run more smoothly. Such meetings can be career builders for the smart employee. If you don’t have such a meeting with your boss, they can be done informally or you can ask your boss if you can schedule such a meeting on an on-going basis. Regardless of who you are meeting with, it is important that you have something to contribute, that it is relevant and consistent with company values.

  These meetings are your best opportunities to communicate your commitment to improve things at the company. Be especially aware of your boss’s views on improvement. Is he a boss who thinks that his systems are the best possible? Does he get upset when someone suggests changes? If he does, he might not be open to new ideas and a good heart-to-heart talk about making things better might be out of the question.

  Conflict with the Boss

  But your boss’s attitude toward positive and constructive change is a vital clue about his policies and the prospects for improving things. I once had a boss tell me that my suggestions for improvement indicated a negative attitude. I was shocked that he would think so since my suggestions were intended to help improve a situation that we both thought deficient. Apparently, we had missed communication and I learned later that there were other issues involved. The company didn’t last long after I stopped making suggestions and even though my department was the most productive in the company, I was let go. It did show me that the wrong attitude from a boss can destroy a company. Learning how to handle yourself can prove a vital help in your development as a manager.

  In those situations, it is important that you be civil; never directly confront the boss especially if he is emotionally tied to “the way things work around here”. Always convey a positive attitude and a desire to do the right thing.

  Nevertheless, it is important that you and your boss are on the same page; that he knows you are trying to help and that your concern is for positive change that will improve the company’s ability to compete in the marketplace. Don’t be an “agitator” for the kinds of change that will cost the company lots of money or that have nothing to do with the bottom line. These will often get you labelled as a “disrupter” and get you tossed.

  In some companies, there is nothing you can do to improve a negative situation; and you must respect the fact that your company might have been doing business this way for decades – primarily because it was the boss’s original idea and he might never change it; he might even think it is disruptive to modify it. So, always get the lay of the land and learn as much about the reasons why things are done in a particular way. At the very least, it might give you information that you can use in your future career somewhere else or at your own company.

  This chapter is about getting the boss on your side and sometimes it is best to let the boss be the boss. Learn from him, respect him and always thank him for the opportunity he has given you. Eventually, you’ll know everything he knows and the rest you can figure out.

  Gossip

  Employees who engage in gossip and innuendo among themselves are not positive influences on the company. They create false impressions and prejudices that do nothing to help the company be successful. It is best not to be involved in such negativity and to avoid it at all costs. If you feel that a particular individual is spreading false rumors or negatively influencing another individual’s prospects, there is nothing wrong with refusing to believe such falsehoods; and if they are particularly damaging, there is nothing wrong with discreetly asking the person not to discuss such issues around you. If any such gossip can lead to legal problems for the company, such as a violation of a government regulation, it is important that the management be informed.

  Inspiration

  I’ve always gained energy and enthusiasm by reading the works of great men as it came from their own pens or mouths. Such men are your precursors; they created the world from which you draw so much value. They created the world that feeds you, energizes you and inspires you. Here are some quotes I like and some additional thoughts.

  1. To finish first, you must first finish. – Juan Manuel Fangio

  Never take a leap into the unknown unless you have done everything possible to understand the situation. There is always the option of doing something with more knowledge rather than doing it without knowing what will happen. Life requires risk and many times we don’t know what will happen when we take that step or leap. But good skills, eye-to-hand coordination, lots of knowledge and preparation can pull you through. Always be studying your craft, develop new skills when you can and constantly be reading and learning about how the world works. Only the man who takes the motor apart can learn how to make it run faster. And he is the individual who will finish first more often.

  2. Nobody remembers the guy who finished second but the guy who finished second. – Bobby Unser

  I hate the idea of being known as the guy who finished second. But accomplishment is not about what people think about you; it is about the effort and the desire. Always know how badly you want something and make sure you learn what it will take to win that race.

  As a young pitcher, when playing in organized baseball, I accomplished a no-hitter. I will always have it in me that I pitched that no-hitter even though I was playing against aver
age high school level players. There were some pretty good hitters in that league and I remember studying each one, learning their weaknesses and knowing precisely what I had to do to strike them out. I also did everything I could to make it harder for a hitter to hit my pitches, I studied every possible type of pitch and added it to my repertoire. I practiced throwing to improve my accuracy so I could put the ball exactly where I wanted to. I sought complete control over every pitch I made and developed my skill so I would be effective with every pitch and every move of my body while on the pitcher’s mound.

  I also knew that being “that good” was also a reflection of how I treated my body; what I ate, how much sleep I got and how much exercise and practice I had undertaken. The morning of my no-hitter I woke up feeling complete, relaxed, competent, good. I told myself that morning that I was feeling better than I had ever felt before and that I could do anything I wanted to accomplish. It was a feeling of total competence, mental, physical and ideational. When I got on that mound that day, there was total confidence, fearlessness and complete happiness about who I was and what I was going to do. My precision on that mound was incredible. I could put the ball anywhere I wanted. I could select the best location I wanted, my curveball was perfect as was my slider and knuckleball. Everything worked and I knew I could dominate over every batter. That is what success requires – total commitment and total domination over my actions and choices.