I don’t care what you think; I just want to do what’s right.
Maybe I can’t say that out loud to everyone I meet each day, but wouldn’t it feel great if I did?
Instead of worrying about what everyone else is thinking, what if we all approached our jobs with the sole concern of doing what is right? Right for the client. Right for the staff members working for you. Right for the company.
What kind of workplace would yours become if all team members were empowered to do what is right? I know some B2C companies, particularly retail companies, that employ this strategy, allowing their sales people the latitude to “make it right” for the customer. But what would that approach look like at a traditional B2B firm?
When I was starting out in my career I spent a lot of time worrying what other people thought of the job I was doing. I was a young, inexperienced kid out of college who went to a small Midwest school and was working in Boston – the land of higher-ed snobs. I spent many hours thinking my coworkers were looking down on me (they weren’t), or wondered if the presentation I finished in PowerPoint was okay (it was).
I eventually came to learn that most of my thinking was the natural insecurity of a 20-something. It took a few years working in the trenches of marketing and a move to Chicago before I had my first light-bulb moment. I discovered I was good at anticipating what my boss really wanted. And I stopped caring what others thought, or asking what another marketer would do.
I started thinking, “what is right for my boss to deliver to her client?” And then would give her that presentation, making her look great in the process. And guess what? It WAS better. So I did it again. And again.
I kept that in the back of my mind as I moved up the ranks and expanded my skills.
Do I always know what is right for every situation? Nope. Not to say I’ve always done the right thing or that the right thing to do is easy, but usually doing the right thing is what is best for the company.
And if everyone made decisions based on doing what is right for the company, well, it would be one incredible place to work.