Two Critical Traits for Career Advancement - Love and Faithfulness Part 2

In the last post, we saw the powerful effect that love can have on your career. Now we will see how faithfulness can kick in and take you to the next level.

Let’s start by defining what is meant by faithfulness. I see it this way - faithfulness is doing everything you are supposed to do, always doing it when it should be done, always using methods that are acceptable, always delivering the required level of quality and meeting these standards of performance every time. If you think that sounds like a tall order you’re right. But this trait of faithfulness is exactly what can differentiate you from the pack. The people who get promoted are the ones who stand out as top performers and there is no better way to stand out then to be known as the person who can be counted on every time.

You would almost think that this trait of faithfulness is something that everybody should have. The sad truth is that many people do not have it. Most people will come through at least part of the time, but to deliver the kind of results we are talking about every single time is actually rather unusual.

I am reminded of a quote from Billy Joel that is sad but true. He was once asked during an interview how he managed to become such a brilliant musician. He responded by saying “I am not really a brilliant musician at all. I am just a competent musician. However, being competent in a world full of incompetence makes me look brilliant.”

I believe the same principle applies to faithfulness. In a perfect world everyone would be faithful. The opportunity to become a star performer lies in the fact the most people in the real world are not consistently faithful. If you can be sure to follow up on every detail, meet every deadline, always deliver a quality product or service and be sure to never disappoint your stakeholders you will certainly be recognized as a valuable member of the team.

You will make an especially powerful impact when you are faithful in an area that is so universally ignored by most people that there is not even an expectation of faithfulness. It is always in these areas where the expectations are very low that you can really make a name for yourself with very little time or effort.

For example, there is no real expectation of quickly returning an email message when you are on vacation. Therefore, when I am on vacation, I have an auto responder that let’s people know I am out of the office when they send me an email. However, I have a habit of using my Blackberry to scan through my emails 2-3 times per day during working hours even when I am out of the office. I ignore 95% of the messages until I return, however, if one of them is important I send a quick response right away. It only takes me 5 minutes or so each time for a total of 15 minutes per day of effort but the impact I make in terms of perception by spending those 15 minutes returning important messages on my day off is greater than the impact I could make by staying 15 hours in the office on a regular work day. I can’t tell you how many times I get reply back from people saying how amazed and pleased they were to get a same day response when I am on vacation. Since there is no expectation of that I reap huge benefits by coming through in a way that was not expected.

Stumble it!

Tags: career, faithfulness, job, love, work