Message of the Day - Achieving Organizational Goals and You

Good Morning,

 

I remember the movie ‘Starship Troopers’ every now and then, and this weekend, after a conversation with my wife, Karen, I remembered the basic training Sergeant in the movie who when asked if he wanted to join the efforts to save earth on the front lines, responded that he would have to take a demotion to Private to do this. How many people would willingly take a one, or two step demotion to get a job done these days?

 

At the end of the movie, you see the good guys captured one of the leaders of the enemy, and when you finally get to see who the person who got the job done was, and it was the Seargent who was now sporting the rank of Private.

 

Even though this is a work of fiction it tells us an important morale story. The mission is more important than the position or rank you hold within your organization.

 

It is the people who get things done in organizations which are the bread and butter and the pillars of success for those organizations. It could be a leader or it could be a front line team member who rolls up their sleeves and consistently gets the job done. It does not matter who they are, or what position they hold, the important thing is achieving the organizational goals.

 

I am reminded of one of the vision statements of Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield which said ‘My company comes first, my unit comes second, because nobody wins unless the company wins’.

 

So you are successful at what you do, and your team is on fire with top results, but if your organization as a whole is faltering, your work is almost worthless. What do you do? Find out what you can do to help. It may not be your position, or your job, but it is the goal that needs to be achieved for the organization to succeed or even to survive.

 

You can learn many new skills by stretching yourself to help other units in your organization, and this helps you grow to better yourself which then better helps your organization.

 

Another story along these lines was a professional baseball player who had the record number of home runs for the year who approached the team owner for a raise. The owner said ‘NO’ that they could  have come in last place with him or without him.

 

This baseball player should have turned his attention on helping his fellow teammates to be better players so that the team could have placed better than last place. Then he might have been considered for a raise.

 

What activities or goals are our organizations looking to accomplish that we could help with, even if it is not our role?

 

How can we help achieve our organization’s goals?

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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