The intentional employee

I had just finished facilitating a three day programme for one of my many clients. The programme held at an offsite location so they were away from the distractions of work, colleagues and clients. From the time we got in a day before, we had been treated as royalty. The reception, feeding and accommodation was so heartwarming. I felt like an ambassador of some sort. They had assigned people to wait on us and with the little time we had outside the class rooms, I wondered how much time we even had for all the amenities they said we could use. Outside the lectures which sapped out most of our energy, we barely had time for dinner in their club house before going back to prepare for the next day and dozing off. We were a bit worried we didn’t have them field enough questions at us but someone later said we had made learning so easy that most of the questions they had in mind, had already been tackled.

The staff that coordinated the programme was most delighted at the feedback she got from the participants. She ensured all that we needed for a successful programme was put in place. This was certainly a major boost for her in her new role and quickly started talking to me about other opportunities that I could take advantage in the organisation. On getting back to town, we quickly reviewed the programme in-house and discussed the avenues we could improve upon and other things that occurred in the process of the programme. We also checked the evaluation forms that the participants completed at the end of the programme. By the next day we had sent out a close out report to the client based on our conclusions with our invoice following suit. And that is where the problem started.

The first we heard was that unlike in the past when they used to pay us between seven and ten days, there was now a sixty-day waiting periods for vendors to receive payment. This was quite strange as it altered our projections for payment but we were unperturbed and started counting the days in anticipation of our payment. We knew it was sixty working days so we knocked off the weekend from count as well the many holidays that were in between the days. We added a few days in case we had missed any day. It was a new experience as the nature of our work allowed us get paid almost immediately especially since we not suppliers.

Finally we had counted more than seventy working days with no feedback whatsoever from our contact. We had to send somebody had to go and enquire on the status of our payment. We were fed with information concerning the sore relationship that existed between the various departments in the organisation. Information we had no business hearing. The transaction dragged on for another month or so and at a point our contact even told us there was nothing she could do anymore as it was now in the hands of the personnel in the their accounting department. The response even started getting hostile as though we were seeking a loan from the organisation.

Every employee has a Job accountability, responsibility and description. There is always a profile that qualifies an employee to occupy a certain position before they are deployed to work. If the profile doesn’t fit the role, we will definitely have a misfit and you can be sure the work will suffer. This is actually where most employers miss it.  Discharging your duties is primary but if its action or inaction delays a process that the employee is performing below par and is as guilty as the other parties. An employee has to be intentional in carrying out their duties whether the responsibility is given or earned, your primary focus making things work. It has nothing to do with whether there is immediate reward or not. While the drive is always for increase in wages, nobody seems to bother about the attitude people bring to the workplace.

Successful organisations know that the people running it are the main reasons behind their accomplishments. This is why they take steps to further develop its employees’ potential. To be intentional means Being willing to answer — to be accountable — for the outcomes resulting from your choices, behaviors, and actions. Every intentional employee must make a personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances & demonstrate the ownership necessary to achieve desired goals where your organisation is involved.