Make More of Your Job

Make Your Job Feel New Again

Last Saturday night, I was invited to a restaurant opening, one of those “soft openings” where the kitchen and staff get to work out the kinks on a group of invited guests who might cut them some slack for the hiccups.  Dining out is amongst my favorite things to do in my free time, so I went expecting to enjoy the food, the drinks and the ambiance.  What I wasn’t expecting, however, was to be taught a great lesson about life, passion and work.

From the moment we walked in, it was clear that everyone working was excited to be there and anxious for the night to be a success. Over the course of the evening, there were a couple of little issues that you'd expect from a soft opening. However, the atmosphere was full of people enjoying the evening, whether they were working or dining.  Towards dessert I was trying to figure out what it was that contributed to the positive vibe of the restaurant. Was it the décor or the music? No. It was the fact that every single employee seemed happy to be there, happy to be doing their job.

This restaurant wasn’t the greatest I’ve ever been to - not even in my top ten dining experiences. What's more is that the restaurant wasn't pricey, so I wasn't expecting the attentive service that I'd expect from a fine dining establishment. Yet everyone seemed positive and passionate. It was the simple presence of total newness that had everyone keyed up, and the result was amazing.  As I looked around the room, I couldn’t find a single employee who seemed displeased, not one who looked like they’d prefer not the be at work. The effect as a diner was contagious: not only was it an enjoyable atmosphere, but you naturally forgave any minor imperfections because the entire experience was so enjoyable.

Since that evening, I’ve been thinking a lot about how different our attitude is when we’re doing something for the first time, and how much more productive we could be if we maintained that sense of newness and enjoyment when we were doing tasks for the hundredth time.  It wasn’t as if the jobs at this restaurant were magic. In fact, I bet that many of the servers and cooks, hostesses and bartenders had held the exact same job at another location only weeks before.  Something about newness, when we are hopeful about the possibilities and tolerant of the negatives, allows us all to work in a state of heightened optimism.  Here are a few tricks to help keep your job feeling new, and help keep you feeling positive:

• Meet many people – One of the perks of starting a new job is being able to meet a huge amount of new people.  Keep this vibe going by constantly networking in your role, both outside of your department and even with vendors and clients.  Even a difficult job, if it helps you constantly meet great people, is something to be happy about.
• Learn new skills – I've said it before and I'll say it again: always be learning. Not only will it help position you for more responsibility or even a promotion, but learning new skills helps keep your work experience fresh every day.
• Help new employees acclimate – Helping new hires will not only make your company a better place, it will also remind you how far you’ve come and help to re-energize you about your own job.

Through the Eyes of a Tourist

Last weekend, one of my best friends from childhood came to town for a visit.  It was the first time she had ever been to Chicago and it was a real treat to see the city I’ve called home for 12 years seen through the eyes of a tourist. Once you live in a given place for awhile, it’s human nature to stop noticing how special some of your city’s assets are.  Having someone who had never been here before reminded me of how much Chicago really does have to offer.

She reacted to with outright joy and awe to buildings, parks and restaurants that I’ve come to take for granted. But at the same time, she wasn’t at all affected by the parts of Chicago I’ve come to be irritated with.  Our transportation system was fine with her (after all, it did get us from point A to point B) and even our traffic seemed reasonable (we never arrived late anywhere). Seeing Chicago with my friend, I couldn’t help but think about how much better we might enjoy our working lives if we could manage to take some time to look at our places of employment the same way a tourist might look at our home city.

Once you get comfortable in your job or with your coworkers, it is easy to forget all of the great things about your every day work life and start to focus on the irritations.  After my friend came in for the weekend, I tried to think about the issues at work that rub me the wrong way and look at them through an unbiased lens.  Just like the Chicago traffic wasn’t as bad upon reflection, I realized that little irritants around the office would be the same (if not worse) everywhere.  At the same time I was looking at my company and coworkers from a fresh viewpoint and identified so many great points about my work experience that I'd come to expect.

I’m someone who has always felt incredibly positive about my job, coworkers and company. But even for me, looking at my experience like a tourist was tremendously reaffirming.  To maintain passion for what you do, it’s vital that we remain conscious of all the little daily perks we are thankful of, and aware of how insignificant the negatives are in the big picture.  So try looking at your job everyday through the eyes of a tourist. You’ll probably feel a lot better about your work life than you have in a long time.

It's Never Too Late to Show Passion

Some of you may have read about my less-than-passionate experience at a Corner Bakery recently while trying to grab a quick lunch. To make a long story short, my bad experience resulted in them refunding my money and giving me gift certificates for a return trip. I wrote an entry about the experience because it highlighted for me how dangerous it is (particularly for small businesses) to give away money or lose revenue because they fail to provide passionate service.  In my case, a little communication from the Corner Bakery store employees could have turned the whole situation around. I didn’t want free money, I just wanted lunch. So I thought telling the cautionary tale on the blog would be a great example on how costly little lapses in passion can be.

Much to my surprise, I was contacted by Corner Bakery not long after the post went up. I have to admit I was deeply curious what interest they had in contacting me.  In our modern world, companies tend to be super-protective of their image and I was intrigued to see whether they wanted to ask questions about what had gone wrong, or just save face or ask for the post to come down.

It took a few days, but I finally got in contact with Diana Hovey, VP of Marketing for Corner Bakery. In just over a few minutes on the phone, I was reminded of an important lesson: It’s never too late to show passion.

It was clear from the first sentence Diana spoke that she wasn’t calling to complain about the post or to defend Corner Bakery. She was calling because she was literally hurt by reading the story of my experience.  My tale was not compatible with the company she knew and loved, and she was committed to finding out how things could have gone so wrong.

For the duration of the conversation, Diana was amiable, interested and clearly intent on making lemonade out of lemons. I couldn’t help but notice the enthusiasm she had for Corner Bakery (notable by the ease and excitement with which she discussed their history and growth) and it was clear that hearing that even one customer had experienced a lousy time at on of their café’s was something that she took personally. As I've mentioned before, it's impossible for me to not take my own business personally, so I immediately identified with her point of view.

I will admit it tickled me when she said that the printout of the post had been passed around the whole headquarters, and that they were very upset. "I wasn’t enjoying it because the blog had been passed around, and I wasn’t enjoying it because my disappointment was being felt," she said. "I was enjoying it because it was something that would happen at my company, in my life!"

I know what it feels like to be hurt and deflated when we drop the ball as a company, and seeing that behavior in someone else’s company was very reassuring.  These people loved their company, and hearing about the ball being dropped (which happens to even the best of companies) was something they reacted viscerally to.

I shared with Diana the fact that many of my experiences with her restaurant have been great.  In fact, there is one in my office building that has frequently impressed me with their ability to serve hundreds of lunches during the noontime rush with speed and grace.  I also told her that I wrote the piece not to shame Corner Bakery, but rather to tell a cautionary tale about why passion is so important in any and every job.

By the conclusion of the call, I was convinced that Corner Bakery is run by talented people who are truly passionate about what they do. We all have a bad day every now and again, but the Corner Bakery team seemed committed to making those bad experiences fewer and farther between by always learning from their mistakes.  Diana reminded me that passion also requires humility, and a genuine interest in hearing about your failure so you can fix them going forward.

If people believe that you love what you do, your errors will almost always be completely forgiven. I was also reminded that as consumers, our voices and experiences matter.  When a company does a great or lousy job, take the time to let them know about it.  If they’re a company worth doing business with, they will take your opinions to heart and be better for the information.

For me, Diana’s passion for Corner Bakery made me an instant fan.  I may have had a rotten lunch, but it was just one lunch.  Going forward, I have much more important knowledge that every dollar I spend at Corner Bakery is going to an organization that is humble, passionate and committed to continuous improvement.  I had lunch at Corner Bakery again the day after my phone conversation with Diana.  Not only was it served quickly, but I was happy to pay for it after throwing out those gift certificates.  After all, I wasn’t hungry for free food, I was hungry for passion.

Every Day is a Job Interview

Perhaps the best advice I received early on in my career was to think of every day at work like a job interview. I still run into instances today where I know this advice can be put to use in other people's careers.

A majority of the time, I take a suburban commuter train to my office in downtown Chicago.  Because these commuter trains run on a consistent schedule, you end up seeing the same group of people day in and day out on your train.  Over time, I’ve gotten to know a few of the passengers I ride with. One of the passengers on my train is a nice young guy, probably early 20s. Let’s call him "Joe." Occasionally, Joe and I end up on the same car and converse casually about current events and the like.  We don’t speak extensively about work, but we’ve talked enough for me to know that he’s an entry-level securities analyst for one of the larger firms here in Chicago.

He’s had the job for a little over a year, and in that time I’ve seen quite a change in Joe, and not for the better.  The funny thing is, his attitude hasn’t changed much at all. He still goes to work early, is always upbeat and generally energetic.  What has changed, and quite dramatically, is his appearance.

When I think back to the first few times I spoke with Joe, he was always well put together in a suit and tie.  This was around the time he started with his firm and it appeared he was doing his best to send a message to his employers that he was professional.  Over time, however, Joe lost the tie, then the suit altogether, and now it often looks like his shirts aren’t even ironed.

I don’t get the sense that he’s disillusioned with his job, but I definitely get the sense that he’s comfortable. That can be very dangerous.  One day last week, I ran into Joe on the train and he hadn’t even bothered to shave that day.  We have a lighthearted rapport, so I joked with him and asked if he had a rough night. 

To that, he said, “No, I never drink on a work night, but it’s not like I’m going on a date. Who do I have to impress?”

His nonchalant reply struck me. The truth is, if you’re trying to make the most of your job, you have everyone to impress. From the second you arrive at the office until the moment you leave at night, you are constantly being assessed by your peers and superiors. You never know who might notice your work ethic, behavior or even your appearance.  Despite seeming like a model employee, the fact that Joe implying that he doesn't need to appear professional for his role may end up hurting him in the long run. Especially in big firms where the higher-ups don’t even know everyone’s names, it can’t hurt to make the extra effort to be noticed and send the message that you are a consummate professional.

This was a golden opportunity for me to pass on the same advice I had been given at the same time in my career. I told him to think of his appearance as part of his everyday job interview and that he might want to consider picking the up the razor each morning. Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly no fashion plate myself, and I know that dress codes do vary widely depending on the office environment. But putting on a tie, a belt and a matching pair of socks, and shaving my face every day is the least I can do to show respect to the job and company that I love. Though I have my on days and off days like everyone else, I always try to treat my job like an ongoing interview and send the message every day that I am deeply committed to what I do.

I haven’t run into Joe again since our chat on the train, but I'm curious to see next time if he took any of my comments to heart.  If nothing else, it reminded me of how important the messages we send to others can be in our careers.  Just the simple process of thinking about these messages can help us to find ways to make the most of our jobs every day.

It’s not about being perfect. It’s about demonstrating your commitment through actions, appearance and attitude.  If you do that day after day, you will be noticed and rewarded.

Great Service Requires Passion

Last Sunday afternoon, I came across a particular example of how important it is to be passionate about the business you’re in.  I had some extra time before an appointment I'd scheduled, so I stopped by a local Corner Bakery, figuring I’d be in and out in no more than 15 minutes.

The first sign that this business wasn’t being run with passion was the way the line was moving -   not so much the speed of the line, but the enthusiasm level of the people behind the counter.  When a register opened up, each of the three cashiers would just stand there, staring at the line, waiting for the customers to realize that their register was open.  A simple friendly “Next in line!”  could have sped the process up by half alone.  As I often do in these situations, I started looking around to see how the rest of the business was functioning, and calculating the cost that lack of passion could be creating for the business owner.

When I made it to the front of the line, things got worse quickly.  The employee taking my order was mute throughout the process - no smile, no welcome, just a dour expression while punching in my order on his screen.  I took my order number and moved to a seat.

About 10 minutes later, an eternity in quick-serve restaurant time, I still hadn’t seen my food and had seen many people who ordered after me get their meals. I walked up to the counter and asked if my order would be up soon and was told it would take “less than a minute.”  I returned to my seat. Ten minutes later, I was back up at the counter asking for a manager.

The manager who came over was curt and clearly unhappy to be speaking with me.  When I asked if my salad was ready, she said, “Somebody already told you we were out of dressing and making more." I informed her that nobody had told me anything of the sort, at which point she said, “Well, we’re out of the ingredients we need so you’ll have to choose something else."

By this time I was late to the appointment I had scheduled, so I simply requested that they refund my money. The manager barked, “Fine, whatever.”  Throughout the entire process, the manager was extremely rude, so before I left I asked for the name of the franchise owner with the intention of writing them a letter about my experience. Only once I’d asked that question did the manager attempt to act pleasant, and all of the sudden insisted that I take $20 in gift certificates for my troubles. The end result for Corner Bakery: $10 in lost business for a refund, and an additional $20 out the door in an attempt to appease an unhappy customer.

Though the situation was handled poorly, it could have been completely corrected through simple, respectful communication. I didn’t want my money back, nor did I want $20 in gift cards. All I wanted was my salad.  If someone had merely been polite, or apologized, or offered to make a different one quickly, I would have happily left with a little bit of lunch and they would have kept my $10, and Corner Bakery would've kept their $20. For owners of small businesses, it doesn’t take a lot of $30 mistakes and irritated customers to create disastrous results.  Unfortunately, poor attitudes are just as contagious than great attitudes, and in business lack of passion is an epidemic that will doubtless leave your profit margins dead.

I'm not telling you this story simply to complain about not getting a salad I wanted. This instance, along with so many customer service nightmare experiences, demonstrate how easy it is for dispassionate employees to create total disaster in a business. Clearly this manager, who at one point had chosen to take on the responsibility of leading others, didn't love her job. That attitude, in turn, had trickled down to many of the employees beneath her.  I’m not placing all of the blame on this manager. Perhaps her boss enforces this same poor attitude. Perhaps she was having trouble outside of her job. However, if she were truly passionate about her job as a leader and manager, she would've used that passion to improve her attitude.

To me, my experience at Corner Bakery was an affirmation that good people with a lack of passion aren't helping anyone, including themselves.  Life is simply too short to spend time doing something that doesn’t stimulate you, and it has a ruinous effect on your peers, clients and business’ bottom line.  Everyone deserves the chance to work in a job that makes them happy, but to earn that chance sometimes takes the guts to admit that it's up to you to ignite your own passion. Allowing yourself or other dispassionate employees to remain in any position is a guaranteed losing proposition for all involved.

My experience reminded me that you can’t buy great service. That comes exclusively from people that are engaged in what they do for a living.  Finding a job you believe it is invaluable to your happiness and the success of the business you’re in, because no amount of gift certificates can make up for a lack of passion and pride in a job done well.

Learn to Love Failure

I know it sounds strange, but I absolutely, positively love failure. 

Don’t get me wrong, I hate losing. But in my opinion losing and failure are only vaguely related.  Whether you win or lose, failure happens along the way...and it’s always a chance to get better at what you do.

I played a lot of baseball growing up. Nearly every time I walked up to the plate, I knew I was bound to experience failure in some form.  Every time I swung at a good pitch and didn't hit the ball, I had failed at what I set out to do. In no way did any one of these small failures mean that I would end up losing the game, but each provided me with an opportunity to improve.  Every swing taught me about my timing, the pitchers toolbox, the umpire's strike zone and myriad other variables.  Each failure, if noted and analyzed with a positive attitude, brought me a step closer to my short term goal of hitting the ball and my long term goal of winning the game.

Life is no different. Unfortunately, individual failure gets a bad rap outside of sports.  It’s too easy to get distracted by the negative press that failure brings and miss the opportunity to grow from it. At work, I see people take all sorts of absurd steps to deny, excuse or explain their failures rather than owning them and committing to growth through the experience.

Think how comical it would be if a baseball player stepped away from the plate after missing a swing and blamed his failure on the bat, or the ball, or the pitcher.  Yet in the working world we see these excuses everyday: it was the market, the product, the boss, not me.  In my personal experience, I know that the better I get at admitting when I’ve failed, the quicker I can be at correcting that failure and ultimately succeeding as planned.

We all take crappy swings now and again; in fact, it’s part of the game.  But the ability to embrace your failures in life will define the level of success you will be able to attain down the road.  Try to take a little pressure off of yourself, enjoy the ride a little bit more and learn from your experiences.  Making the most of your job is a messy process full of mistakes, setbacks, and challenges, but also glorious, uplifting wins.  Each failure along the way is a change to become better, faster, stronger.  Don’t miss that opportunity because you’re worried about what people will think about these failures, they’re all a part of the human process.

Just like in baseball, if you approach your life with good sportsmanship, personal ownership and most of all a sense of passion and fun, you’ll be hitting the ball out of the park in no time.

Conflict With Your Peers? Get to Know Them

We spend a lot of time talking about finding a job that you can be passionate about on this blog.  What if you’ve got a job that you’re passionate about, at a company you love, but you can’t seem to get along with your peers? The best advice I’ve got for you may sound counterintuitive: start spending more time with them.

In business, many of us compartmentalize our emotions and dehumanize our actions by telling ourselves things like “it’s just business” or “it isn’t personal," but when conflict arises, it’s always an emotional process.  Passionate people believe strongly in their opinions and ideas, and when they run into people who don’t feel the same way, things can get a little bit messy.

I’ve been in plenty of meetings in my life where otherwise kind and courteous people treat each other like a pack of wild animals -- hollering, arguing and attacking one another in an effort to assert dominance or advance their agenda.  These same people would never treat someone in their personal lives in such a manner, but they’ve convinced themselves that “it’s just business” and “it isn’t personal."

If you work with someone who operates like this, or if you operate like this yourself, the best way to find common ground is to remember that we are all human, with feelings and emotions, passions and desires.  I've touched upon this briefly before, and it bears repeating. Once you realize the person across the bargaining table feels just as strongly about her opinion (and probably has a good reason to), it’s tougher to be aggressive and argumentative and easier to understand where she's coming from. Likewise, if your co-workers see you as a whole being rather than as a wall they need to break down, the process of debate will be much more civilized and productive.

The best way to “humanize” your workplace is to start getting to know the people you most commonly find yourself in conflict with.  If you always get into debates with the same peer, invite him out to lunch and find out a little bit about his life outside the office.  You’ll be amazed how much getting to know someone can impact the way you interact when back on the job.  You may find you still can’t agree at the office, but you’ll see that person as more than just her ideas or behaviors and the process of finding common ground will become much simpler.

Not sure how to start the process of getting to know your office foes?  Try honesty.  Chances are, if you just say “We seem to get our horns locked a lot around the office. I’d like to get to know you a little bit so things might be a little easier between us," it's very likely your invitation will be accepted.  It’s one small step on the way to creating the work environment you wish for, and it’s something you can do today.  So what are you waiting for?

Workplace Myths: "Don't Take Your Work Home."

There’s a lot of advice out there today about maintaining the clichéd “work-life balance” concept. Many of the sages shilling this concept will warn you against the dangers of taking your work home with you.  In reality, though, being passionate about what you do for a living is a prerequisite for true success. That same passion will guarantee that, at some point, you will be taking your work home with you.

I understand the logic behind the advice to not take your work home; unfortunately, it’s based on the ideal that all of us hate our jobs or only see it as a means to a financial end. True, we all have responsibilities to take on outside of the office, whether they be to our families, significant others, or even our own non-work duties and interests. But I'm not talking about simply lugging your laptop and a stack of papers back to your home office so you can burn the midnight oil.

When I talk about work at the dinner table or think about it on the treadmill or in the shower, I’m not complaining about how boring it is or how unappreciated I am.  Instead, I’m sharing stories that inspire and drive me or brainstorming solutions to challenges that I want nothing more than to conquer. Because my company’s goals and my own merge into an indistinguishable unit, bringing work home is not a burden. Life outside of work takes a lot of prioritizing and planning; however, being in a job that you are passionate about makes prioritizing your life much easier.

The advice to not take your work home with you really only passes muster if your job isn’t pivotal in fulfilling your life.  People who achieve great things at work see what they do for a living as a calling, not as a job, and it becomes an inextricable part of who they are, whether at work or at home. Trust me on this -- the people who tell you not to take your work home probably don’t love their jobs, which explains why they're selling snake oil pessimism for a living.  You’d be well-advised to spend more of your time trying to find the job or career of your dreams, something that could inspire you and fill you up, rather than finding a way to leave your work at the office when the clock strikes 5 PM.

Having a vocation you care about, even if it causes you to take your work home at the end of the day, is a blessing. Don’t let the pop culture gurus tell you how to feel.  Being fulfilled and inspired by your job doesn’t make you pathetic or one-dimensional, what it makes you is incredibly lucky.  I take my work home every day, not because I’m overworked or unable to get my job done in 40 hours a week, but because I find what I do inspiring and important in developing my world view.

If being a part of your company fills you with pride and a desire to do more, it is a great sign that you are in exactly the right place. Everyone should be so lucky to cherish their job and be filled up by it -- if that were the case, the world would be a happier and more productive place.  It would also mean that every one of us would take our work home with us, not because we had to but because we chose to, because it was an elemental part of who were.

Wrong Job?

What I’m about to say may sound incredibly impatient, preternaturally inconsiderate or at the very least brutally intolerant. But if you’re one of those people who is constantly complaining about your job, do us all a favor: either do something about it or shut up!

I’m constantly amazed by the sheer volume of American workers who have nothing positive to say about their jobs, yet aren’t even in the market for a new one.  In any other area of life, chronic complaints about a situation without any action to improve it wouldn't be looked upon favorably. For some reason, complaining about our jobs seems to have become the acceptable norm. As a culture we constantly avoid the opportunity to better our lives because we’re afraid of the unknown.  Sure, changing jobs can be scary, but is it really scarier than a lifetime of being under-compensated, under-appreciated and under-utilized?

Think of the energy waisted on complaining about your job on a daily, or even hourly, basis. How about focusing all that energy on changing it?  There are over 125 million jobs in the US alone. If your negative arguments are sound, I guarantee you there is someone out there that would thrilled to both appreciate and compensate your talents. The beauty of working in a free-market society is that if what you do has value, there are always people looking and hoping to employ you.

Trust me, I’ve had bad jobs in my life and I understand completely. How awful it can be to work in a job where you feel unfulfilled or unappreciated, but you have the power to change it!

It’s human nature to be up some days and down others, but if you don’t feel excited to go to work at least 3 out of 5 days a week, you’re either not as talented as you think or you’re in the wrong job.  As the employment market tightens, and employers are more and more desperate to hire quality workers, keeping a job that doesn’t inspire you is nobody’s fault but your own.

How to Spread Career Passion

Passion is contagious. We’ve all seen this phenomenon, whether at a sporting event or a charity function.  When people are passionate, other people catch it. And when that phenomenon exists in the workplace, your company can’t be stopped.

Unfortunately, negativity and pessimism are contagious as well. In today’s corporate world they are often more readily available than passion. If your workplace isn’t as passionate and exciting as you’d like it to be, there is an easy solution. Start rewarding passion.

Wait a minute, you might be saying, I’m not in charge, so I’m not in a position to reward anything. But while you may not be in charge, there are simple things that any one of us can do to ensure that passion gets rewarded in the workplace.  The following are fast, simple tips that will ignite the passion in your office.

• Ask for a passion prize – Go to your boss (or company president) and ask that they create a passion prize.  Each month, suggest that they give a prize to the person who best exemplified passion on the job.  It doesn’t have to be anything huge, even a Starbucks giftcard could do the trick. They could say no, but most won't. Besides, you’ll never know unless you ask.
• Thank passionate coworkers – Jot a quick thank-you note to co-workers you witness displaying passion.  You’d be surprised at the effect a few quick sentences have, but it’s always worth the time.  The note doesn’t have to be complex; it could be as simple as “I noticed how passionate you were about ____, it’s really nice to work with someone who feels so strongly about our company.” Trust me, it will make a difference. Reminding passionate people that they are valued will guarantee that their passion will rise another notch. 
• Don’t be embarrassed about your passion – Sometimes people don’t display passion because they are afraid they will be judged.  You can be the trailblazer for passionistas in your company.  Start talking about how you're passionate at work. Say things like “I’m really passionate about this” or “that would be huge for the company and would make me proud." It wont be long before others feel free to follow suit.