Success Starts With Feeling Important

I was talking to a beautiful, bright artist acquaintance who is an attorney. I asked her what had made her choose the law. Her answer was that she wanted to be important and do something important with her life.

I guess it hadn’t occurred to me that wanting to be important or wanting to do important things could be a focus of career selection – but the more I talk to people it becomes apparent that personal importance and importance to their enterprise are critical factors in success – from both an individual and an enterprise standpoint.

Research has shown three things that we all want in our work; to feel we are part of a worthy enterprise; to contribute to the success of the enterprise; and to be recognized for our contribution. Take any one away and the bond is broken – take away two or three and serious trouble occurs – in turnover, sabotage, theft, dishonesty in many forms, poor customer service, poor sales support.

Our feelings and beliefs about our individual importance are critical to our success regardless how the world may view us. Without a feeling of our own uniqueness and value, it is very hard to succeed – there are too many signals coming in that can jar us and cause us to “give up” and seek our importance from the group – at the expense of how we feel personally.

Have you ever noticed how some people just plunge forward with their work – won’t take no for an answer, and, while they may leave some bodies bleeding in their wake, they get recognized and rewarded. I suggest they have a very strong conviction that what they are doing is absolutely critical to their enterprise. They are the “go to” people in every organization. They are the ten percenters every organization wants and values and works hard to keep. These people are convinced of the importance of their work, they are convinced of their personal importance, and they expect to be recognized and rewarded.

In the middle are the solid players – the people who follow process – the team players who are conscientious, want to succeed – who are willing to put in the effort to get things done right and on time. These are the majority of any organization. They also represent the best opportunity, or the biggest jeopardy, to the enterprise. Their feelings of importance are tied closely to the beliefs of working for a worthy enterprise, being recognized and rewarded, and being able to see their contribution.

Then there are the people who are rarely asked to step up – who are assigned to projects with an understanding that they have to be watched closely. These are the ten percent people that Jack Welsh targeted while at GE. They believe their performance is conditional on how well the organization treats them – the old “ pay me more and I will do more”. Their “employment contract” is conditioned upon things outside themselves being the drivers of their performance. You cannot be successful with this set of beliefs.

Assess where you are in terms of your own importance and your importance to your organization. If you don’t like what you see, start with your own sense of the importance of what you do. Every job in every organization is important. Be convinced of that – then act on that belief and watch your performance, rewards and recognition increase!

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group LLC, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032

Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail:andycox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: www.coxconsultgroup.com

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