Making jobs more meaningful
Why I say "security was my job, hospitality was my business"
Most people have heard the famous story about John F Kennedy and the janitor at NASA. The story says that when the President asked the janitor what he was doing, the man replied, “I’m helping to put a man on the moon!”
Whether or not that story is true, understanding that your job plays a role in the overall purpose of a business, helps you find more meaning in the tasks you perform.
In a post last week, I wrote that absenteeism in a hotel dishwashing department was substantially reduced after the employees received safety training that was tailored directly to their workplace.
Even managers need to be reminded that they are part of a bigger picture.
When I was promoted to Security Manager at a 500 room hotel, I was surprised by how many of my colleagues had a narrow view of their roles.
“It doesn’t matter where I work, I’m Director of Sales and I could sell sand in the Sahara”, one said.
“I'm Head of Accounting, I understand numbers. Operations don’t matter to me.”, said another.
As Security Manager, the employees in the department I led complained when they were asked to clear room service trays from corridors during their nightly rounds.
“We’re security, not housekeeping”, they said.
Here’s how shifts in perception changed my own views and the views of many of my colleagues.
Being a hotel security guard isn’t normally looked upon as being a great career job.
Working in a five-star hotel sounds much better. It feels much better too.
I know this first hand.
After I made a conscious decision to answer the question, “what do you do for a living?” with “I work for the SAS Hotel”, instead of saying I was a hotel security guard, I found I had a better sense of purpose with my work.
When I was hired, my boss had told me, “The hard part about security is that you’ll never have guest interaction unless something bad happens.” After I changed my perception from being a security guard to being someone that worked for the hotel, I knew I could change that and that it would be of value for the guest, for the hotel, and for me.
As I learned more about how I could contribute to the success of the hotel, my job became much more interesting.
When I was promoted to a corporate role, I told my boss there that I wanted more than 50% of the interaction I had with our hotels to be initiated by them. He laughed, but when we announced that security should be viewed as corporate support rather than corporate control, we achieved that too!
There’s two ways to look at any job.
You can look at it as a series of tasks that you have to perform, or you can see that the purpose of the job is to help enable the business to be more successful.
Back in the 70s, my Dad went to a workshop held by the author of “Boss is a four-letter word”, Brian Spikes. His key takeaway was “businesses need to make boring tasks fun”.
In The Heart of Business, Hubert Joly, the CEO that saved Best Buy, said creating meaning at work was key to his success.
The better we understand the business our jobs are part of, the more interesting our own jobs become as we seek to learn more about how we can contribute to the overall success of the business.
Yes, there are corporate leaders that perhaps lose sight of the value front line or back of house employees contribute to the company. I used to always tell my colleagues in the corporate office that since revenues came in from the hotels and not from corporate, we were in fact the least important part of the business.
But that’s a story for another day!
Let me know how you and your colleagues find purpose in the jobs that you have supporting the businesses you’re in.
Stay safe Always Care
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