What do you get paid to do?<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t be too quick to answer this question. \u00a0Most everyone I ask this question of answers by\u00a0describing some function that they carry out in their organization.<\/p>\n
You may have initially answered by saying that you develop strategy, make decisions, plan, set direction, sell, work in fundraising, do financial analysis and reporting, research, solve customer issues, coordinate events, or manage others to get the work done.<\/p>\n
Yes, you do get paid for doing those things, but take it a step further \u2013 what is at the core of all of these things you do? \u00a0\u00a0Fundamentally, what is it that your organization is paying you for? \u00a0The answer is usually surprising at first yet obvious once you think about it.<\/p>\n
Consider that what you get paid for by your organization is to make and fulfill promises that add value to the organization\u2019s bottom line and\/or mission. \u00a0The organization hired you to help it reach its goals and objectives. \u00a0The organization is paying you to make and keep the promises it needs fulfilling in order to achieve its vision, mission and commitments to all of its stakeholders.<\/p>\n
Notice the word \u2018promise\u2019 here. \u00a0You aren\u2019t being paid for trying (unless you are purely an R&D function). \u00a0You aren\u2019t being paid for working\u00a0hard<\/i>. \u00a0You aren\u2019t being paid for your best intentions.<\/p>\n
If you can\u2019t promise results \u2013 if you can\u2019t make and keep your promises \u2013 then why would an organization pay you? \u00a0(There\u2019s actually some science to earning potential, after all.)<\/p>\n
The organization employs you and others to help them fulfill on those promises. \u00a0Ideally, the actions and results you produce combined with the actions and results of the others in the organization produce a certain result that the organization has promised to its customers, shareholders, partners, vendors, etc.<\/p>\n
Within the boundaries of your organization, you have lots of conversations to clarify what your various stakeholders want from you, to address problems and delays, to ask for help, to brainstorm \u2013 all with the specific goal of meeting the commitments (or promises) you\u2019ve made to your team, your peers, your bosses, the organization. Each person\u2019s role within the organization is determined by the commitments\/promises he or she makes to and with others.<\/p>\n
What are you actually getting paid for?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Of course it\u2019s more complex and in-depth than what I have the space and time to put in this short blog but this framework to view organizational life is a very powerful one to consider. \u00a0The most fundamental building blocks of\u00a0your effectiveness within your organization are your promises. \u00a0Want to succeed and excel in your career? \u00a0Learn to manage your promises more effectively. \u00a0Want to see your team, department or organization prosper? \u00a0Learn to manage your promises more effectively. \u00a0Want to hold your employees and team members accountable for their work? \u00a0Get them to identify and make specific promises to you as their manager\/leader and then teach them how to keep those promises or manage expectations when the promises can\u2019t or won\u2019t be fulfilled on time.<\/p>\n What do I mean by a promise? As an example, let\u2019s say you are the leader of a marketing team charged with developing a social media campaign for a new product. You may make a promise to the CFO not to spend more than $50,000 and another one to the VP of Sales that you will roll out the campaign by the end of the month so they can speak to it in their sales calls. You may make another promise to the Senior Leadership Team that this effort will lead to at least 500 new product inquiries a month.<\/p>\n A bad example of a promise \u2013 which may sound very familiar \u2013 is the one you promise your boss that will \u2018improve communications\u2019 between your team and the staff at Headquarters. \u00a0This isn\u2019t a promise. \u00a0You can\u2019t measure it. \u00a0People have different interpretations and standards for it. \u00a0It\u2019s murky, muddy and yet this is where most organizations run into a lot of trouble and create waste, inefficiencies and employee resentment. Remember:\u00a0what\u2019s measured is often what matters<\/em>, especially to senior leaders.<\/p>\n Granted, the word \u2018promise\u2019 can be a little off-putting for some. \u00a0I prefer it to the word commitment but I know that many organizations use commitment instead. \u00a0What I like about the word promise is that it holds your proverbial feet to the fire. \u00a0No one wants to break a promise. \u00a0Your organization has made promises for results to all its stakeholders. \u00a0The organization doesn\u2019t say to the stakeholders \u2018well this result you want isn\u2019t really a promise from us, but we will try really hard and hope it turns out.\u2019<\/p>\n While there are many elements to a powerful promise, I offer three essential ones here. This is where I spend a lot of my time as an executive coach \u2013 getting teams and individual contributors to better articulate and fulfill on their promises.<\/p>\n Clear conditions of satisfaction<\/p>\n Simply put, a promise is a commitment to take a certain action and\/or produce a specific result by a certain timeframe to agreed-upon standards. \u00a0 Clarifying exactly what you are promising (and by when) is one of your most difficult yet essential tasks. \u00a0This requires good conversations with your boss, teammates and others. \u00a0Being \u2018concrete and specific\u2019 is probably the most difficult piece of articulating a clear promise but you can easily see that if you don\u2019t clarify them, others will have expectations of you that you may or may not share.<\/p>\n The person(s) to whom the promise is being made<\/p>\n A promise is always made to somebody (and often to more than one person). \u00a0That person gets to say if they are satisfied or not. \u00a0The #1 reason why most teams or individual contributors will fail is not because they don\u2019t work hard or mean well, it\u2019s because they are not clear about what will satisfy those whom they are making their promise of results to.\u00a0<\/b>Be sure you know who all your customers for your promises are. \u00a0I\u2019m using the word customer here to mean those who are internal to the organization who get to say they are either satisfied or not satisfied with your work and results. \u00a0Do you really know what will satisfy them?<\/p>\n Ownership<\/p>\n If you make a promise then you need to own it. \u00a0This means that you don\u2019t get to blame circumstances or people when things don\u2019t turn out as you planned.<\/p>\n Of course you\u2019re going to make promises that will need to be renegotiated.\u00a0Of course priorities change and you\u2019ll need to rescind a promise.\u00a0Of course some ideas won\u2019t work and you\u2019ll need to go back to the drawing board. \u00a0These are all possibilities when you make a promise. \u00a0You don\u2019t need to wait to make a promise until all obstacles have been removed from your path or the chances of fulfilling it are at 100%. \u00a0If you waited or required certainty before acting then nothing would ever get done in your organization. \u00a0Owning the promise doesn\u2019t guarantee results but it does mean you commit to doing all that you can, including and most importantly communicating with your customers and stakeholders along the way and not waiting until your promise doesn\u2019t turn out to let them know.<\/p>\n While there\u2019s a lot more to say about how to make and manage promises, hopefully you get the importance and relevance for your own and your team\u2019s success. \u00a0If you are serious about getting better at managing promises, then your first step is to identify every promise you have made to all of your \u2018customers\u2019 in the organization. \u00a0Are they clear and measurable? \u00a0Are the measures for success shared by you and the customer? \u00a0If there are any dangling or unclear promises, then have the needed conversations to get them clarified \u2013 this isn\u2019t easy but it\u2019s definitely worth your time.<\/p>\n by Terrie Lupberger<\/a> What do you get paid to do?\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t be too quick to answer this question. \u00a0Most everyone I ask this question of answers by\u00a0describing some function that they carry out in their organization. You may have initially answered by saying that you develop strategy, make decisions,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nSenior Trainer, Master Certified Coach<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"