Video Transcript: Be A Better Leader Part 2

5 Be A Better Leader part 2

Hi. My name is Steve Elzinga. We've been following this series on enterprise - different topics on how to do your own finances, how to save money. This is part three of how to make more money at your current job. If you can make more money or get more time, you can transfer that into more ministry.

How do you stand out as a leader? Take on responsibility. Employers are looking for people to take responsibility. On the one hand, people get hired because there's a specific that has to be done. They try to find someone to do that specific thing, but nothing stays the same. No matter what the company is, no matter who the employer is, problems evolve. Who's going to fix these problems?

Take on responsibility. How do you do that?

1.  Volunteer to take on extra responsibility, especially in a new endeavor. When a new thing comes onto the table, no one specifically owns it. A lot of times what employees will do is step back because everyone feels like they're extremely busy. I'm already busy. I already have way too many things on my plate. I can't possibly take on anything more. Bosses are looking for people that can take things on. Maybe your plate is full, but if you want to stand out as an employee, you need to be that first one that steps up and says, "I can do something about this."

2.  Offer to take on some of the responsibility that your superiors are struggling under. A lot of times, we get into our own little cubicle, and into our own little workspace, and our own little thing, and we don't see what's happening around. We're consumed with our stuff. And we like more time or we're seeing our thing go up or down and we don't realize that we're part of a bigger thing. If the bigger thing fails, then all the little things that we're doing are going to fail as well. So sometimes, you've got to step outside of yourself and the thing that you're doing and see what other people are doing, especially those above you. The people above you are not just sitting around dreaming of things that keep you busy, they have all this time and they're going to lunch all the time. They're working hard, and they have more things on their plate than they can handle.

I remember I worked for the Bible League for a while, a huge $40 million non-profit organization. I was in charge of the USA department, and we were looking to hire someone. We hired this one person, and another person came a week later and asked if there was something we could use. I didn't have time to meet with her, I didn't want to meet with her. But she insisted. So I met with her and she sold herself so well that we hired her in customer service. All she was to do is answer the phones. Customer service, a sales thing. People would call to order bibles or whatever. So that's all she was. But over the first month of her employment there, she came into my office and she would see papers all over the place. At the end of the day, she'd ask, "Would you like me to put those papers in order or to keep track of them in some way? Do you want me to put them into a file?"

I'd say, "Okay."

The next day, she'd meet me there. "Did you want something to drink? Coffee or anything? Is there anything that you'd like to have first thing in the morning?" Every day she came and said, "How can I help you?"

A lot of times I'm busy and I'm doing my own thing. "I don't need anything."

That didn't stop her. If I said no, it didn't matter. The next day, she'd ask again, and again, and again. Within three months, she became my personal secretary. She believed in the cause. She went the extra mile. The thing that we were trying to get people to do all around the country, her, and her husband, and her kids. She moved from just the customer service thing to being a right-hand help. How did she do that? She looked for the needs that I had, and she decided to ask if she could help to do something about it.

3. Keep offering to take responsibility even when denied in the past. Well, that's what I was telling you about her. I would say, "No. I'm too busy. Don't worry about those papers." But she kept doing it over, and over, and over again. Eventually, I caved in. "Okay, you can do this. Okay, you can do that." Soon, I became dependent on all the things that she was doing.

How to stand out as a leader

Get things done

I can't reiterate this enough. Get things done. Now, I don't know what kind of personality you are. Maybe you're the type that does get things done. Or maybe you're the type that wants everything right. Maybe you're a perfectionist. Perfectionism is a good thing. There's a lot of quality that comes from that. But perfectionists are so into everything being perfect that they never get it right. Because it's never going to be perfect. You have to realize there's ROI. There's a return on investment. If you spend this much time, we have to make this much money just to pay for that time.

Sometimes life is triage. In a war, they would send medics out into the field and there'd be so many wounded that you could only do basics. If you spent all of your time trying to help the one's person, 10 other people would die. You do what you can with the little time that you have, then hopefully someone else can make it better.

Philippians 3:12-14, Paul says, "Not that I've already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind," - you could have done better - "forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is ahead." What are you straining toward? What is ahead? "I press on toward the goal to win the prize." All these things are pushing you forward to have that kind of attitude in the place that you work. “There's a prize, there's a goal. I'm pressing on. It may be difficult. There may be setbacks, but I'm going to get there for which God has called me.” Paul, of course, is talking about not just the business that you work for but our whole lives.

 

How to stand out as a leader

Own your failures as if they were successes - no excuses and demand another chance

Failure is going to happen. Your employer is not concerned so much about you failing at something. It's about your attitude when you fail. Do you make excuses? Do you blame other people? Or do you own it? "I tried that. I thought I could do it. I thought it was going to work. But I didn't. I failed. This is why I failed, and this is why you should give me another chance to do it." Failure is going to happen. Thomas Edison failed thousands, and thousands, and thousands of times before he finally invented the light bulb. Failure is part of everything that we do, everything that we learn.

In order to learn how to walk, a toddler fails and falls many, many times until he finally gets it right. We're not afraid of failure. What we're afraid of is failure, and blame, and excuses, and not owning it, and not having the attitude to get up and try again.

How to stand out as a leader

Embrace problems

 Problems are your friend. Embrace problems.

1.  See problems as opportunities. When problems come, there's something wrong, something's not working, and it gets in the way of your progress. You want to get here. You have plans of getting here, but all of a sudden you have a problem. You're in your car, you're trying to get somewhere, it's going to be three hours. Halfway through, you get a flat tire. Well, it's not going to be three hours now. All of your plans are messed up. The flat tire becomes a problem. How can you turn that problem into an opportunity? At least, your car didn't go into the ditch. Now you have a chance to fix that tire that must have been a problem all along.

Problems give you something to do. Notice how you're driving along. All of a sudden, you get a flat tire. All of a sudden, you get energized. You've got to do something. There's something to do. Now when you finally get there, it was like, "What took you so long?"

"We had a flat tire. But we fixed it." There's a certain energy to problems.

2.  See problems as a chance to play. This is part of our DNA. We want to play. People go to work and they solve problems all day long. They get home and they're tired. "I'm so tired of solving problems." They eat supper, then what do they do right after supper? They go to a sports thing, or they play sports, or they play a game, or they get online and play a video game. All of these are just made up problems. We have real problems all day long that wear us out and then we come home. And to relax we just do more problems. Some people sit down to do puzzles or play little games. Even watching a movie. You watch a movie. What's a good movie? A good movie is something that comes on the screen and there's a problem. "How's this going to go? I've got to keep watching to figure out how this..." It's a problem. In fact, most of life is a problem that we're trying to solve. It's what keeps us going forward.

See problems as opportunities. See problems as a chance to play.

3. See problems as a chance to shine. The problem means that you can step forward, and if you actually do something about this problem, you stand out among all the other employees. You wouldn't have a chance-- if you just quietly do the work that you were hired to do, people go, "Well, you're doing the work that you're required to do." You don't stand out.

How to stand out as a leader

Look for problems

Most people try to avoid problems. "I don't want problems coming to my desk. I already have 10 things. I'm already behind. I don't want any more problems." Look for problems.

1.  Be positive when problems come your way. This is a good thing.

2. Be proactive in offering your help to superiors constantly and coworkers when appropriate. When a problem comes your way, talk to the boss. "Hey, I see that there's a problem here. Is there anything I can do about it?"

3. When a problem comes up on the team, be the first to volunteer to solve it. Again, you're standing out. Most people want to avoid it. Here's the problem when everyone steps back. "I don't want to do it. Let's see if someone else will do it." You should be the one that steps up.

Anticipate problems and offer to fix them before anyone has even thought about them. "Hey, I noticed that there could be a potential problem here. I would like to do this about it."

"Oh. Okay, well good. Wow. Here's a guy that's on the ball. Here's a guy that's actually caring about this company, or the product, or the service that we provide."

How to stand out as a leader

Solve problems

1.  If you do this, you'll become indispensable. If you become or the guy or the gal that solves the problems, they'll be going to you over and over again.

 2. If you do this, your stock goes up in value. Your worth in the company goes up in value. We need this person.

3. If you do this, you will get a raise. Now let me say a little more background about problems.

Problems are really what all of life is. It didn't start out that way. Genesis one and two talks about a perfect world. God created this beautiful world for the first man and the first woman. But then in chapter three, sin comes into the world, a problem. And the whole rest of the bible is about how to solve this problem. What is the problem? The problem is sin and darkness against the light. God and Satan are involved in this battle. There's this big battle going on that we are born into. All of the problems are sort of a reflection of that. That's what sports are all about. Sports is just a make-believe battle. It's all pretend. But behind it is that real battle.

When we get involved in enterprise-- enterprise, again, it's a battle. One company is going against another company. Sometimes within the company, one employee is going against the other employee. Everything looks like a battle. There's this thing we're trying to solve. At the bottom of it is because we are involved in a battle. We want to battle back to the garden in some ways. We had unity with one another, we had unity with God, and we lost that. Now we're in this battle with the forces of darkness. That's why our personalities gravitate towards problems and fixing these problems. Every time we fix a problem, every time we win something, it feels like we're getting something back. That's what's behind all of this stuff.

All right. One more.

How to stand out as a leader

Vision

1.  Know the vision and strategy of the company well and if possible, live out that vision authentically in your life. When I worked at the Bible League, I had like 10 employees working under me. Five of them understood what we were trying to do and were trying to live it. They weren't just coming to work. This was about life, this was about walking with God, and helping other people get a walk with God. Then I had five that just came because it was a job. They came, they did their job. When the time was up, out the door they went. That just drove me crazy, because to have people that actually care about what you're doing, the vision of this company, the vision of this non-profit. What are we trying to do? Why are we spending our time doing this? When you work somewhere, it's 40, 50 hours a week, and I don't want to just do this thing to get money. I need the money to support my family and do other things, but my time. There's nothing more valuable than a person's time, and I want my time on this earth to count, even the time that I'm working.

So know the vision of your company. What is your company about? What is this product? How does it help people in this world? Do you stand behind it? Do you believe in it? If you don't, find something else to do or it will suck the heart out of you, it will suck the passion and energy out of you.

2. Share your positive testimony about the product and service of the company whenever you get a chance. If you're living the vision of what it is and you have a chance to say something about it inside the company, at a meeting, or whatever. "At my home, we actually use this and this is what it does for us." Your employers want to hear about that. They want to know that you're actually believing in what this is all about.

How to stand out as a leader

Come up with new ideas

Maybe it's not your role. They hired you to do this or that. It doesn't matter. Come up with new ideas. How do you do that?

1.  Research, talk to coworkers, competitors, learn where things can be improved. Take an active interest in this company. Maybe it's not your role. Maybe they hired you to do data entry. It doesn't matter. Be inquisitive.

That's the one thing my dad said. He started like 16 different companies in his lifetime. And his advice to young people was, "Be inquisitive. You see something, ask."

I remember being embarrassed. We were driving by, he saw a farmer on his tractor 300 yards out in the field and he flagged him down. He didn't know him. He flagged him down and I was like 12 years old, and he proceeded to ask him what he was doing, and why he was doing it, and how much money did he expect to get out of whatever he was doing? He just took an interest in what was going on. He saw something that he didn't know or didn't understand, and he thought there might be an opportunity for some kind of business here. Or I might learn something here that could be applied somewhere else. Take an interest. Who knows what you might see? Maybe you think you're not smart enough. It doesn't matter. Sometimes it's the person on the side that sees something that people in the middle of it never do.

2. Find appropriate opportunities to share some of your ideas. Look for ways to say something. Maybe it's just in a note. Maybe it's just, "I was thinking about this. It's probably nothing." You can be as humble as you want to be. No expectations. But, "Here, I'm going to send this to you and see what you think."

Be that person that cares, that throws out the ideas. Maybe some of them are good, maybe some are not. But you bring so many of them that your bosses, your employer looks at you and says, "This guy cares." Who knows? You may stumble onto something really good.

How to stand up for yourself

1.  Know your value to the company. Maybe you were raised in a family - your dad or your mom didn't make very much money. And so that's how you think about yourself. Some people are raised in wealthy families, and they think of themselves, "This is how much I should make because that's what I'm worth." And they haven't done anything. How do you know what you, in fact, are worth?

2. Research your value against the industry standard. What job are you doing? How is that job similar to someone else and what they're doing? Find out what they're making. Then apply it to yourself. Don't be afraid to ask to be paid what you are worth.

Most people get paid slightly more than they used to be paid from their last job. That's how people think about it. "I was doing this. I was making so much money. Now, I'm working over here, and I'm making just a little bit more." It has nothing to do with what they're doing or who they're doing it with. It's just, "I'm going up. My value is here." When, in reality, if you just checked around, maybe you should be making twice what you were before. It doesn't matter what you were making in your last job. Your last job does not dictate what you're worth. Maybe you were grossly underpaid in your last job. Find out exactly what you are worth.

What if you do that? How do you ask for a raise? Remember, our goal here is to do better at our own jobs, the job that we currently have so that we can either get more time or get more money so that we can take that time and/or money and do more ministry. That's the goal.

How do you ask for a raise?

1.  Ask to meet with the boss. Have a meeting. Don't make it an off-the-cuff kind of thing, "Hey, did you ever think about giving me a raise?"

"No, I have not."

No, I want a meeting. This is important. I want to talk about something. Now it's a thing.

2. Articulate your value to the company. Don't ask him what he thinks your value is. You articulate your value as you see it to your boss. "This is what I do. This is what I've done. This is what I could do. This is what I think I'm good at. Here are my past accomplishments." You just bullet points here’s who I am, "This is who I am, this is what I am, and this is what I think I can do. This is my value to the company."

3. Find and express the highest pay that someone with your same job gets from some other company. I want to underline "highest", which may seem counterintuitive and maybe like, "Maybe I should just call around and figure out what the average is. The average salary for people doing what I do is this." No. You find the one crazy person that gets paid incredibly high for that one thing. Not the middle but the very highest.

I'll tell you why. I've just been reading a book. It's very interesting. It's called Pre-Persuasion. According to these people, they research it and so on, they said that-- and I've only read part of the book. But they said, "When you hear a high number, even if it's ridiculous, the next number doesn't sound so ridiculous.” I was reading the book. I was at my parent's place in Florida, and we had to sell a bunch of their stuff in a garage sale. The day before we're having the garage sale and people want to buy these cups. I say $5 and they say .50 cents and then we go back and forth. Finally, I get .75 cents. Everyone wants to go lower. They’re all older people down there. They want to spend five minutes bartering over nothing. They want to go down, down, down no matter what I started with.

Then I started reading the book. The book said, "No, you want to start out with the highest, ridiculous prices you can, and what you'll find is when you say the real price, they won't argue with you."

So I said, "Okay. I'll try that."

The next day, someone said, "How much for the cup?"

I'd say, "Well this cup is blue. It's worth at least $100." They'd look at me and I'd look at them. Finally, they'd laugh and I'd laugh.

Then I'd say, "I guess it's $5." When I said $5, they would just take it. They wouldn't argue, they wouldn't try to bring me down, down, down.

Then they explained that when our brains hear something large, the smaller thing seems small. If you just start with the small, they have no way to compare it. So you start out with some high price. "Hey, I've heard there's a company in Chicago that pays a guy that does the same thing that I do, he pays him $150,000. But I'm not going to ask for $150,000. This is what I think I'm worth." Then you say what you think you're worth. He's more likely to hear that in the context that you deliver it.

Anyway, I don't know whether that works or not with raises, but you might want to give it a try.

4. Ask for a little less than that. You find out what the highest is and then you give them a deal. "That company's paying somebody this to do it, but I will work for you for slightly less."

I hope these videos on doing your current job is helpful. Next, we're going to be looking at how do you develop your own business? How do you develop your own enterprise apart from being hired by someone else?