It has been almost 50 years ago that John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."
I have always admired JFK and not only what he said but how he said it. Clearly he was a great communicator. I believe his famous quote should be tweaked ever so slightly in 2009 and changed to "Ask not what your company can do for you — ask what you can do for your company."
Hopefully over time your company has provided for you. During that time you received training, went to conferences, had your 401k funded, received raises and bonuses and provided a nice atmosphere. If they haven’t, you might be working for the wrong company.
Unfortunately in 2009 companies need their staff more than ever. They need you to find ways to increase revenue, decrease expenses and improve the bottom line. They need you to take care of clients. Deliver every day on every project. In essence the new standard is to be GREAT! Anything less than that and your current clients might go elsewhere. They might call your competitor which will obviously have a negative effect on revenue.
Companies today need your best effort! This is the hardest business environment that I have ever worked within and I am sure that is true for many of you.
So I say to you, "Ask not what your company can do for you — ask what you can do for your company."
What are you doing for your company?
How are you going above and beyond for your company?
Do you believe most people are working harder now?
I look forward to reading your comments.
Jeremy Bromberg says:
You are my hero, Merrill. Right freakin’ on. My personal adaptation of the above is, “individual success is based on company success, not the other way around.”
As a consulting COO to small companies (shameless plug; bygones), the message is the same everywhere. Dare to be great. Target delivering great work and demonstrating human decency. Be proud, and be realistic. Align employee skills and interests with company needs. Listen, listen, listen — to customers, employees, vendors — all who might have an impact on outcomes. Think — creatively, why yes (vs. why not), practically, collaboratively. If workloads are light, train / teach / learn. Prepare your company to be ready for the upturn, because one will come. If you see something that needs doing, do it, or organize and drive the effort to get it done.
I could go on for hours, but I’ll add one more entreaty: have FUN.
Erin Weinland says:
Merrill, I completely agree with your (and Jeremy’s) thoughts on this. I think about contributions on both large and small scales, because in this kind of environment, I think it really takes both approaches.
Sometimes you even find that the changes that appear to be small can make a big impact. Here’s an example: I figured out once that switching from a water cooler / delivery service to an installed water filter at the sink would save the company $250 a month. That’s $3k a year! Sure, that’s not huge in the grand scheme of things, but why not save the money if you can?
On a bigger scale, it should be every employee’s goal to spend our time (and the company’s time) effectively, but do we really know that we are? Through an analysis I did at a previous job, I found out that analysts were spending an excessive amount of time formatting charts in PowerPoint. Why couldn’t this be done by a Visual Aids group? Digging to the root of the problem, it turns out that communication between the two groups wasn’t strong enough to develop trust that the VA group could do the job. Developing a structured discussion guide took care of that problem!
And to take the issue one step further: when the VA group got overloaded from all the new requests for help, analysts were taking the work back onto their own plates. Why not instead utilize a low-cost group in India that had capacity and training to do this type of work? It’s a wonderful thing when employees in a company are putting their unique strengths to work – that’s when division of labor really works.