Just do your job! Ever heard that? Worse, have you been guilty of saying it?

I remember in an early Pixar movie where the ants were slaves to the grasshoppers, and one ant makes timid overtures to improve things. “Get back in line” was the snarled response.

How typical of the way many enterprises are run. The logic seems to be: here’s a job statement, it applies to you, do it, everything else is not your concern.  The result is morale, productivity and dedication never reach peak levels, and great ideas are left unheard.  Shame that.

Recently I was doing some work with an SME and they had a telemarketer in house to drum up business. Now telemarketing is a tough gig if you’ve never done it.  It requires relentless dedication and good people skills, which are not always a natural fit.  This lady was good, she loved talking to people and she was hitting the targets.  Management was happy.

The business decided to put their team through the dynamic assessment analysis that we use to take companies to a new level. These assessments are not personality tests, they show a person’s natural talents and strengths and allow teams to be realigned. It’s game changing for an organisation.

The telemarketing lady showed she had a strong Star profile, which is people and selling skills (think Oprah Winfrey) just as expected. But the big surprise was that she was much more inclined towards the Creator profile (think Richard Branson).  Creators are the people that dream up new ideas, the classic entrepreneur.

The telemarketing lady is a Creator? Whoa, what’s going on?

To the great credit of management, instead of saying “she’s delivering the numbers for the telemarketing let’s not distract her” they asked instead “Can you see anything new we might be doing?” Bingo. She had been sitting on an idea for a new product which was unique to the market. It was simple and brilliant and no-one else had seen the opportunity.

She is still delivering the telemarketing numbers but is now given an extra 2 hours a day (more money, she’s happy) to build the market for the new product she dreamed up.  Is that win/win or what?  And I’ll bet she spots something else new.

Without doing the assessment profile the managers would not have been aware that she has these skills, and she didn’t feel it her place to contribute new ideas.

It’s too early to say how successful the new product will be, but what a great outcome. Way to go Carolyn!

How many people like Carolyn are there in your business, sitting on hidden talents just waiting to bring new value to the table? Let me know if you want to find out. It might just be the most valuable decision you make.

PS: UPDATE. It’s now 3 weeks since I wrote this Blog and I checked back to find that Carolyn’s product idea is surging ahead. They have 10 new customers already and the focus is on turning them into clients. A happy story!