Do you ever dream of having the best job of your life, or of creating the same for someone else? It all starts with a “best job” intention— one such as that practiced by Scott Bemis, former President and Publisher of the Denver Business Journal.
While at the Journal, Scott made it a priority to personally interview every prospective job candidate for an opening. Why? Because he knew that the chances of running a more efficient, effective, healthy, and happy organization greatly increases when the right person is hired for the right position.
During his interviews, Scott always asked interviewees to make this agreement: If they were to be hired, they would agree to take full responsibility for making a new position their “best job ever.” In turn, Scott would promise to help meet this “best job” goal from his position as the man in charge. Only when he sensed a full commitment from an interviewee would Scott consider the candidate “official.”
Then, almost as soon as any new hire would arrive at work, Scott would keep his end of the arrangement. He’d set up meetings with new employees, empowering them with confidence by telling them why they were chosen from among the rest. He’d also remind them of the “formal” agreement they’d made to co-create the best job possible.
Would there be challenges along the way? Of course—and Scott would tell new employees to count on that fact. Yet, he’d also promise that should tough times arise or “best job” expectations fall short, he would be there to make things right. And so it was that many “best jobs ever” were born with the help of Scott Bemis.
Now consider your own “best job” attitudes. What could you do to encourage your own new employees to take greater responsibility in their jobs? And how might you help them feel more empowered and more deeply engaged? In my view, it’s all a matter of expecting the best—or, in this case, “the best job ever”!
Like my friend Scott, I am committed to living this philosophy. Here at Friedman & Associates, I continuously aim to create a balanced, meaningful, and joyful culture that includes regular check-ins to assess and adjust job responsibilities as needed. And I am always looking for ways to improve my team’s “buy-in” even more. For instance, at every employee meeting, I ask the following question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, where would you rank yourself in regard to your ‘perfect world’ at work?” For anything less than a 10, my follow-up is this: “How can we make that a 10?”
So how about you? Are you ready to vastly improve your job and do the same for your team members? The Pygmalion effect states that people tend to achieve the level of excellence expected of them by others.
