Booming Work Ethic

As a child of the late 60's, I would be classified as a Gen X'er. I grew up in a household with two brothers and a sister. My father worked full-time and went to school full-time for just about my entire childhood. He would also get up at 4 am every Sunday morning to prepare to teach the adult Sunday school class at our church. My father was a great provider for our family. He was also and still is a great role model. His incredible work ethic served as a great example for all of us in the Littlejohn household. I attribute my father's mentoring as to why I would consider myself to have a Boomer work ethic even though I am, as mentioned before, a Gen X'er.

I guess that is why it is difficult for me to understand the mentality of folks when it comes to cutting out of work early without permission or taking advantage of certain work-related situations. This includes folks that are extended the ability to spend the company's money but yet do not exercise the same fiduciary responsibility as they would with their own pocket book. Individuals who operate in this manner typically think that they are "getting away with something." What they need to understand is that people do notice. People do talk. It will be these same people or co-workers who will culturally expunge these individuals from the organization whether or not their manager, supervisor or leader chooses to do so. From a leadership perspective you have to decide on whether or not it is worth the additional investment in these folks to correct their behavior verses replacing it. This behavior might just be what tips the scale in favor of replacing, although it has been my experience that it is always less expensive for the organization to correct behavior whenever possible.

To me it is the little things, the small extra effort, one more sales call, one last message or banging out one more email to a customer that separates the staff members of very successful companies from those that are marginally successful. Some of our biggest sales have come in the final hours of a day or week prior to a deadline. After all, if our organization has interwoven the principals of having high expectations and a low tolerance for poor performance into our core ideology then shouldn't we always maintain this philosophy? I believe the old saying "hire for attitude and work ethic and train for skills" is still applicable today.

All of this being said, it is still very important for a company to constantly work on building and maintaining morale. So it is wise for leadership in the organization to be mindful of the aforementioned issues and to make decisions that will improve performance verses increasing conflict. It is a delicate balance of effective leadership verses high levels of self-accountability that will eventually provide for a strong work-ethic friendly environment.

You, as a leader in your organization, can influence this behavior through a 360-degree leadership strategy. Or, just like my role model, you can also greatly influence this behavior by being a great example. After all, part of being an effective leader is being an example of what you expect from those that you lead.

Our limitations and success will be based, most often, on your own expectations for ourselves. What the mind dwells upon, the body acts upon. - Dr. Denis E. Waitley, author of The Psycology of Winning, Being the Best and The Joy of Working.

What are your expectations?