If
you are to use a common name for the persons working in any organisation– be it
a peon, clerk, accountant, manager, director, partner, proprietor or anybody,
it is better to call everyone a worker. After all, they all work for the good
of their organisation. Anyway, there is no doubt that the quality of workers
has been one of the main reasons for any organisation’s business performance,
market image and brand value. That is why you hear the managing director,
project manager or any senior functionary telling a subordinate or a fellow
worker to be a smart worker. While doing the Annual Performance Review of
the workers, it is common to discuss smart workers and hard workers. Yes, here
I am not discussing those workers who are known to be lazy or non-performing
and are figuring in the list of workers to be demoted or finally to be fired.
Hence, the discussion is about the functioning and working style of hard
workers and smart workers.
Undeniably,
the hard workers possess many qualities. As the name suggests they work hard.
They perform their work in a disciplined, sincere and dedicated manner; reach
their workplace on time and leave it after the working hours; follow the
instructions of their superiors and team leader; and keep themselves physically
healthy. They are known to be the long serving workers in any organisation and
are seen as good workers. But despite having all these plus points, they rarely
receive the award of being the best worker of the organisation. They are not
selected for or promoted to the leadership position either. Why does this
happen? Let us try to understand this through a real-life story.
A
company working in the African forest sent its two workers – one senior and one
junior, for tree cutting in the forest with the instruction to send their
performance report daily to the project manager. After 2-3 days when the
project manager was looking at their daily reports, he (manager) noticed a big
difference between the performance of the two tree cutters. The manager found
almost the similar gap in their output the following week. He failed to make
out the reasons for this difference as both the workers are known to be very
sincere. Hence, to know the exact reason for this wide gap in their
performance, the project manager visited the spot and closely observed the
working style of both his subordinates without informing and disturbing them.
The manager went back to the headquarters and prepared a report. In the
meantime, those workers continued to work there for a few days and returned
after completing their assignment. Interestingly, on the salary day the project
manager not only rewarded the junior worker out of the two sent to African
forest with a good cash incentive but also praised him in front of all the
workers for his excellent performance and termed him as a smart worker. The
manager then shared his observation during his visit to know the working style
of those two workers in the African forest. He first shared this quote of Mr.
Abraham Lincoln: “If you give me six hours to chop down a tree, I will spend
the first four hours to sharpen my axe."
The
project manager then enumerated the qualities of a smart worker by saying that
a smart worker works intelligently and creatively. He has an appetite
for learning good things and applies his knowledge and skills effectively as
per the requirement. Contrary to the negative perception of being smart, he
doesn’t believe in manipulation and adopting unethical means to achieve success
and recognition. A smart worker is disciplined and works very sincerely and
pragmatically. Besides keeping himself always updated and informed regarding
his job requirements, he reviews his own performance and sharpens his tools
& skills regularly. Yes, he keeps his own target a bit higher than the
target given by his manager and takes matching efforts to surpass the target
even without working overtime. As he enjoys his work and never considers it a
burden, he doesn’t feel exhausted or tired. Yes, he also tries consistently to
find ways to work differently for improving his performance and productivity
without compromising the quality of work or product and without violating the
norms of the organisation. To say, a smart worker possesses certain unique qualities
over and above the good qualities of a hard worker and hence deserves
incentive, recognition and promotion on a regular basis.
As always, I'm keen to know what you think on this subject. Hence, I request you to post your comments to share your valuable opinion. (hellomilansinha@gmail.com)
# Published in my Sunday Column of "Morning India" daily.
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