Please Dont Just Do What I Tell You Do What Needs to Be Done: Every Employee's Guide to Making Work More Rewarding by Robert B. Nelson, Ken Blanchard

From Barnes & Noble

Bestselling author Bob Nelson teaches readers how to take more initiative and be rewarded for it! With its inspiring anecdotes and practical advice, Nelson's book is a wonderful resource for people who want their jobs to be more satisfying and for bosses who want to teach their employees to focus on what truly matters.

From the Publisher

Have you ever wanted a book you could share with everyone who works for you -- a book that gives employees the tools they need to make their work more rewarding and help the organization become more successful? Here, at last, is such a book -- from Bob Nelson, the million-copy bestselling author of 1001 Ways to Reward Employees. What's more, this book is essential for anyone who wants to get ahead and applies equally to managers and employees.

Bob Nelson maps out a specific and easy-to-follow strategy for fulfilling what he calls "The Ultimate Expectation" at every workplace: that people will use their best judgment to figure out what needs to be done and then do it without having to be told. His advice is surprising and novel. For example, some of the ways he suggests to excel at work include: Make Your Job More Difficult Develop a Reputation as the Office Cheapskate Shoot Holes in Your Own Plans Ask Silly Questions

Brief, to the point, and inspiring, Nelson's advice can be applied to any situation, from the mailroom to the boardroom, and is illustrated with examples and anecdotes from real life. This book is a perfect "first day on the job" read; an inspiring motivational tool for long-time employees; a useful resource for any HR department; and an invaluable investment for anyone who wants to go further than he or she ever dreamed possible in a job, a career, and in life.

Jack Stack

Bob Nelson does IT again. This book . . . hits the nail on the head. Read IT! Enjoy IT! Love IT!

Publishers Weekly

Nelson, author of the bestselling 1,001 Ways to Reward Employees, knows that the best ideas often come from employees on the lowest rung rather than from the people in the corner offices. One Starbucks employee, for instance, created and began serving Frappuccinos even though her manager forbade her to do so; later, Howard Shultz, Starbucks CEO, thanked this worker. When employees at a U.S. Airways maintenance facility heard they might lose their jobs, they proposed to management that work from other parts of the country be consolidated at their site. They kept their jobs, and the airline saved money. This book is filled with brief anecdotes of people who did more than their day-to-day duties. In a friendly, knowledgeable tone, Nelson explains how to take the initiative and make one's job better or one's customers happier. Each of these brief chapters has a title that itself is a lesson "Turn Needs into Opportunities," "Learn to Enjoy Those Things Others Hate to Do" and "Regroup When Your Ideas Meet Resistance." His basic point is one of empowerment: think bigger, he urges, figure out "what needs to be done" beyond the confines of your job description and do it. Although readers may wish Nelson had offered more detailed suggestions, his solid advice should be read by employees at all levels of an organization. (Sept.) Forecast: Given Nelson's track record along with a radio satellite tour and speaking engagements, expect strong immediate sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Details from Seller

• ISBN: 0786867299
• Publisher: Hyperion
• Pub. Date: September 2001
• Condition:

Comments from the Seller: Fine 0786867299 Like new condition.

• Table of Contents
• Read an Excerpt

Table of Contents

Read an Excerpt

Part One

Introduction: A Message Whose Time Has Come

Like many people, I held some interesting jobs as a teenager and in college. I had a job assembling bicycles (I was fired). I sold dictionaries door-to-door. I once spent a summer collecting unpaid tickets for a beauty pageant, ordered from sweet-talking contestants by middle-aged men who never intended to actually go. I've worked as a math tutor, a bookstore receiving clerk, a 7-Eleven cashier, and a summer camp Boy Scout counselor. I've done yard work and maintenance work for room and board to help get through college.

Most of these jobs were mundane to the point of being boring. They seemed to me at the time to have in common only the fact that they were each menial, minimum-wage jobs.

I learned later that I was wrong. Each of these jobs offered valuable lessons and opportunities that I ignored -- lessons I've since learned could be obtained in any job, at any level!

Take, for example, my job at 7-Eleven. I felt I was a good employee. I did what I was told to do and what I felt was expected in my job, which seemed to consist primarily of standing behind the cash register, waiting to ring up customer purchases.

One day, however, I was standing behind the cash register talking with another employee when the regional manager walked in the door. He glanced around the store for a moment, then motioned for me to come with him down one of the aisles. Without saying a word, he started to front merchandise, that is, to move up inventory to replace products that had been purchased.

He then walked to the food preparation area, wiped down the counter, and emptied a full trash receptacle.

I observed all of this with curiosity, and it slowly dawned on me that he expected me to do all the things he was doing! This came as a complete surprise to me, not because any of the tasks he was doing was new (I had done them all before; for example, I would mop the floor and empty the trash every day before my shift was done), but because the assumption was that I needed to be doing these tasks all the time!

Well, nobody had ever explicitly told me this before! And even now it was unstated.

In that unspoken moment, I learned a lesson about the world of work that would serve me for the rest of my life -- a lesson that not only made me a better employee, but also allowed me to get more out of every job and work experience from that moment forward.

The lesson was that I needed to be responsible for my own work. I needed to accept a higher level of ownership for my job in which I held myself personally accountable for my actions. In short, I needed to focus on what needed to be done and not wait to be told what to do.

Once I grasped this lesson, jobs I had found mundane became much more fun and exciting to me. The more I focused on what I could do in the job, the more I was able to learn and accomplish.

I left the 7-Eleven job to go to college, but I took something from that experience that shaped my life and career in a profound way. I went from being a bystander to taking charge of my work experiences. Class projects became more interesting, part-time jobs and internships became opportunities to explore entire professions, and entry-level positions became portals for unprecedented opportunity and growth.

As I advanced to higher positions as a manager and executive, I always tried to find opportunities to do what needed to be done. In fact, in every job, at every level, I saw chances to excel and make a difference -- not just for my employer, but for myself as well.

I came to the conclusion that every employee in every job needs to hear and believe this fundamental message: You can start to make a difference with your life today, in the job you currently hold, not the ideal job you hope you might hold someday in the distant future.

In the following pages, you'll gain further insight into how to take charge of your job, your career, and your life.

Our journey starts with an imaginary letter to new employees I call "The Ultimate Expectation."

Copyright © 2001 Bob Nelson