Service Ethos

On June 14, 2018 one of my colleagues, we’ll call her Linda, and I were having a conversation about a problem that was facing our district. We quickly got it resolved and moved on to other topics. As we wrapped up our conversation she mentioned to me that, in her view, I had a positive impact on this giant district. She used the term, ‘service ethos’. I had never heard that very positive rumor but it made me feel good that someone used such a term to describe me. The rest of the day I floated on air. The next morning I looked it up (I was unfamiliar with the term). It turns out that an Ethos of service is about having service be your distinguishing character or your guiding belief. In that statement she put in words that I had hoped everyone in our organization would feel about me. In short, my plan was working. My mission is to be the best at what I do requires three things, 1. That I actually do good work and 2. That others actually notice, and appreciate it, and 3. they are able to do their best work. Her statement confirms that at least a few people notice, appreciate and are talking about me and my work.

The point of this work isn’t to brag about how great I am to the people I work with, it is to highlight that this type of impact is portable. It doesn’t matter where you are in the chain of command, the size of your organization does not matter and neither does your ethnicity or gender. What does matter is your desire to do good work and your commitment to sticking with it. We all can do it, we can impact our organizations, our departments or our teams by putting others first. Not just talking about it then acting selfishly. Not acting in ways we think others should appreciate but in ways that are relevant to the needs of the people around you.

The conversation about you, and your work serves to prime others about you. This primacy introduces you to people before you actually make their acquaintance. In the business world the rule goes like this, a happy customer tells 3 people and an unhappy customer tells 10, by this math it makes great business sense to take care of your people. It also makes good leadership sense because people talk about all of their experiences to one another. Then they share what they heard with others. What you say behind closed doors to an employee will make its way to the parking lot, water cooler, and happy hour conversations. What’s worse is that you can’t influence that conversation at all, if it were going on when you walked into a room it would immediately stop. The only way for you to influence this ongoing conversation that primes and shapes your team’s perception of you is the way you treat your people each day. Treat them well and they will tell others how well they were treated and those friends, when they come to meet with you, will expect a positive experience, then they will return to the water cooler and confirm the narrative by sharing their story, comparing notes and confirming the narrative about you. Too often bosses rattle on about how great they are to their people trying to convince people with their words. This practice can make a temporary impact but it does not stand up to the words that come from colleagues. The impact of the stories shared by friends hits hard and last long. It can also end careers. If you want to gain influence with your team and have a long tenure primacy among your people is the way.

Which brings me full circle back to the beginning of this conversation I had with my colleague. What I didn’t tell you is that this was the first time she and I met and I had never worked directly with her on a project or completed a task for her. The only way she could have come to that conclusion is through the primacy pipeline. If you focus on taking care of your people you’ll see a similar result. If you want to be successful, influence people and make your vision come to life, turn your attention to them and watch your organization SOAR!

 

William A. Brown 

March 31, 2019