Word-Of-the-Week #895: Motivated
September 30, 2021 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #895: Motivated
Motivated – inspired by a desire to achieve something.
How motivated are you to improve your job skills? How much supervision or direction do you need to get your work done? How strong is your desire to be successful?
This is part 2 of Penny Loretto’s article, “The Top 10 Work Values Employers Look For.”
- Adaptability
Employers seek employees who are adaptable and maintain flexibility in completing tasks in an ever changing workplace. Being open to change and improvements provides an opportunity to complete work assignments in a more efficient manner while offering additional benefits to the corporation, the customer, and even the employee. While oftentimes employees complain that changes in the workplace don’t make sense or makes their work harder, oftentimes these complaints are due to a lack of flexibility.
Adaptability also means adapting to the personality and work habits of co-workers and supervisors. Each person possesses their own set or strengths and adapting personal behaviors to accommodate others is part of what it takes to work effectively as a team. By viewing change as an opportunity to complete work assignments in a more efficient manner, adapting to change can be a positive experience. New strategies, ideas, priorities, and work habits can foster a belief among workers that management and staff are both committed to making the workplace a better place to work.
- Honesty and Integrity
Employers value employees who maintain a sense of honesty and integrity above all else. Good relationships are built on trust. When working for an employer they want to know that they can trust what you say and what you do. Successful businesses work to gain the trust of customers and maintain the attitude that “the customer is always right”. It is the responsibility of each person to use their own individual sense of moral and ethical behavior when working with and serving others within the scope of their job.
- Self – Motivated
Employers look for employees who require little supervision and direction to get the work done in a timely and professional manner. Supervisors who hire self-motivated employees do themselves an immense favor. For self-motivated employees require very little direction from their supervisors. Once a self-motivated employee understands his/her responsibility on the job, they will do it without any prodding from others. Employers can do their part by offering a safe, supportive, work environment that offers employees an opportunity to learn and grow. Working in a supportive work environment and taking the initiative to be self-directive will provide employees with a better sense of accomplishment and increased self-esteem.
- Motivated to Grow & Learn
In an ever-changing workplace, employers seek employees who are interested in keeping up with new developments and knowledge in the field. It has been noted that one of the top reasons employees leave their employers is the lack of opportunity for career development within the organization. Learning new skills, techniques, methods, and/or theories through professional development helps keep the organization at the top of its field and makes the employee’s job more interesting and exciting. Keeping up with current changes in the field is vital for success and increased job security.
This week is all about being motivated. Can you do your job with very little direction from your supervisor? Are you interested in learning everything you can about your job? Are you motivated by a strong sense of honesty and integrity? Are you motivated when changes and/or improvements are made?
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Word-Of-the-Week #894: Willingness
September 23, 2021 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #894: Willingness
Willingness – ready to act gladly; eagerly compliant.
How willing are you to do whatever it takes to get a job done? Are you looking for a new job? How about a promotion? Do you know the work values employers are looking for?
The next 3 WOW’s will feature Penny Loretto’s article, “The Top 10 Work Values Employers Look For.”
- Strong Work Ethic
Employers value employees who understand and possess a willingness to work hard. In addition to working hard it is also important to work smart. This means learning the most efficient way to complete tasks and finding ways to save time while completing daily assignments. It’s also important to care about your job and complete all projects while maintaining a positive attitude. Doing more than is expected on the job is a good way to show management that you utilize good time management skills and don’t waste valuable company time attending to personal issues not related to the job. Downsizing in today’s job market is quite common so it’s important to recognize the personal values and attributes employers want to improve your chances of job security should a layoff occur.
- Dependability and Responsibility
Employers value employees who come to work on time, are there when they are supposed to be, and are responsible for their actions and behavior. It’s important to keep supervisors abreast of changes in your schedule or if you are going to be late for any reason. This also means keeping your supervisor informed on where you are on all projects you have been assigned. Being dependable and responsible as an employee shows your employer that you value your job and that you are responsible in keeping up with projects and keeping them informed of the things that they should know about.
- Possessing a Positive Attitude.
Employers seek employees who take the initiative and have the motivation to get the job done in a reasonable period of time. A positive attitude gets the work done and motivates others to do the same without dwelling on the challenges that inevitably come up in any job. It is the enthusiastic employee who creates an environment of good will and who provides a positive role model for others. A positive attitude is something that is most valued by supervisors and co-workers and that also makes the job more pleasant and fun to go to each day.
This week is all about willingness. Do you have a strong work ethic? Are you dependable and responsible? Are you a positive role model for others?
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Word-Of-the-Week #893: Sublime
September 16, 2021 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #893: Sublime
Sublime – 1) something majestic, impressive, or intellectually valuable. 2) of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.
Have you ever wondered how some words have so many meanings?
I had the most exquisite piece of halibut and my first thought was that it was sublime. So then I looked up the word and I am including several quotes that came up on my web search. As you can see there are a multitude of different meanings!
“An example of sublime is a beautifully presented, formal six course meal.”
“One of the most beautiful things in the world is seeing a mommy with her kids. There’s nothing more beautiful, nothing more sublime.” – Johnny Depp
“The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime, makes the ridiculous; and one step above the ridiculous, makes the sublime again” [Thomas Paine The Age of Reason]
“For sheer majestic geography and sublime scale, nothing beats Alaska and the Yukon. For culture, Japan. And for all-around affection, Australia.” – Sam Abell
“Happiness is the sublime moment when you get out of your corsets at night.” – Joyce Grenfell – Do you think she might have meant it was ahhh inspiring?
“Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is the most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man.” – E. M. Forster
“Bradley Nowell, lead singer for the alternative band Sublime, died of an apparent drug overdose in a San Francisco motel just hours before the group was to perform a sold-out concert.
The band’s drummer found Nowell, 28, dead in his room at the Ocean View Motel shortly after noon Saturday following a night of partying, said Jon Phillips, a manager of the group.
Cause of death had not been determined, pending laboratory results, but when asked if Nowell had died of a heroin overdose as reported, Phillips said it was “probably the most distinct possibility.” Do you think Nowell would have said the heroin was sublime?” Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself.
This week’s focus is what you find sublime. Would it be a great gastronomic experience? Would it be marveling majestic geography? Would it be taking in a superb symphony?
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Word-Of-the-Week #892: Luck
September 9, 2021 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #892: Luck
Luck – to prosper or succeed especially through chance or good fortune.
How open are you to opportunities that come your way? Do you get mired in negative thoughts about the possibility of failure?
This week comes from Forbes, “What Is Luck, And Does It Affect Your Chances Of Success?” by David Kleinhandler.
“I can’t count how many successful people I’ve known who, when asked how they got to where they are today, have simply said they were “lucky.” It’s true that a little modesty never hurt anyone, but luck isn’t what separates those who get what they want in life from those who don’t. What most people choose to call luck is the result of being open to opportunity — something that comes down to attitude, not happy accidents.
Though he may not have had the business world in mind, per se, the poet John Milton is often credited as describing luck as the residue of design. I think there’s a lot of truth to this, even if it’s not possible to design a blueprint for success in business. What you can do — on purpose and by design — is choose how to perceive good opportunities coming your way. No one would argue that a chance encounter can’t alter the course of a career, but it’s easy to discount how much goes into making an opportunity out of an encounter. You can call meeting a random stranger luck if you want, but what follows is anything but.
Psychologist and author Richard Wiseman has spent his career studying luck and our perception of it. What he found after years of investigation is that luck is completely a matter of how we choose to look at our lives. The people who consider themselves lucky are the ones who recognize their own good fortune wherever it happens and look at the world through that lens. What they aren’t are people onto whom amazing things shower down from above.
Wiseman’s work spans decades of interviews and experiments in which he has sought to prove that good fortune comes from within. The people who grab onto opportunities when they arise, expect the best, minimize their setbacks and weather difficulties are the so-called lucky ones. His research demonstrates that luck comes down to attitude, often in surprising ways.
One such experiment separated people who considered themselves lucky from those who characterized themselves as unlucky. Both groups were asked to read through a newspaper and count the photographs, reporting to him how many they found. The “lucky” people were much more frequently the ones who found the not-so-hidden message on page two that said, in bold letters, “Stop counting — There are 43 photographs in this newspaper.”
Those people were open-minded, rather than mired in negative thoughts about the possibility of failure. Considering yourself a perpetual victim of bad luck is the worst possible way to live life and do business, not only because you’re going to miss out on the great opportunities that do come your way, but because that negativity will inevitably become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Pessimism about your own situation, especially, puts you at a disadvantage in what might be the single most important luck-booster in business: networking — which is to say, leveraging your existing position to increase the likelihood of new encounters working in your favor.
To return to our random stranger example — perhaps at the expense of saying something obvious — people get less random the more of them you know. Growing your network is probably the most important external thing you can do in order to consistently get yourself in front of opportunity. In fact, it’s been proven that having a large, varied network of contacts is the single best predictor of career success. So many opportunities come from knowing someone in a position to help you and being open to new connections. Your attitude, in the end, will be the most valuable asset you have in getting those lucky opportunities.
The truth is, probability doesn’t care how lucky or unlucky you’ve been in the past when your next $10 million deal is on the table any more than it does how many ladders you didn’t walk under on the way to the office. Neither should you. If you’re looking for success (as most of us are), then what you need first and foremost is the right attitude. There are no guarantees, but what most people call good luck is the ability to notice great opportunities and take advantage of them. Open hands are a start, but an open mind is where luck is made.”
This week’s focus is on luck. Are you open-minded? Do you grab onto opportunities when they arise? Have you actively worked at growing a varied network of contacts? And how’s your attitude these days?
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Word-Of-the-Week #891: Unacceptable
September 2, 2021 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #891: Unacceptable
Unacceptable – intolerable.
Have you been subjected to bad behavior from customers or guests at work? How about from complete strangers?
BIG thanks goes to Bill Marvin “The Restaurant Doctor” for this week’s feature “Cape Cod restaurant shuts down for ‘day of kindness’ after customers’ bad behavior,” by Kerry Breen at Today.
“This is an unacceptable way to treat any human,” the owners wrote on Facebook.
The owners said they wanted to “spread a message of kindness and change the culture that restaurant workers should just have to take abuse because of the job they chose.” Courtesy Regina Felt Castellano
A Massachusetts restaurant is garnering national attention after closing for a “day of kindness” following an increase in “unacceptable” behavior from customers.
Brandi Felt Castellano and her spouse, Regina Felt Castellano, the owners of Apt Cape Cod, a local establishment in Brewster, Massachusetts, wrote on Facebook July 8 that they would be closed for breakfast that day and wouldn’t open until 5:00 p.m., when they began serving dinner.
The decision was made after last Thursday, “when a man berated one of the restaurant’s young employees for telling him that they could not take his breakfast takeout order because the restaurant had not opened yet,” reported The New York Times.
“As many of our guests and patrons treat us with kindness and understanding, there have been an astronomical influx daily of those that do not, swearing at us, threatening to sue, arguing and yelling
at my staff, making team members cry,” wrote the owners on Facebook. “This is an unacceptable way to treat any human.”
The Castellanos wrote they had decided to “take the day” and give restaurant employees “time (to) deep clean the restaurant, train, and treat my staff to a day of kindness.”
“Please remember that many of my staff are young, this is their first job, or summer job to help pay for college,” the owners continued. “We have had to make adjustments due to the increase in business volume, size of kitchen, product availably and staffing availability, we are not trying to ruin anyone’s vacation or day off.”
They told TODAY Food they chose to close because they wanted to value “employees over money” and hoped to “spread a message of kindness and change the culture that restaurant workers should just have to take abuse because of the job they chose.”
Restaurant workers around the country have reported an increase in negative customer behavior since coronavirus restrictions began to lift nationwide. Some of those confrontations have started over menu alterations or shortages of certain food items or beverages. In other cases, tempers have boiled over following a long wait due to the lack of staff.
“We’ve all seen these viral videos of servers being assaulted or yelled at by customers who are upset about masks or how long they had to wait for their table,” said Darren Cardosa, a long-time server who runs a blog called “The Bitchy Waiter” where he posts about the reality of restaurant life, earlier this month. “There is this sense in the whole country right now that there’s a lot of anger and frustration, and it seems like a lot of customers feel like it’s OK to take that out on their server.”
Apt Cape Cod’s post about giving workers the day off to recover from negative interactions with customers quickly went viral, garnering hundreds of comments and shares. Fans of the establishment filled the comments section with well-wishes and offers to donate money to the staff.
On July 14, the owners posted that they “love the idea” of donations and wanted to continue to pay it forward.
“We would be honored if you bought lunch for anyone who deals with the public, your favorite restaurant, store, doctor, vet or pharmacy,” they wrote on Facebook. “If you (feel) the need to donate money, please visit our family non-profit, Family Table Collaborative … which provides food to families with food insecurities.”
This week’s focus is on acceptable behavior. Have you been treating people with kindness and understanding during the pandemic? Does your company value employees over money? How would it feel to buy lunch for someone who deals with the public?
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