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Slowly and surely is the way to go- life’s work
October 25th, 2007
The big issue in most jobs is effort vs. reward. Factory workers make little, for a lot of commitment of time and effort. Business consultants make a fortune for simply guiding people and giving them vision. ‘Getting rich quick’ is so rare that it’s a lottery.
A bit of forward planning and thinking can increase rewards, build a career, and eliminate unnecessary effort. Objectivity makes a big difference. To become a good career, with a good return, you have to know where you’re trying to go, and how to get there. You can plan your qualifications, and to some extent your career path.
However, you don’t just ‘become’ a business consultant/high valued person, or not a good one, worth paying that sort of money, by claiming to be able to do something.
The business consultant is a good analogy, because their contribution is high value, and that’s what they’re getting paid for. That applies across every business, profession, and workplace. It’s what you contribute to a job or career that puts a value on it.
The person who suggests a money-saving idea is worth something. The person who suggests a money-making idea is worth something. These skills are also seen as a unique, valuable, quality in that person, adding value to their position.
But to do that, you do need to know your business, and your profession. You need to learn the skills, the culture, the environment in which the business operates, and above all how to pitch your ideas and show your skills plausibly and effectively.
Contributing anything, however, involves other people making decisions about your contributions, and their value. Your money-making idea may be brilliant, but someone has to decide to follow up on it.
You will note that the decision makers are the ones at all levels of any operation who are trusted to make those decisions. They have a track record for their work, and they’re the ones who ultimately dictate reward/effort ratios. Self-appointed experts are a dime a dozen, and valued accordingly.
Proof of value for effort really matters. Convince these guys that you have something of value to offer, and your rewards should increase, in some cases considerably, and a lot of career options can come with that.
Slowly
There’s a catch to this: You do have to convince the decision makers you know what you’re doing.
That’s where “Slowly” comes in.
Say you’re a project officer, or a research assistant in a lab, and you come up with something that saves a lot of time, resources, and money.
(That really matters in projects and research, where time and budgets are vitally important.)
There are two “slow” elements in this situation.
Consider the amount of information you need to be able to make a constructive contribution, as a lab researcher or project officer. You need to know the processes, the budgets, the time frames, the cost of what you propose, the result of what you propose, and you have to assemble these facts coherently, and present them effectively. You, yourself, have to be credible. They really need to know that you understand their operations.
You don’t get to play with office equipment, let alone budgets, until your work is shown to have some value to it.
Reasonable enough, too, because you’re using their time, money and resources. You don’t get to play with office equipment, let alone budgets, until your work is shown to have some value to it. In management, this is a paramount consideration. Trust has to be earned. Whichever way you want to go up the ladder, you get nowhere without skills, talent and credibility.
That happens at about the speed of a college degree, and that’s the standard of contribution required, in lab or project work, and most levels of management. The demand for quality of work decides reward levels, in any business or profession.
The other slow factor is acceptance.
To earn trust you must have a very high level of proven competence. That inevitably involves a deep and thorough knowledge of the operation and the multiple streams of work. You have to know the culture, the people, and understand the demands, and above all, the problems.
Surely
People will pay for peace of mind, knowing there’s a competent person driving the train.
All of that has to be learned, preferably on the job, where you can get the necessary feel for the real situations. Theory doesn’t quite cut it. There’s a huge amount of information needed to be truly competent in the workplace. The competent person is more than a problem solver. They anticipate the problems, and come up with preventions. They make a huge, and extremely valuable, contribution, every day, doing that.
It does take time to get to that level of competence. The best possible and most productive use of time in any career is developing that competence. It’s ultimately far more important to get things right. People will pay for peace of mind, knowing there’s a competent person driving the train.
The accountant who knows every detail, the salesman who never loses clients, and the financial adviser who always provides good advice and service don’t do so by accident.
Proof of ability really only comes in one form.
The factory worker who becomes a business consultant is the one who does know how to provide contributions that are worth paying more.
In any organization, you’ll find some people who really know the operation, inside and out. They’re trusted by management, for that reason, and their own contributions. They’re the people the factory worker will have learned from, and the people who OK’d the promotions.
They’ve decided that the factory worker can be a business consultant.
They’re not guessing.
Photo credit MacRonin47
2 Responses to “Slowly and surely is the way to go- life’s work”
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November 30th, 1999 at 12:00 am
How would you suggest for business consultants in general to excel in making money. While you state everything will come slowly and surely, what is there to do in the mean times-or off times? How can you make money then.
Slowly: How do you get around a superior if you do in fact have a great idea but there is a foreman or manager in the middle that could easily take all the benefits from your good ideas?
Surely: Once again, how do you prove that you can drive the train, if there is a manager in the middle of you and the job. What if you can be the manager and should be? What do you do?
–Wait it out or do something about it? If do something about it is your answer then how?
December 12th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
In effort versus reward, I think two things must be taken into account in this type of job. One thing is for certain is that there must be an ultimate goal that will reimburse all efforts. For instance, I am freelance writer. For some jobs I have to take low pay to get an employer’s trust and to show that I am good writer. Of course this doesn’t last for the entire relationship but lasts long enough. I do this so I can better my future with the hopes of getting better pay in the end which always happens.