What Is Your Job?
Why leaders need to have that clear.
“Progress is not achieved by luck or accident, but by working on yourself daily.” —Epictetus
I came back the other day from the supermarket full of bags. I don’t have a car, and I always have to walk 10 minutes to get there and 10 minutes to come back. It is a good exercise depending on the number of groceries I buy. As I got closer to my building, the doorman helped me getting in. There are three doors that I need to open before getting to the elevator, and then open the door from my place. Without help, it is harder to open all of them.
Does the doorman understand what his job is?
What does his boss tell him to do?
As a leader, everybody in the company must understand what their job is. It may look silly, but if you don’t know what you have to do, you won’t see what you can do to help the company. If you want to create a team that brings results, it must be clear how everybody can help.
How education shaped us
“The best knowledge workers are working for more than money.” —Marshall Goldsmith
We live in a model of education created during the Industrial Revolution (1760–1840). There was a substitution of artisanal work for wage earners and machines operated by someone through manual labor. Because of this education model, we learned to choose professions instead of choosing problems to solve. What’s the difference?
We live in a moment where more and more manual professions are being replaced by technology through automation. Current occupations as a driver, for example, will cease to exist in a few decades. At the same time, new professions are created as technology evolves. However, unfortunately, people who are capable of these new professions are not always found. Robots are stealing people’s jobs, but what people don’t realize is that the number of new professions created is much greater than the number of “stolen” occupations by robots.
The demand today is a new type of knowledge. A few decades ago, the computer and the internet was something that few people understood. Nowadays, it is essential knowledge for any profession. Because of all this change, it is essential to think about what problem to solve instead of choosing a specific profession.
Problems also change, but if you have the mindset to solve problems and not choose a profession, you will adapt faster. Adapting to new environments and challenges is one of the main characteristics of a human being. History shows us that homo sapiens triumphed over the Earth, mainly due to this. Those that adapted better were those that survived and continued with the life of the species. Focusing on the profession is also damaging to a company.
What is the goalkeeper’s job on a soccer team?
“Your job is not what you do, but the goal you pursue.” —Fred Kofman
I don’t know if you are into sports or soccer. I’m from Brazil, and I loved it when I heard this example for the first time. I learned that when I read the book Conscious Business from Fred Kofman, which, by the way, is from Argentina, our soccer rivals.
You probably answered that the goalkeeper’s job on a soccer team is something like “defending the goal”, but that is wrong. Like any other player on the team (defender, striker, etc.), the goalkeeper’s job is to help the team win. That’s the team’s goal, and to achieve a goal, you need to solve problems.
Imagine that you are a goalkeeper on a football team. The game is at the 48th minute of the second half. Your team is losing 1–0, and there is a corner kick. The coach asks you to cross the field to try to head the ball. What do you do?
If you think your job is just to defend the goal, you will not go. But if you think your job is to help the team win, you will do your best to try to head the ball and not lose the match. Defending the goal is how mainly the goalkeeper will help the team to win.
How this applies to a company
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” —African proverb
Whenever possible, I talked about our goal in my first company, which was to help people have fun while exercising their brains. In other words, this was everyone’s job in the company, and we did it through game development. Each one of the team helped in a different way, but everyone was aware of the common goal they were working on.
Rather than saying that you want to be a doctor, you should say that you want to help people be healthier. Rather than saying that you want to be a police officer, you should say that you want to help people feel secure. Rather than saying that you want to be a teacher, you should say that you want to help people build knowledge.
It looks simple, but we don’t usually think about it. Knowing what your real job helps bring more meaning to what you are doing. If you understand the reason for what you are doing, you will work with more strength. When you see a problem, even if it is not necessarily in your area, you will talk about it. You will bring different ideas to the company. Having people like that in a team is very important.
What is the doorman’s job?
“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” — Samuel Johnson
You may say that the doorman’s job is to help people get safer to their homes, as he also takes care of who enters or not into the building. However, when the doorman gets home, he probably doesn’t talk about the goal of the building he works in. He probably talks about how he spent all of this time. Maybe a specific task that he finished or an unexpected problem that he solved. If you think more carefully, you probably do the same, don’t you?
I genuinely believe that if the doorman understands his job, he would be more grateful for all he does. And not just the doorman, but every professional. Sometimes we forget about the good things we do, and for that, it’s essential to have a leader to remind us about them. It is up to companies’ leaders to create environments where people focus on the final goal instead of just finishing their tasks.
