Dear Grandkids:
Thank you, Sommer for helping me write last month’s letter regarding doing your best job possible. As I mentioned in that letter, she passed her boards, and now enjoys working at New Dimensions. Congratulations, Sommer.
This month, Katie helped me write the letter on how to prepare yourself for doing your best job possible.
Doing your best job possible starts with being well prepared!
In school, when you studied for a test, didn’t you feel more confident and perform your best when you invested the necessary time to prepare? If you’ve ever interviewed for a job, didn’t you feel more confident when you did your homework on the company you interviewed with?
If you’ve played sports, you know how important it is to prepare to face your opponent. You might watch film of your opponent’s past games and study their strengths and weaknesses. When I pastored the Joburg Church a few years ago, I knew before I stood in the pulpit whether I was really ready to give a rock solid message. Why? I knew based on how well I prepared the week beforehand.
Your best effort in preparation will not only help you do a job well done, but will help you step into your role with more confidence. You will feel more natural about what you are doing, and I believe you can proceed with authority. As a leader, you can’t fake authority. It’s very embarrassing for the leader when they come to a meeting or tackle a task unprepared.
Perhaps, you’re thinking this principle isn’t that exciting this month.
Trust me, it’s vital to your success.
Fifty years ago when I began my career, I wish I would’ve learned sooner this principle of being prepared on every project I started.
As I mentioned, Katie has agreed to give her opinions on how she prepares herself to do the best job possible. Katie lives in St. Louis, but she still roots for the Chicago Bears. Right on, Katie! Katie works for Save a Lot corporate as an advertising coordinator. Katie has moved up the ranks very quickly in her company, and I believe it’s because of her excellent skills and her diligence in tackling each day with great preparation.
Katie’s marketing team is responsible for coordinating ads for approximately 1300 stores by using the same advertising theme. Katie’s responsibilities include finalizing the design, customization, printing, and delivery distribution for all stores in their group.
In addition to her normal responsibilities, she is also responsible for managing Grand Opening Ads. Prior to Katie’s taking over this process for Grand Opening Ads, they were not very organized; thus, items were overlooked, errors and confusion were common, and customers were often frustrated with the out-of-stock items posted in the ads. In order to manage this process better, Katie implemented different meetings to help manage the various issues. Katie comes to these meetings fully prepared with up-to-date schedules, to-do lists, pending lists, and after each meeting creates a revised action plan for the team.
Katie said this extra effort to come prepared helps minimize confusion, facilitates conversation and new ideas, and allows the team to be more productive in their meetings.
Wow! Good job Katie!
Working as a retailer for many years, I know what she means. Preparing to advertise forty to fifty items every week takes a lot of detailed planning and coordination, and the bottom line is–you can’t have mistakes. As you can see through Katie’s comments, the bigger the team, the more preparation is needed for a job well done.
Katie also shared these final comments:
I choose to be prepared for every meeting I attend. To me, this means refreshing myself on the relevant material of the meeting beforehand, bringing a notebook to take notes on what is discussed, and creating an action plan after the meeting. Choosing to be prepared allows me to be active in meetings and show upper management my interest in the success of our corporation.
Well, there you have it.
Doing a job and having it well done takes preparation.
Thanks Katie for your valuable input. Wow! We’ve got some very talented grandkids, and we can all learn from one another.
So until next year, Happy Holidays and keep Jesus Christ close to your hearts.
Love,
Grandpa