Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Tip Sheet #18

Come on man, just do your job!

It is Super Bowl week and I feel very much at home using one of my football stories.  I enjoy the segment on one of the pre-game shows that goes through a series of plays the previous week and uses a sarcastic and condescending tone when the talking head will ask the player to do the play right using the lead in of “Come on man!”

My “Come on man” this week is very simple.  “Come on man, just do your job!

Wouldn’t that be wonderful if everyone would follow this simple little rule?  Do your job!  Do not worry about or concern yourself with what others are doing.  I would be a rich man today if I had a nickel for every time I had to intervene in a situation because someone was just not doing their job.

The New England Patriots exemplify this simple phrase.  I know people have strong feelings about the Patriots.  They either love them or hate them.  For me, they are my second favorite team behind the Giants.  I drive my daughters nuts when I root for this team.  I explain to them that they are winners and they know how to get things done.  I want to associate myself with winners.

I heard some of their players speak about their success and for me it could not get any simpler.  And I am convinced that every school or organization can replicate their success.  Each player concerns themselves with what they have to do to be successful.  They do their job!  Players do not worry about what the guy next to them is doing.  They do their job!  Players do not worry about what is happening around them, no matter how important the game may be.  They do their job!  Players do not worry about what controversy may be swirling around them in the press or media.  They do their job!

Sounds so simple.  But there is another catch to this.  They hold themselves accountable.  They hold each other accountable.

And if they all do this, from the starting quarterback to the last man on the practice squad, they will remain winners.  All people in the organization must do this from the head coach to the administrative assistant in a back office.  Just do your job.

This becomes part of the culture of a winning team, a winning school or a winning organization.  It sounds so simple.  Come to work.  Do your job.  Be accountable.

If it is that simple, why can’t everyone just follow that simple rule?

“Come on man”, just do your job!