Strategy #7: Move from hired hand thinking to partner thinking

Here is an important distinction between thinking like an employee and thinking like a partner: for the employee, the focus is on getting the work done; for the partner, the focus is on earning the right to have more work to do. Paradoxically, it’s the partner’s mindset that creates the greatest job security, isn’t it?

One way to foster this shift in mindset is to encourage people to see the job description as a floor, and not a ceiling. Here’s what I mean by that. Whenever you hear someone say something like “that’s not my job,” that person is seeing their the job description as a ceiling - a limitation on what they can and should do. The executive who does not stoop to pick up a piece of paper on the floor, or the hospital housekeeper who does not ask a patient why their call light is on, is seeing the job description as a ceiling.

On the other hand, a nurse who takes the time to write poems for her patients, because she loves poetry (and loves her patients), is seeing the job description as a floor – the platform upon which she adds her own special gifts and talents. (Remember this nurse – I’ll be mentioning her again further on.)

What can you do to convince people that the best job security is earning the right to do more (not less) work, and the best way to do that is by treating the job description as a floor, not a ceiling?  Instead of (or in addition to) the usual boilerplate that begins “and all other things assigned,” add this to every job description: “And anything else that in your best judgment will help you do your job and serve our customers in a way that makes you proud to be a part of the team.”

“When you get right down to it, one of the most important tasks of a manager is to eliminate… excuses for failure. But if you’re a paper manager, hiding in your office, they may not tell you about the problems only you can solve. So get out and ask them if there’s anything you can do to help. Pretty soon they’re standing right out there in the open with nobody but themselves to blame. Then they get to work, they taste success, and then they have the strength of ten.”

Robert Townsend: Further Up the Organization

Next >