Today I was waiting at the deli and one employee was busy serving customers and the other was standing with her back toward the customers staring at the clock for a good 3-5 minutes. The other employee asked the girl if she was okay and if she was could she please help serve the awaiting customers. She proceeded to put on the plastic gloves and with a big sigh she said, “I guess so”. Wow, that took the cake! As she started to serve me, she had a long drawn out conversation with her fellow employee saying that if she did not eat right away that she would die. Oh my goodness. I was ready to start laughing as the same girl did the same thing last week when there was a line up of customers. Her colleagues had to ask her to help and she reluctantly did. But this being the second time, I decided that perhaps this person needed some coaching, especially since her fellow employee was mouthing apologies to me on her behalf. I went to speak to one of the supervisors and they knew exactly who I was speaking about.

 What coaching do you think she needed? From my perspective,  she needed to:

        1.        Gain a greater awareness of how her behaviour was affecting  her colleagues and the customers.

        2.       Understand that her role was to serve others.

        3.       Prepare and eat before her shift.

        4.       Understand how important her role was to the store.

Number #4 is the most crucial one! Each person from the janitor to the CEO carries importance to an organization. Imagine what would happen if they were not there…garbage would pile up, no direction or delegation would occur, and no one would be served. If you do not believe your role is important, you are wasting your gifts and talents. The biggest disservice is to you.

You might say to yourself, “I do not have the natural ability that the other person has.” You may not but can you learn the skill? Can you improve over time? Can you work hard and give your best effort? The person, who gets noticed and remembered in the long run, is the person who puts in the effort consistently and gives their best at the time they do a task. Sometimes those with the natural ability – do not produce consistent results, they do not try to improve, and they do not give their best effort because they know they can get by. You cannot teach effort to another person. You can role model it but the pure desire needs to come from within. The intrinsic desire to give your best will get you to your prize faster than anything else. What you do is important!