I Can See Clearly Now....

I have always had an affinity for music. I love it. The beat, tempo, words, instruments used, etc. all interest me and I certainly have great respect for those who possess the gift of vocals. Amazing talent! Driving to work the last several days reminded me of an older song that contained the words, "I can see clearly now...the rain is gone..." The song came to mind for two reasons, obviously a relationship to the spring rains we've been having, but also due to driving through some pretty intense fog in pockets between Columbia and Jeff City. When breaking through the dense fog to an opening ....the words of the song came to mind.

What in the world does this have to do with work, you might ask. Well, as I do have a good 45 minutes usually to "think" as I drive to and fro....I got to wondering how many of us could use those lyrics to describe our job/work?

Can you see clearly....as it relates to job expectations?...where IT is heading?...how you fit it?....what value you add to Conservation? If you answer no to those basic questions, something is broke. Either you are in the wrong line of work, haven't asked the right questions, or you don't care. Two.....check that....all three of those responses are from people I don't need or WANT on this TEAM.

We all have a responsibility to be productivity in the work place. If you are less than productivity because you can't "see clearly" what is expected or what the desired outcome is...then the process is broken somewhere...and quite likely you have a great deal of ownership in that issue. The excuse of, "Well, nobody told me what to do." or "I didn't know that." are cop-outs. They are exactly that, an excuse not a reason.

I believe we all have the responsibility to be productive at work. To understand our jobs and what is fully expected of us. I also believe we have the responsibility to provide that realistic expectation back to our employer...if we don't understand something...we should ask. If we don't know where we (or our work) fit it to the overall plan... we should ask. If we are unsure of how to do something...we should ask.

Soon to be gone are the days of the day to day direct Supervisor contact with employees. We are moving towards more task based, project oriented work. You will not have that excuse of nobody told me or "he didn't tell me to do that"....you will given a task/project and the expectation will be to complete it and move on. Too much time is being spent on babysitting employees by Supervisors; assigning tasks, telling them how to do things, checking to make sure it's being done, etc. The day will come when people are hired to do a job, that they say they can do, and they will be expected to do it (and do it correctly) with little or no involvement from Supervisors.

Yea right, you say....I'd challenge you to look around and see what motivates the Gen X or Y crowd. How do they do things? How do they interact? They want authority (they don't respect authority just because your badge says "Super--anything" ) and autonomy to do things. They work independently and yet like contact with others/friends. They are bright, technology driven, and self motivated to learn/grow. All of those characteristics lead us toward a project/team based work environment. Not to mention the forecast downtrend in available employees to hire, due to retiring baby boomers.

So, can you see clearly? Are you preparing yourself to make the necessary adjustments to be successful in the changing work place. Are you paying attention? Not unlike another commonly quoted saying that I tend to associate with.... "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way." Times are a changing everywhere we look...that includes the work environment and what is expected from each and every one of us.

Can you see clearly?

TAFN