What Are You Working On? - On Core Work, Support Work, and the value of Looking Around

I had a very brief interaction with someone yesterday, and it made me think about the difference between the people who always seem to be at the heart of all the cool projects, who have stellar work performance reviews, the names you hear in the hall, versus those people who maybe feel like they're working all the time, but are somehow not feeling all that appreciated and understood for their work. Surprising nobody, I have some thoughts on this.

The Core of Work

At all times, we should think: what does the company most need from me? That's where everything starts. Notice that I'm not saying "what does my manager need from me?" What does the company need. That's the primary thing to look at. For us, for instance, we want to sell more software, and by extension we want to help our channel partners be more successful, because they sell. That's the mission.

You either work on the core mission directly, or you support the people who work on the core mission. If you're in finance, maybe you help people get their 2025 departmental budgets figured out. If you're in provisioning, you make it easy to buy what people need to do the job, while negotiating better contracts, providing faster service, etc.

Some people work directly on the core business. Others support those people. If you're not sure which you are, that's a pretty important item to think about.

What Matters Right Now

Sometimes, I'll hear someone say they're not sure what the vision of the company is (we present it at the beginning of each year, and keep it available online all year round, but that's okay - sometimes, I hear that). The thing is: the vision is to make work flow for end users. The people who use our things use them because it makes their jobs less annoying. Sell more of what we make. Improve what we make so that it works even better. Help our channel partners meet their goals because they sell the thing we make.

See how easy it is? No vision necessary. Make stuff better. The core of work nearly anywhere is the same: sell the thing, make the thing better, sell more of the thing. That's what business is.

Everything beyond that is nuance.

Looking Around

There's core stuff, and then there's "How can we do this better/easier?" A while back, we swapped out a ton of our internal software for better, more enterprise-grade stuff. The learning curve was rough, but the benefits to everyone inside the company were so valuable. Everything is easier than it was, even though using some of the software is a bit annoying. It's an example of "how can we do this better?"

We look around at the shape of our business a lot. Could we do this with less friction? Can we empower our core and support functions to do things faster/easier/with fewer steps? We improve the state of security (which we already win awards for, so that's a thing). We're always looking for ways to make the core and support functions thrive.

Which comes back to you.

What are you Working On?

There's a balance to Work and Looking Around stuff. It's different in every company, and different within every group. Covey would call the Looking Around stuff "sharpening the saw," and as a long time fan of the 7 Habits, I can just steal what he said about it. If you do ZERO looking around and saw sharpening, you try to do the work at hand with a dull saw, so to speak. If you sharpen the saw all day, no wood gets cut down (the work doesn't get done).

No matter if you're in the core or in the support parts of the business, the formula is the same:

• What does the company need?
• What's my part in it?
• What's my mix of Doing The Work versus Looking Around

I find the people who thrive are the ones who can answer this at any point in their day. They know. They go to sleep knowing how they contribute, and they eat lunch happily thinking about what they're doing that day. (No, we're not happy all the time - don't be nuts.)

The people who don't thrive are different. They don't seem to ask or wonder or focus around what the company needs. They somehow confuse "being busy" with "doing meaningful work." And they tend to pour a lot of effort into tasks and projects that don't do much for the core work or the support work.

I think these are thoughts for any person in any company. Even if you're a freelancer, being really focused on the needs of the people you serve is pretty vital. I think it's what ends up making the difference between those who have a great path through their various jobs versus those who are always feeling off in the bushes.

Kindness. Good work ethic. Proficiency in our skills. Good communication abilities. It's all part of the package of what it takes.

I'm thrilled to be able to support people who work on the core of our business. I hope you feel confident and comfortable where you are in your respective journeys.

Chris...