How To Experience More Job Satisfaction

Go where you are wanted.

Deliver what is needed.

Focus on delivering value.

What's my advice for commission analysts and commission managers who are starting a new job?

In my last post I talked about how to come up to speed by having a prepared process for data gathering.

I also talked about the importance of focusing on progress rather than perfection.

You have to do what you can, with the resources you have, in the time you have.

It will help if you create checks and checklists for yourself, so you can meet the twin goals every commissions analyst has to meet - accuracy and timeliness.

Yes I know, accuracy is another word for perfection, and time and perfection are at odds with each other, but if you arm yourself with tools such as checks and checklists, and use time management skillfully, it won't be so overwhelming.

Errors, including the "innocence errors" referred to in my last post, will be reduced, even if you cannot avoid them completely.

Just keep going and keep getting better.

Today I would like to talk about a different topic.

It is one that is close to my heart.

When you change jobs, you can be so focused on snagging or landing a job or assignment with better pay, or a better title, or a better environment, you may think about making the switch, and nothing else.

This is a mistake.

You should only take up a new assignment or job in which you can be sure: "I am wanted on this job and I am needed."

You should also only take up an assignment or job in which you can be sure: "I can do what is needed. I can deliver value."

You should try to find out as much as you can about your new job or assignment ahead of time.

You want to be reasonably confident you can do a good job.

You also want to be reasonably confident the job will work for you.

The company that hires you has obviously concluded you are a good fit for them and they are a good fit for you, and they believe you will be able to deliver value to them.

But where the disconnect arises, is between what they think is value and what you think is value.

Your past experience may lead you to believe that value is what you did at your last job plus or minus a few things.

But even in an area of work as well defined as commissions administration, value is completely subjective.

My experience confirms what Ron Baker and Ed Kless say about value in their Soul of Enterprise podcasts.

It means different things to different people.

It also means different things to different people in different contexts.

In each of my assignments, value has meant a different thing.

And because not everything is spelled out in an interview, I have to figure out what value I need to bring to a customer, and how best to deliver it.

Since I typically help companies who have a resource crunch - such as when a key commissions talent leaves the company -   the first order of business is pretty straightforward.

The value I have to deliver is to step in and do the work of the key talent, until the position is backfilled.

At one assignment, this meant I had to hop onto a plane to Irvine, Southern California and meet with the talent to get all the information from her, before her notice period ran out.

The key facts of the scenario were as follows:

o    The talent was a seasoned professional who had been handling commissions for the company for 17 years

o    She  was down to the last 3 days of her notice period

o    The company was a 40 year old company and the commissions data resided in an elaborate web of systems, and had to be verified through a number of cumbersome processes.

For 3 days, my boss, myself and the talent holed ourselves up in a conference room well past midnight on each day, so that we could come back to Norcal and keep the commissions processes humming, without the talent, and with a minimum of disruption.

When they found a backfill for the talent, I then had to switch tracks and deliver a different kind of value.

Now my job was to go into training mode to get the new analyst up and running on Xactly Incent.

Before leaving the company, a new sales org (from a company merger) was set up in Xactly.

I wrote an Xactly Incent Operations guide for the commissions analyst who was handling the commissions for that sales org, and I trained her on the Xactly processes specific to the sales org she was supporting.

What are the key takeaways from my approach to this assignment?

I was flexible, I went with the flow, and I delivered the value that was needed at different points of time.

This is what I advise you to do when you start a new job.

Whether you are an employee or a consultant, be flexible, go with the flow, and deliver what is needed.

I adapt to the different role requirements of each assignment.

At one assignment, I had to physically walk the payroll sheet for signatures to 3 different managers - the Director of Sales Ops, the Revenue Director and the Controller.

I had to also manually type up the exchange rates (starting, ending and average) from a particular website for 17 currencies, and send this on to various people in finance on a monthly basis.

These were low level tasks which had to be performed as part of an incredibly large number of low-level tasks and high level tasks which the Commissions Analyst had been shouldering.

It was a hard act to follow, but I did the best I could, focusing on progress, not perfection for the 9 months I was there.

It is a template I have followed again and again, with a few tweaks here and there.

On another assignment, value meant understanding the Access and Excel model created by an outgoing Commissions Analyst during his last week there, then UAT testing the Varicent set-up against this model.

I then wrote a step by step Varicent commissions process manual for the analyst to use.

The Varicent manual was not one of the requirements, but I realized it was essential, to the analyst being set up for success.  So I took it upon myself to create it, and then train her on the processes.

When you start a new job or assignment, find out what value means to the people you are working for, and think about how you can deliver it.

In my last post, I told you about the Xactly Incent Operations Guide I was working on.

I developed this guide in response to a coaching challenge.

Challenges are opportunities in disguise.

Related post:

The Element of Rising To The Occasion

Further, I have been training myself to see all problems as puzzles.

Related post:

The Element of Seeing All Problems as Puzzles

So when the coaching challenge came up, I saw it as an opportunity.

The only thing I was worried about was having enough time to deliver the coaching.

I scratched my head. I couldn't see how to get around the fact that time was a constraint.

I went online to see if I could find some answers to tackling training challenges.

And guess what - I hit pay dirt instantly.

I stumbled on Harold D Stolovitch (author of Telling Aint Training) and Alan Fine (the initial thinker behind the GROW concept of learning).

After listening to Stolovitch explain the elements of effective training, and reading articles explaining GROW (Goals, Realities, Options, Way Forward), I figured out an answer as to how to solve the time constraint problem.

The answer was to create a self-learning kit that did not require my time.

After giving some thought to what the self-learning kit should contain, this is what I came up with.  It has 4 parts in all:

o    The Xactly Incent Operations Guide (which I told you about in my last post)

o    A GROW worksheet - for the Xactly learners to write up their earning goals, current reality, options for learning, and way forward.

o    A progress and self-evaluation tracker - for the Xactly learners to mark their progress from familiarity to comfort to competence to mastery

o    And finally, a quiz for the Xactly learners to test their Xactly knowledge.

I felt confident this kit was the answer, and that any commissions analyst would be able to pick up Xactly Incent using it.

Related content:

Jeff Cobb of LeadingLearning.com speaks with Harold D Stolovitch about the elements of training.

An article about GROW written by Steve Nguyen, PhD

So let’s look at how this kit was born again.

I am presented with a coaching challenge.

I become aware of a need for Xactly Incent training.

The problem is there are time constraints.

I am eager to deliver value in spite of these time constraints.

My eagerness to deliver value and solve the problem leads me to do some online research.

By discovering Stolovitch and GROW online, I shift from a "teacher centered mindset" to a "learner-centered mindset". I develop “learning materials”, instead of “teaching materials”. My product is a complete self-learning Xactly Incent kit, with a goals, objectives and options worksheet, an instruction guide, a self-evaluation tool, and a self-testing tool.

A week ago, this kit did not exist.

But when you are focused on delivering value, one thing leads to another.

Even if there's not enough time on the job, your mind keeps working on solutions, and solutions emerge, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Don't think of your job as a job.

Think of it as a vehicle for value-delivery.

Your path to success should be paved with providing value.

Become passionate about delivering value.

When you are open to delivering value, you are open to going beyond what is expected. 

Someone says to you, "Minoo, I want you to develop a Team Sharepoint for us."

And you go "Are you sure I can do it?"

And then they say, "Yes, I think you can do it."

And you go "Ok, if you think I can do it, I will give it a shot."

And before you know it, you have developed a Team Sharepoint.

You become known for bringing above and beyond to the table, for doing what is most called for, for doing what matters most to a manager or team member.

Do things that make you uncomfortable.

Do things that expand your knowledge base and your skills base.

Do things that make you stretch, even if they mean an extra time commitment.

Keep saying yes until it becomes automatic for you to say yes.

And don't worry about failing.

Even if you fail, it means you tried.

And you will definitely learn some new things even when you fail.

When I think back on my commissions administration career, I have always tried to make a difference - I did it at Palm and I did it at Extreme Networks.

The problem was it was a back-end difference, and so it was invisible.

Today, I try to make a visible difference.  I see what can help a team, and I listen for what a manager says he or she wants.

And then I think of ways of delivering it, even if it was not what I was originally hired for.

Today, when I end an assignment, I have typically contributed a few different things of value to the team. A CDR and macros at Fortinet, macros at Rubrik, a Team Sharepoint at Linkedin, and the Xactly Incent self-learning kit at my current assignment.

None of these things were part of what I was originally hired to do.

None of them were requirements.

But I delivered them, because I saw an opportunity to deliver value.

If you want to experience more job satisfaction, delivering value can't be beat. And who doesn't want more job satisfaction?

So ask yourself - how can you deliver more value?

What requests can you step up to?

What unmet needs can you put your mind to?

Change your destiny and your level of job satisfaction by putting your mind to this today.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks for the feedback, (comments, likes, shares) on Part 1 through 12 of my last series of How To Live A Good Life posts. I appreciate the kudos from old friends, new friends, and relatives who have become friends. You keep me going.

NEXT, Thanks to all readers, current and future, for sharing my journey to wisdom, meaning, and a better life.  Like you, I am trying to find my way through this complex maze we call life, and I am honored to have you share my journey, as I continue to seek the wisdom hidden in plain sight.

FINALLY, A Happy Birthday shout-out:  to those with October birthdays. I hope you will use your birthday month to mark a turning point in your career, and to start focusing on delivering value. Remember, you will not be able to do that, if you are not committed to it, and if you do not apply yourself consistently.

To all my readers, have a blessed “doing good for yourself while doing good for others week, and see you next week.