Imagine the following conversation\u2026<\/p>\n
Executive says to employee<\/strong>: \u201cThe project you are leading is going well, but there are a couple of things I need to talk with you about. I appreciate that the team is meeting its milestones and I know that you are an important part of that success. But, I’m thinking you could make it easier on the team if you viewed your role differently.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Employee<\/strong>: \u201cI’m always interested in finding ways to be better at my job. Please tell me more.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Executive<\/strong>: \u201cI’m glad you are open to the suggestion. There have been times when team members have faced significant barriers and you could have done more to help them. They’ve done well with those challenges, but I think you could have helped them navigate more smoothly and saved some time and frustration along the way.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Employee<\/strong>: \u201cCan you give me an example?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Executive<\/strong>: \u201cSure. The first one that comes to mind is when Kathy and Matt were having trouble getting the attention of the technology team. Can you think of anything you could have done to help them with that?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Employee<\/strong>: \u201cI suppose I could have helped them escalate the issue. Honestly, the details are sketchy to me. That was over six months ago. Have you observed other similar situations more recently?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Executive<\/strong>: \u201cYes. Several since then. I think you need to consider your role to be more service-oriented. One of your primary responsibilities is to position those on your team to be as successful as they possibly can be. That may include coaching them through a difficult situation, helping them uncover a blind spot, or paving the way for them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Employee<\/strong>: \u201cThat makes a lot of sense. Can I ask you a question?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Executive<\/strong>: \u201cSure. Fire away.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Employee<\/strong>: \u201cDo you consider your role to be a service role too?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Executive<\/strong>: \u201cMaybe, but I have to admit that I haven\u2019t thought a lot about it. Why do you ask?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Employee<\/strong>: \u201cBecause what you’ve shared with me today is a service to me. The problem is that you let me continue on a path of missed opportunities for over six months. I mean this respectfully… I wonder if you would have said something earlier if you viewed your role as service-oriented too.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Executive<\/strong>: \u201cHmmmm. I guess you have a legitimate point. And since you brought that up, let’s talk about a few other things………..\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Unless you’re in a role where the cause is YOU and ONLY YOU, then you are in service<\/em> to others. We all have others who are counting on us. They may be paying customers, recipients of your service, colleagues, or your employees. In the end, isn’t that what it’s all about? Being in service to those who count on you?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are You in a Service Job? Imagine the following conversation\u2026 Executive says to employee: \u201cThe project you are leading is going well, but there are a couple of things I need to talk with you about. I appreciate that the team is meeting its milestones and I know that you are an important part of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,9],"tags":[111,110,109],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepeopleadvantage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The moral of the story\u2026<\/h3>\n