Patrick Lencioni wrote a book titled “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job” and with a nod to that wonderful book I have noticed some encouraging signs at Willmar Electric. Other than the fact that there are three signs in the book and I have a list of three items they have no relation to each other. If you want to become smarter you need to read the book. If you want to hear a positive story about Willmar Electric you should read what follows.
#1-I think you are wrong
A couple of weeks ago we had a meeting that involved some long range planning. During the meeting on several occasions I made some suggestions that were met with disagreement. Some people in the room agreed with me and some people in the meeting disagreed. In the end "my side" one the day but I left the room impressed with the people that stood up for their ideas.
As a team we are moving ahead with one plan. If in the end the results of my decision proves to be wrong I will admit my mistake. But I am confident that the people on the "other side" aren't pulling against me. Their voices were heard and their opinions taken into consideration. The points that they brought up will play into future decisions at Willmar Electric.
A quick review.
· Topic got discussed in the open.
· Everybody shared openly.
· We are moving ahead as one unit.
· Everybody respects each other.
I look forward to our future discussions.
#2-Passion
We recently had an employee quit. The employee was a key part of our long range plan and the team that we had worked hard to set up. That employee’s leaving Willmar Electric really puts the rest of the team in a bad spot. They had every right to be upset with the quiting co-worker and they were.
But it was the reaction I got from two people outside of the region directly effected by the resegation that really impressed me. On two occasions I was on the receiving end of rants by a co-worker that focused in on how the leaving employee was letting everybody down. They were mad. What hit me was that these two people weren't going to be effected by the employees leaving. Truth is they will have be able to go about their regular day to day roles without really noticing the missing employee.
Passion for the good of everybody as a whole. It was beautiful to see.
#3-Welocme to the team
Recently we added an intern named Alfredo to the Lincoln office. When Alfredo started we took him around from office to office and introduced him to everybody. I then got to spend a few moments going over the company’s organizational chart with him.
It occurred to me that people in Willmar might want to meet him. So at about 9:05am I sent out a meeting notice for a 9:30am video conference. It was very short notice, in fact I wondered how many people would even see the e-mail. I figured a few people would show up and say hi but I was wrong. Nearly the entire office was there to greet him.
I was moved. People took time out of their busy day to say hi and welcome Alferdo to the team.
Three signs. Three different sets of people across all our offices. Each made me think I was on a great team.
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