Video Transcript: Be a Better Employee

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 resources and your efforts 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. You have to view these things, 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 and 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 appropriate. 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 appropriate 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. 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 and 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, he has to pay 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 like 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 big 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. 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. 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 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 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  

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. 

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 will 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 our 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. We revamped the whole place. It’s just an  awesome experience now. But it was like everyone had this “we can’t do it”, we  can't, we can't, we can't. 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 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 will 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'll 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. 

Now, 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 of it. 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.