WORK

What is work and why is it so important to us?  To me!?  Why are we so obsessed and why MUST we do it?

We push, push push; accomplish, accomplish, accomplish.  Why?  Some people that I've known bide their time at work.  They show up at 8:00 (if they must) and they're gone at five (if they wait).  They toil all day to collect a check and go home.  They have no thirst to accomplish - to excel.  I never could understand this. 

I've always done what I do to be the best at it - second place is still a loss.  It was easy to calculate when I raced BMX - you crossed the finish line in a given order and got a trophy commensurate with your finish.  In the workplace it's much more subjective.  You perform a given task for one boss and your boss beams with pride over the job that his person has done and then you do the same thing for another boss and he views it as inadequate.

Twenty years ago I sat down to figure out what I was going to do with my life.  At twenty I thought I was late doing this, but I've found that I was probably earlier than most.  I had always wanted to be a theoretical physicist (living life on the edge, huh?).  I sat down with the LA Times classifieds and started looking for what openings were available.  I believe there were three listings for physicists and considering all of the aerospace companies in the area (during the Reagan boom) I didn't think that was very good.  I didn't want to be one of the people who did something for ten years and found the money dried up in their field.  So I went looking for the largest sections.  Accounting had more than a dozen pages of ads!  I thought, "Ya' know... You can have a depression, recession, or global thermonuclear war and they're always going to need someone to count the money!"  After that epiphany I learned that, in general, accounting tops out at about double the salary of physics and my mind was made up.

Almost two decades later I've excelled in all of my positions.  Not that there weren't individual failures - I learned from them.  I cherished failure as much as success because it was the exercise that helped me to get stronger in my field.  I was an A/P clerk and wanted to be an accountant; I was an accountant who wanted to be a senior; I was a senior who wanted to be a controller; and now I'm a controller who wants to be a CFO or a COO.  I've always seen my function in any situation was to make my boss look good, and I have, for the most part.

I've been at my current for just over three years and under my leadership the accounting functions are the most effective and efficient with the best A/R and A/P statistics in the last 20 years!  Is it all me?  Absolutely not!  The reason for the success is the team.  I give direction, support and enable the people doing the work to do their best.

I've had six employers over the last twenty years and each time that I arrived it was to do clean up; to bring order & direction.  Most of the time I felt sorry for my predecessor.  It was usually a person who had been doing the job for  along time and new management came in and my predecessor no longer understood the expectations.  They had been providing a service very well for a long time and they couldn't comprehend the minutia of what the new team wanted.  They tried, but years worth of baggage and "this is the way we've always done it" is a pretty tough obstacle.  Change isn't always bad.  They left the company and performed well in the next position because they were without the baggage and I performed well, largely, for the same reason.  Make change happen, or change happens to you.  It may take four, eight or twelve years, but the lack of innovation and the accumulation of baggage will catch up with you.

You're probably thinking, "Wow, here's another type-A task-master with a bloated ego who makes everyone miserable around him."  No I'm a type-B who can use type-A to get things done when they need to be driven.  The ego part I wouldn't necessarily disagree with - there is a definite pride-of-workmanship that goes with success.  There are two different ways ego manifests itself - the most common is for the big-headed-one to tear down those around them to show their superiority.  I am a different manifestation.  I know how good I am and, because of failures, I know what my weaknesses are.  I surround myself with people who shore up my weaknesses and rather than tear my employees down, I want them to elevate to levels that they didn't know they could attain.  For the most part, my employees would do anything for me.  This is because we've built mutual trust.

So here I am with about eight years as division controller, regional controller or corporate controller and asking the question, "why?"  Solomon said that we were to enjoy the fruits of our labors - is that it?  God appointed man to bust his butt working after the fall - is that it?  I see three things that make me tick at work:

1) Provide for my family.  This is the bottom couple blocks on Maslows Heirarchy of Needs.  I see this as my primary function.

2) Be a role model at home.  I have a son who is 16 right now.  Since birth, and for several more years, I am his example of how a man is to live.  I also have a three year old daughter.  For many years to come I will be her example of how a man should be.  If I mistreat my wife both children would see it and, while not acceptable, would make bad relationships more acceptable to them in their future.  If I fail at this I have done my family, my God, my world and myself a great disservice.

3) Be a role model at work.  You can't preach at work and work at the same time, unless you're a preacher.  To be my most effective, I have to model my Christian values.  To be principle driven.  To be there and to give support to my employees.  I need the trust of my employees in order to be effective myself.  They need to know that I support their decisions, if they make a bad decision the buck has to stop with me.  I need to take responsibility for their decisions, to be a shock absorber between them and the rest of the company.  When bad decisions are made, the issue needs to be identified and used as a learning experience.  They need to know that I won't whack them because of their first mistake.

Wow.  I didn't mean to write this much.  I'll stop now, it's 2:00 AM.  If you have any questions or comments email me and I'll be happy to append more onto this.

Thanks

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