Career Advancement Newsletter

What Does Your Boss Expect of You?

???? Do You Really Know?

?Truett Cathy was ...?

????? my most demanding boss.

????????? He said, “I don’t like problems.”?

Working for Truett at Chick-fil-A, the first thing I did as soon as I learned we had a problem, was work out a suitable solution. ??

The second thing was to quickly inform my boss, Truett Cathy, of the problem …?

????? and the solution that was already under way.?

My boss said he didn’t like problems.??

????? That was only partially true.?

Truett enjoyed solving the problems of his choice.? He tackled some huge and difficult problems, but he liked to ... choose his problems.?

Like every boss, he enjoyed those days when the only big news was sales were increasing and customer satisfaction was soaring.? That brought a smile to his face and comfort to all his followers ... especially me!.

One day I went into the boss’s office to brief him on a problem and explain the remedy I had already implemented.? He seemed satisfied with the action that had been taken.?

As I turned to leave, I said,

“Truett, you don’t need to worry about these problems. I’ll take care of them.? That’s what you’re paying me to do.”?

He held up his hand and stopped me.?

“Oh, No!”? He said …?

???? “I am paying you … to prevent problems.”?

Immediately I stopped, stunned to be struck with the reality of the high level of his expectations and trust in me.?

Prevent problems?

Yes, that was his expectation!?

He had confidence in my determination to meet his expectations.? In fact, he knew that I would do more than he expected.?

Do More Than Is Expected!?

As a youngster working part-time, I had learned to earn more money, I had to make myself more valuable.? At that time, making more money was my main objective.?

Right away, it was obvious just meeting the boss’s minimum expectations would never get me where I wanted to go.? I had to do more and do it better than my co-workers.??

If I wanted to become more valuable, I had to take on additional responsibility and do more than was expected.?

I did, and it worked.?

Many years later when I went to work for Truett, I had honed my do-more-than-expected approach down to a sharp-edged career advancement tool.? I used it from day one.? I was all-in and totally committed.?

My commitment to not just meet but exceed Truett’s expectations earned me ...?

???? his unwavering support!?

Truett Cathy was my most demanding boss and …?

????? my best boss!

He trusted me to do whatever was needed when he had no idea whether I knew how to do it or not; he knew I would let nothing stop me from successfully completing whatever we set out to do …?

????? no matter how difficult the task.?

Do you want that kind of support from your boss??

Try raising your performance bar from problem solver to ...

????? problem preventer.

Do More Than Is Expected!?

It worked for me.?

???? It will work for you.?

???????? -- Jimmy Collins

Like stories? My latest book Jimmy’s Stories is available on Biblio.com .?

Career advancement principles are in my book,?Creative Followership? ?also available on Biblio.com .????

#truettcathy #chickfila #leadership #followership