It is always my job...

?

Have you ever wandered the aisles of Target or Home Depot, knowing exactly what you want, but you have no idea where to find it?? You can’t find a red-polo or an orange-apron anywhere??

You finally find someone and they say, "that's not my department, you'll need to talk to someone back in hardware." and off you go, the search continues.

There’s a similar situation in our daily jobs.?

Someone calls you to ask you to support a sales call, to meet with a client, or to do a whiteboarding session, and it’s not your area of expertise, or it’s “not your job,”

First of all, I’d ask that we eliminate the words, “not my job” from our lexicon.? Secondly, that you go on the literal or metaphorical journey with your “customer” and make sure they find the exact location on the shelf where that 8’ cedar 2” x 4” is, or where they can find the Big Bird pajamas with the feet.? And by that, I mean this:

Someone may call and ask for some help supporting a deal, and your response may be, “we don’t do that on our team.”? When I used to work at Target HQ, we would regularly spend time in the stores, watching and even working to ensure we understood our guest’s needs.? The reply we were encouraged to use was, “I don’t know, but I will find out.”

Even if we did know, our job was not to tell them the department or the aisle their item was in (or might be in), our job was to escort them to that aisle or to the person who could help them and ensure they got the item in their hands.

So, if you get that call and you don’t know the answer, or it’s someone else’s job, don’t just tell them it’s in aisle twelve, just beyond plumbing, or on the endcap next to hardlines A.

Let’s eliminate the metaphors and get literal.? Someone calls you and needs help.?

• You don’t know, or maybe you just know what team actually can help them.
• Let them know you’ll track down the answer or the right person.?
• Call that person and let them know you have an opportunity (you may have to make one or two calls!).
• Hook those two individuals up. I like to send an individual to the individual who requested the help, and the person I spoke with who committed to help, and ensure they are connected.

I’d suggest you even go that extra step and call the individual who requested help back at the end of the day and ensure they got the help they needed.

Sound like a lot of work?? Maybe, but think about the time you were given a name of someone who was supposed to be able to help you, you called them, they were out of the office, and their auto-reply directed you to the person who gave you their name in the first place.

So whether it is tracking down a compensation plan, getting a statement of work, or getting content for an RFP; it may not be your job or you may not know how to down those things, but I would posit that it is your job to ensure your team-members gets the compensation plan, gets connected to the person who can put together the statement of work, or gets an introduction to the person on the knowledge management team who can provide the RPF info.

If you don't think it's your job, call me. I assure you it is my job.