Video Transcript: Be a Better Employee

1 Be A Better Employee

Alright, we're back. We’ve looked at personal finances. We've looked at how to save money. Next, I want to talk about the job that you presently have. One of the goals in tent-making, you want to spend more time with ministry, but you have to pay the bills, you have to take care of your family, and you're not hired by a church as of yet - either full time or part-time. So you have this job that you're a part of. How can you do your job better or at least get more recognition for the job that you're already doing that will allow you to either get paid more or allow you to have more time? And with the more time and the more pay, you can then turn more of your efforts and resources towards the ministry that you want to do.

So before we start talking about starting your own business or any other kind of enterprise, the enterprise that you're involved in right now is the job that you have and how can you be a better employee and therefore either make more money or free up more time? So that's what we want to talk about.

Some of the basics. I would think anybody with any job has to do these kinds of things.

1.  Be on time. One thing that drives bosses or foremen more crazy than anything is employees that just don't show up on time. Number one, it's a total lack of respect. Number two, if you're part of a team, there are three people that are there and you're not there, these three people have nothing to do because you're not there. One of the key things is it's the start of the day. You're going to start the whole day and you're going to be late? Why not start the day - the whole enterprise or whatever it is that you're doing, why not start on a positive note rather than a negative one?

2. Dress appropriately. I don't know what that is, whatever the job it is that you do. But don't make this the time where you need a fashion statement or you dress really high and everyone else is at this level. Or the opposite, you come in as a slob. Dress appropriately to whatever the job requires. If you're a female, this is not the time to stand out and show off who you are. You want people to respect you for the work that you do and not for what you look like.

3. Practice appropriate personal hygiene. Take a shower every day or use deodorant. Be aware of who you are. Some people go to work and they're breath is just horrible, and every time they come and talk to you, it's like you want to get away. Be aware of your own needs and situations.

4. Show respect to all whether people deserve respect or they don't. Giving respect to people is more about how you think about yourself than how you think about others. I'm going to give respect to you even though you don't deserve it. I'm going to give respect to you if you deserve it. I'm going to treat you the way I would like to be treated. That's how you want to think about it.

5. Never gossip. What is gossip? Gossip is talking negatively about someone who is not there. So two people get together and they start negatively talking about someone who is not there, someone who can't defend themselves, that is called gossip. Now, why is gossip so destructive? The reason that we gossip is it sort of feels good. We're talking to each other, and we're talking about someone else in a negative manner, and in a way what we're doing is sort of shoving them down. And as we shove them down, we stand a little bit taller. And it feels pretty good. And we're having a good time together and there's like a connection. We have this connection to each other. We're feeling closer together.

Okay. The problem is if you're willing to sit with me and talk about that other person, you are also willing to sit with another person to talk about me. So that's what happens. Everyone gets together with everyone else and at separate times, we talk negatively about someone else. So in the place where we work, there's all this negative stuff going all over, and eventually, the negative stuff comes around and comes back to the person. And when it does, the person is upset because the story has been embellished or they got it wrong. Who said this? And now, I'm wondering who is against me. Gossip kills an organization. It kills a workplace more than anything else that there is.

The church that I'm currently in, when I first came, there was a lot of that going around. And it just killed everyone's enthusiasm. I tried to curb it. I tried to preach. There's Matthew 18. This is how we need to do things. When someone offends you, you go directly to them and you tell them about it. You don't go to someone else. I preached, and I preached, and I preached but nothing changed. It didn't change because I didn't really realize how it works. This is how it works. You hurt me. And when I get hurt, I'm really hurt. I don't have the emotional energy to go and confront you on it. I think, well, if I go to you, you won't listen to it anyway. That's the kind of person you are. That's how I'm feeling because I just got hurt by you. You're insensitive and you won't listen to me anyway. So I'm hurt.

Now, I go to my friend. And my friend asked me, well, how are you? And I just got punched. I'm hurting. So I can't help but tell you. So I tell you what that other person did and said. Now you're a good friend of mine. You're going to want to listen. "Oh really? He said that? That's what he did? Is that really true?" You're just trying to be a good friend, and I tell you all about it.

But now that I've told you all about it, what are you going to do with it? What can you do with it? You can't go talk to that person because you'd have to say, "Well, I heard-- I wasn't there, but this is what someone said."

Well, I'm not going to do that. So that person holds onto it and now they've gotten hurt and they tell someone else and they tell someone else. So I thought the way to combat this is we've got to stop people from gossiping. When you get hurt, you've got to go directly to that person and tell them or you can't talk to anybody. But when you're hurt, you're hurt. And when you're hurt you can't help but doing what you're doing. So the line of defense is not the hurt person.  I finally figured this out. The line of defense is not the person who got hurt because they're going to talk. They got hurt; they've got to talk to somebody. Now you hurt me. I go to my friend and I tell my friend this is what happened. Now, you didn't get hurt. You're my friend but you didn't get hurt. I got hurt. So you are the one who has to stop it. You're my friend and you say to me, "Stop. Before you tell me anything more, did you go talk to them?"

And I say, "No. I'm not going to talk to that person. They don't listen anyway."

"Well, you know what? You can't tell me about it until you talk to them. That's Matthew 18. You've got to go talk to them. I know you don't want to. I know you don't think it'll do any good. But Matthew 18 says you've got to go talk to them first. If they don't listen, as you say, then you come back to me and you talk to me and we'll both go talk to them because that's what Matthew 18 says."

So when I started to apply that principle in my church, I started saying, "The hurt person is not going to stop the gossip. The hurt person's going to gossip. But you the listener, the person listening to the gossip has to be the strong one, has to say no." I don't want to hear all kinds of negative stuff about people, so when someone comes to me and they start talking negatively about someone, I always say, "Have you talked to them first?" People stopped coming with all the negative stuff to me. Gossip. Never gossip about the people at your work.

6. Keep personal issues for personal times. Your workplace is not the counseling session. Your workplace isn't the pastoral care place. Your workplace is the workplace. Now, I know there's issues and things that come up at work and you have to talk about them, but don't make your issues and everything that's going on in your life, in your home, in your marriage, in your family, don't make your coworkers your counselors.

7. Don't take liberties with breaks. An employer spends a lot of money to hire you. And the money that you take home is not the money that it costs the employer. He has to pay health, all these other things. That's the total cost to him. And he has to make up that money somewhere, either a product or service, whatever your company does. And so if he can't make money from what it is that you do, then he can't afford to keep you. So your longevity at a place depends on your actually producing something and contributing something to the company. So don't waste the time that has been paid for.

8. Keep a neat, tidy work area. The more your desk looks like a mess, the more people wonder what it is that you do. Are you organized with anything? People look at the outside and judge your whole character.

9. Don't burden coworkers with excessive personal issues. I sort of talked about that already.

10. Respect company time - phone, email, Internet. It used to be easier. You go to the company, there's nothing else to do but work. What else can you do? But now that we all have phones, we can buy and sell, we can text, we can send little messages home, we can do something with our kids, we can play games. We can do so many things and the boss would never know. Many times, I remember when I was working at the Bible League and I walked past our marketer’s office, where he was playing some solitaire game on his computer. Maybe he did that for three minutes as a little break, but that colored my view of him. What's he doing? Is he passionate about this place? Does he like looking for opportunities to push the ball farther? Or is he just sitting around wondering what to do and wants to look good on the outside?

11. Don't discuss your pay with others. In your company, you get paid and everyone likes to know, "What do you get paid?"

"I don't know. What do you get paid?"

And I want to compare to see if I'm the low man on here or I should be asking for a raise. I know the motivation why you'd want to do that, but it just creates more problems within the company. Don't play that game.

12. Be friendly but don't waste company time with chit-chat. When I worked at a big organization, I'd be working at my desk after a while. And then you'd get up and I'd start walking around. I'll tell you, it could be an hour before I got back. Because you go by someone's desk. "Hey, Bob. How are you doing?" And you start talking to Bob and he says some things. Then you go by someone else's desk and you have a couple of company-related issues, this and that, a couple of jokes. And all these things make a nice, fun environment, but you can waste half your day just talking about nothing. In a company with 100 people, if you just talk to five people, you're going to waste a whole hour. So be friendly, but this isn't the place to just talk about things.

How to stand out as an employee

Those are some of the basics. I gave you the things, you've probably heard these things. They're just basic things that you've got to do, but now if you want to stand out, how do you go beyond those basics? A few things come to mind to me.

1.   Be loyal. First of all, be loyal to the company, or the organization, or whatever it is that you're doing. If you can't be loyal to it, if you don't believe in it at all, then probably you shouldn't work there. To me, this is a good thing. When I worked at the Bible League - it was a big non-profit organization - I had several employees working in my department. I would say half of them really were there because they were passionate about what we were doing. The other half, it was just a job. I could tell the difference. They were just going through the motions, and that drove me crazy more than anything else. I wanted people on the team that I could count on, that believed not just in what we were doing at work but this is about our lives - walking with God and trying to make things happen.

2. Be loyal to the values of the company. What is your company trying to do? What product, what service? What is it trying to do? If it sells this product and you don't even like this product, you don't use it, then your heart is not going to be in it. Work at places that you can actually believe in.

3. Be loyal to your coworkers. Stabbing people in the back, no. I care about these people. These people matter to me, and I want to be loyal to them. I want to be loyal to the people that I'm working for. I want to be loyal to the people that are working under me. I want to be loyal to my coworkers. Be loyal.

How to stand out as an employee (going beyond the basics)

Care

1.   Care about the job that you do, whatever it is. Maybe it's customer service. Maybe it's selling something. Maybe you're just in some factory. Find a way to care about what this is.

2.   If you don't care, it'll definitely come out in the work that you do. It'll come out in the quality that you do. I had a secretary at my church once, and she would do the job. She would go to the copier and make a copy. Sometimes she would put the copy on and it would be crooked. Now I am not a perfectionist or anything like that. But I always felt like if you're going to make 100 of something, why not straighten it out first? It's a little thing and no one’s care at all. I remember a girl I was dating. She bought this bottle of cologne for me. On the bottle, the label was way crooked and I thought, "There were 10 bottles to choose from and she took the one that was crooked? Did she not care about this?"

"I've got to get something. Here it is. I'm just going to grab it." Care about your job. Care about the product or the service that you're involved in.

3. Care about your coworkers. Is there a human being that God has created that he's put in your path? How many human beings do we come across in our lives if you added up all the people that you get to know in one lifetime? It doesn't come to that many. So God has placed you in this place where you're working, and he's surrounded you with these people - these people you have a chance to influence for now and for all eternity. Care about them.

How to stand out as an employee (going beyond the basics)

Be a team player

1.   If you're in an environment where there are other workers, it's a team. Get to know your coworkers. Get to know who they are. Get to know what their talents and gifts are.

2   Learn how each fits on the team. We're not all the same people, we don't have the same gifts. Certain people have certain gifts. Don't expect them to have all the gifts. Don't have your standard so high that everyone around you fails. This person is good at this, this person is good at that. Don't expect one to be good at what they're not.  Then maybe they'll treat you the same. You're not good at everything either. It's who we are together.

I was part of a non-profit organization that fell apart. The leadership fell apart because each leader was starting to be evaluated on their own. There wasn't one single one of them that was worthy of leading the organization. But all three together, it worked. But they forgot that and they started this internal fight, and the whole thing fell apart.

3. Be a team player. Find your place. Why are you here? What's your specific talent that you bring to the table? Find that place. How do you find it? You find it by trying different things until you find what fits you.

How to stand out as an employee (going beyond the basics)

Be bold

If you want to stand out – remember we’re talking about either freeing up time or getting more money from the current job that you have. How are you going to do that? You have to stand out somehow. One way is to be bold. How to you be bold?

1.   Volunteer first. If there’s a project, if there’s a thing, if we need something, you need someone to do this, or here’s a problem, we don’t know what to do with this problem, be the first one to say, “I’ll take care of that. I want to be on the team that fixes this thing.” Maybe you won’t be able to do it, maybe you don’t have the gifts, the ability. So what? You step forward.

If your boss doesn’t think that you can do it, he’ll say that to you. “I don’t think you should do this one. Maybe we should find someone else. But I’ll tell you because you put your hand up first, it’ll count for something.”

2. Project the “we can” attitude. I’ve been in so many organizations and situations at the church where everything is about “we can’t do this”. I wanted to take all the ceiling tiles out of the church. Our church had these low-ceiling tiles. We converted a grocery store into a church. “Let’s open this thing up.”

“Do you know how much work that would be? This isn’t going to work. That isn’t going to work.”

I kept bringing this thing up for three years. I’d throw it in once in a while. We’d be in a meeting and I’d say, “Boy, it would be cool if we could take the ceiling tiles out.” I brought it up for three years.

Finally, after three years, on one Saturday, someone went there and said, “Hey, let’s just take these out.” It took them two hours. Two hours, they had the whole thing out.

Now, we’ve revamped the whole thing. We took all the lights down. We sprayed the ceiling black, and it’s awesome. It’s just an awesome experience now. But it was like everyone had this “we can’t do it”. You are part of the team that says, “We can. Yes, I think we can.” Maybe we can’t but that attitude of “we can”. “Maybe we can’t, but we’re going to die trying.”

A boss will notice that. People that say, “Let’s give it a shot, let’s try.”

3. Try things that stretch you and take you outside your comfort zone. Volunteering first for a problem you don’t know if you can fix, do it anyway. Will you be able to do it? I don’t know. You’ll be recognized more for what you attempt and for what you think you might be able to do than what you actually do.

That attitude of “I think I can do it” is very compelling, very attractive.

How to stand out as an employee (going beyond the basics)

Be gracious

1.   Admit mistakes and failures readily without excessive guilt. What do I mean by that? If you’re going to be volunteering first and saying, “Yes, I can do it. I want to be a part of that team. Yes, I can handle that. I can fix that problem,” half the time you’re going to fail. You’re going to fail as other people fail too.

So when you fail, admit it. “I thought I could do it, but it just fell apart.” But don’t be excessive about it.

Some people will try something and they’ll fail, and they go, “Yeah, I should never do that again. I should never volunteer. I should never stand up. Don’t ever give a problem to me, because obviously, I’m not capable.” That’s not what you want to project.

“Yeah, I failed this time, but I won’t next time. I want another try. I failed. Do you know what? It’s my mistake. I did it, I own it, but give me another try. I’ll try it again.”

2. Avoid blaming others for failures in the company. This is what people do. “I wouldn’t have failed if I had gotten a little help around here. I wouldn’t have failed if I had been given the resources that I was promised.” In other words, you’re blaming your boss. That’s a good way to get ahead – blame your boss.

It might be your boss’s mistake. It may be that people didn’t help you as they should. But running around blaming everybody is not going to help them give you the ball again. Take the blame. You’re in charge. Yes, some people let you down, but you were in charge of it.

“Next time, I’ve got to motivate those people better. Next time I’ve got to get a better plan to start with.” So learn from this thing. You need people in order to succeed, but you’re the one in charge. So instead of running around blaming, blaming, blaming. “If the government hadn’t done this, then I would have succeeded.” Or, “If some other company hadn’t come up with this idea, I would have succeeded.”

You took it, it failed, admit it, try again. “I can do it this time.” Learn from your mistakes and do better.

All right. Until next time, we’re going to think about this some more.