Work That Matters

Workplace Dilemma

Garth Beyer

To build an organization up, you’ve got to do remarkable work for your colleagues, for your boss, for your clients, and I’m sure a few others. You always have to be ON.

To build yourself up in an organization, it’s likely you’ll put things for your colleagues and clients on hold because your boss (who has the ultimate decision power on if you’re promoted or not) has asked you for something.

Here’s the dilemma: do you stop doing great work for everyone involved to do slightly greater work for one person?

Street performers have this dilemma every time someone stops to listen or watch them. Do they focus on entertaining that one person, building up the show to an eventual climax or do they try performing a constant jaw-dropping performance so all who pass by toss some change in their bucket?

Here’s my view: we give too much power to our bosses and the individuals whom we stop everything for to devotedly please. Why? Because the boss will ask colleagues and clients what they think of you before deciding to promote you and the one person who the street performer singles out, might not have any money on them.

This isn’t a matter of appealing to the masses, it’s a matter of performing holistically. It’s a matter of caring about your work and your tribe.

 

Stay Positive & No One Said It’s Harder (That Doesn’t Mean It’s Not Worth It)

Your Heart Has Eyes

Garth Beyer

Visual acuity isn’t enough in relationships. It’s not enough when solving problems (or creating new ones). It’s not enough when setting out to create your own business.

Greatness can easier be claimed once intimacy is accepted, engaged, brought forth.

When all we look at is what’s in front of us, we miss a lot.

A co-worker of mine is incredible at being intimate. I always say she has two sets of eyes. One set to see what’s in front of her and one to see how what’s in front of her is. It’s a second, deeper level of seeing.

We can open our eyes, but the best work gets done when we open the eyes of our hearts.

 

Stay Positive & There’s Always More To See (No Microscope Or Telescope Needed)

Work That Matters Test

Garth Beyer

I catch myself, admittedly often, not doing work that matters, work that makes a difference, work that’s risky.

There are a few indicators. Either I am texting someone or my phone is faced up so I can see if someone texts me. I might have a Facebook tab open. I might still be signed into my gmail account, instead of a client’s, for ease of responding to an email faster.

It took awhile to recognize these moments because they’re so small. And hey, I’m staying connected. It’s a good thing I replied to her email likely faster than anyone else she’s emailed today…right?

Do work that matters. Notice when you’re not.

 

Stay Positive & Raise The Stakes

What Is Efficiency Anyway?

Garth Beyer

When you say you’ve done a lot, do you also say how well you did it? Likely didn’t think about it.

On the flip side, when you’ve done something really awesome, borderline remarkable, you’re sure to say just how long it took you.

In the game of making things better, we swap quality out with speed. We call ourselves efficient in terms of how much we get done instead of looking at the quality of our work. Speed instead of quality.

Speed is an objective community perception, easily recognizable and measured.

Quality, though, is more subjective. Quality can be compared with what everyone in the agency has made or it can be compared with your personal average. A bit more hard to measure.

In the marketing world, we have enough of the pace-type efficiency. We’ve spent years mastering it, creating charts, laying out entire office cultures based on it. In terms of speed, I’d say we’re near maximum efficiency.

Now that capacity has been met, we have an opportunity to redefine efficiency and pursue filling the void we’ve ignored all these years. We can stop trying to check more boxes and start starring them because we’ve done work that matters, work that’s special.

Being forward, it’s hard to create remarkable work (art) because it’s easier to see ourselves working faster, checking more boxes, getting to more meetings than it is to image ourselves making something remarkable.

To do so, we have to think differently, talk differently, and start seeing things differently.

The neat thing about remarkable work is it’s rooted in the saying, “we’re doing X, but just a bit differently.” No need to invent a new wheel, just think differently about the one you’re using. Only then can you begin giving meaning to the term “efficiency” again. And for that, thank you.

 

Stay Positive & A Little Different Can Go A Long Way

Things To Consider About Getting Ahead

Garth Beyer

These work. They always have. They’re simply often forgotten.

1) Do what others won’t. I don’t mean clean the toilets or put in more hours than them. I mean do things others don’t even think of doing. Think outside your span of present duties.

2) You can’t rely on others to tell each other (or your boss) about your awesomeness, you have to tell them yourself. You can talk about what you’ve accomplished without it sounding as if you’re egotistical.

Just like Michael and I discussed on the latest In The Box Podcast episode, you can either complain about grunt work by saying how much you dislike it or you can joke about how terrible it is.

The same goes for talking about work you’ve done that matters. There’s the bragging way and there’s the extremely proud, emotionally light way of sharing the feeling of accomplishment with another person.

3) Find ways to give to those around you. Pulling from the past, here’s three things you can always give – no money or baking skills required.

 

Stay Positive & Get Ahead, It’s Where You Belong

The One That Matters

The One That Matters

Garth Beyer

Is that the mindset you have? Are the rest part of your assembly line?

The problem with checklists, the problem with the 20 emails you have to send, the problem with the four meetings you’ve got to attend is that you know you’ve got another one on deck, so let’s just get through this one, cut ourselves some slack, leave out the “thank you” at the end.

When you have the mindset that the last one on your to-do list is the one that matters, you’re dumbing down the work you do, you’re establishing an average that your outlier won’t recover.

The problem for you is there are people out there treating each task as if it were their last, as if the task they are doing is always the one that matters.

We put too much faith on going out with a bang, we support mediocrity and fall to our competitors when we breeze through the assembly line of work and treat only one (typically the last in line) as if it’s the one that matters.

It’s not.

 

Stay Positive & It Might Be Time To Leave The Line

What Are You Doing It For?

Garth Beyer

Core Values

A lot of things get done throughout the work day merely because someone was too scared to say STOP or lacked the confidence to ask why they were assigned to do what they were.

From an employee stand point, every task is an opportunity to reaffirm what you’re doing it for. It’s why company culture, company goals, and, most importantly, the company message is so vital to know and understand.

Often times, when one is doing a task one deems unnecessary, they still have a legitimate purpose for doing it when they know why the company is in existence (its core value).

But not every company shares its why. Not every company inspires their employers to be part of their movement. In fact, not every company is moving.

So we must fall back on our own values. We must ask why. We must understand what we are doing this or that for… and appreciate it.

From a manager’s perspective, if employees aren’t asking why, if they’re not seeking out work that matters, then it’s an indicator of a larger company problem.

Do work that matters or be the company culture changer. They need you.

 

Stay Positive & Ask, Know, Care

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