I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt laziness must be a prerequisite for people who don’t take initiative.  Nothing gets me all worked up more than seeing someone  who has the potential to do more yet they choose to sit it out and let someone else do it, wait to be asked, or let the opportunity pass them by.

Bad Initiative - A few weeks ago I was at the gym (OK, good initiative for me, going to the gym – yeah me, but hold on, the story is just developing).  As I was finishing up and getting my bag together, I accidentally tipped over someone’s water bottle and a splash of water fell on the floor.  I immediately went to get paper towel but noticed that all of the dispensers were empty.  At that very moment a staff member walked out of the bathroom stall to wash her hands.  She too noticed there was no paper towel to be seen.  She muttered something under her breath, shook her hands dry and walked out of the bathroom.  She left and I cleaned up my mess with an extra hand towel I had with me and proceeded to head back to work (this is not a critical element in the story, I just didn’t want to leave you hanging and wondering what ever happened to the  water on the floor).  As I was leaving the gym, I noticed the employee who was just in the bathroom leaning up against the wall laughing with a co-worker.  There was no paper towel rolls in her hand and no indication that she was heading somewhere to get some.  So, I decided to stop by the front desk and told them there was no paper towel.  The woman thanked me and before I was out the door, she was off to get paper towel to restock the bathrooms. 

Good Initiative – One day at the office, I forgot my lunch so I headed out to grab a quick bite across the street.  After placing my order and paying, I grabbed my lunch and headed out the door.  Two minutes later I hear someone running behind me yelling “miss, miss”.  I turned around and there in front of me was the man who had made my lunch for me.  His reason for running – he thought he forgot to put the salad dressing in my bag and he didn’t want me to get all the way back to the office and then notice it was missing. 

In both of these examples, I had a chance to observe or interact with the employees of the business, not the managers or owners.  The difference between the employee at the gym and the employee at the restaurant was their level of initiative – one had some, the other didn’t.  If you are trying to make excuses in your head for the employee at the gym, that perhaps maybe she was heading to get paper towel and ran into a co-worker on the way, well then you missed the point of the story.   For some people, showing initiative or doing something outside of their job description is just not in their DNA.

I've worked at large corporations where there is much to be done and plenty of people available to do it.  But my experience was a large number of the employees in these large corporations saw that something needs to be done, yet they waited for someone else to take action.   It drove me nuts.  I love working with people who realize they sometimes have to work outside of their roles, and guess what, it doesn’t bother them. 

• Add New
• Search

Comments (0)

Write comment

Your Contact Details:

Name:

Email: do not notifynotify

Comment:

Title:

UBBCode:         -color-aquablackbluefuchsiagraygreenlimemaroonnavyolivepurpleredsilvertealwhiteyellow -size-tinysmallmediumlargehuge

Message:

Security

Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

Joomla components by Compojoom