WHAT CONTRIBUTION ARE WE MAKING DAILY IN OUR OCCUPATIONS? - IT'S THE WHOLE POINT AFTER ALL

WHAT CONTRIBUTION ARE WE MAKING DAILY IN OUR OCCUPATIONS? - IT'S THE WHOLE POINT AFTER ALL

Quite often at job interviews candidates are asked "Why should we hire you over other competing candidates?" Or "What value will you add to this organisation?" Maybe in not so many words but the bottom line is the interviewer wants to know your conscious CONTRIBUTION explicitly not as implied, assumed or read into abstract the job despcription.

We stand as specialists and professionals in our fields of expertise wanting to be noticed and heard distinctly airing our educated analysis, conclusions and recommendations on issues concerning our respective organisations , as good and significant as that may be, the question that remains is " Are you making any direct contribution to the required results of the organisation for its continued success and efficient operation?

Standing aloof as experts and specialists representing our professions limits our ability to contribute to the business as a homogenous unit instead we become functionaries of fragmented units masquerading as an organisation. The rate of achieving strategic objectives as an organisation  testifies to this assertion. If I'm an accountant I pause and ask myself each day "what contribution can or should I make today looking at the present state of affairs for the organisation to move forward and achieve it reason for existence?" As an engineer I ask myself the same question and get out of my inward looking job description which uses parameters based on professional and guild benchmarks. I am a team player among other different professional and expert team mates
together with whom I aim to achieve the same strategic objectives over and above the ones dictated by my supposed scope.

Contributing consciously as team players broadens our outlook as professionals and we see the interdependence of our skills and expertise in making the organisation function harmoniously. A manager in the operations can attend to customer complaints promptly and resolve them in order for the accountant's cashflow plan to succeed if it hinges on certain inflows coming in subject to the solution of the customer complaint by our operations practitioner.

Making a productive contribution means having a common sense of urgency and knowing that my effort
and the rate at which I exert it has a direct impact on the overal success
of the business and that it can hold back others from doing their jobs efficiently.

To contribute is to have interest in the things that matter and are directly relevant to the achievement of desired results at every instance. One brings the question of relevance into the equation because we can all be doing necessary things within our official scope yet irrelevant to the overall prevailing circumstances.

A Research and Development specialist's pre-occupation is self explanatory and mostly internal however with and outward looking and contribution mindset, he/she realises and accepts that by supporting the marketing team in the field to gain mileage of a new product with technical back up he/she makes a relevant and directly result oriented contribution when the day could have legitimately been used for brain-storming for another concept product.

The whole definitely proves greater than the sum of its parts if we all ask ourselves the question heading this article and respond positively with constructive ideas that are open to blending and synergy for collective good. Daily everyone has an opportunity to make a contribution to their immediate and peripheral area of existence, however quite often such opportunities are forfeited due to our selfish and self serving tendencies as people.

There is satisfaction and fullfilment in seeing a project through knowing that one's effort pooled together with
one's associates and colleagues worked to directly produce the required results for strategic success. An organisation whose people understand the need for selfless contribution establishes a culture of winning and fortitude even under dire circumstances because focus shifts easily from routine to emergency caution mode when the situation calls for it without losing time and other scarce resources trying to get buy-in from all parties involved in decision making and execution.

So we pause now and ask ourselves again "what has my contribution been  thus far and what can I contribute going forward?"

THE GOLDEN WORD FOUNTAIN -(TGWF)