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Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

thesash.me

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Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#91

Post by ajaimk »

I used to run the student advisory board for our college. We had a new dean and we were hosting an event for the first time since he arrived. After the event, many people left including some of our members and we had 2 rooms to clean up. We all went into the first one cleaned it up and came to the second room to find our dean wiping all the tables. We hadn't asked or expected him (He's the fricking DEAN!!) but he took it on himself to help out.

The trust he built in the students carried on and we still have a great relationship. Washing the dishes indeed.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#92

Post by thesash »

joe_the_user wrote: post #78
grellas wrote: post #48

Want to be a great leader? Work hard to develop extraordinary skills. Become an independent thinker and have the courage to follow your ideas. Show respect to others and never think more highly of yourself than you ought. Avoid bad habits of sloth, dissipation, dishonesty, and other qualities that would cause others to lose respect for you. Set goals that challenge you to do your best and follow diligently after them…

"That man might never make a mark in the broader society but I could see he would be a fine leader wherever his life circumstances took him." Ah the leadership question... Being a few years past high school, it's interesting to look at many people who seemed like leaders but never made it. Some times it was life-circumstances. But I think think there is also a too-great a willingness to merely work hard at what prese…

Not all leaders are managers. Some leaders lead quietly from behind their desks while their managers stay out of the way.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#94

Post by jasonlotito »

jarek wrote: post #81
jasonlotito wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe it's just my millenial entitlement, but that strikes me as a bad strategy. I don't know if has anything to do with your "millenial" (seriously, you use this word to describe yourself?) entitlement, but it's not a bad strategy for both you or the company. You don't want to work for a company like that, and they don't want employees like you. Extrapolate that into numerous other "First Day/First Week/First Mont…

> seriously, you use this word to describe yourself? No. That was tongue in cheek. Does anyone refer to their entitlement seriously?

I was referring your use of the word 'millenial', not the entitlement part. As for anyone referring to their entitlement seriously: yes. I see it happen all the time. I guess, however, they just don't realize it's their 'entitlement' they are talking about.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#95

Post by alnayyir »

jarek wrote: post #87
scott_s wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's Friday evening. You and your team will be at the office through the weekend to finish a release. The toilet backed up, spilling onto the bathroom floor. The building's cleaning staff will not be around until Monday, and there is no protocol for emergencies. Will you clean the bathroom? What I have done is contrive a plausible scenario where cleaning the bathroom is something that just has to get done in order fo…

> Will you clean the bathroom? Yes. (Though I better be getting paid overtime for that weekend work if the schedule slip isn't the dev team's fault.) There is a large difference between cleaning a bathroom in an emergency on a Friday evening and cleaning a bathroom because the boss wants to test you on a Monday morning. Are you assuming that just because someone cleaned it when their boss forced them to as condition…

>(Though I better be getting paid overtime for that weekend work if the schedule slip isn't the dev team's fault.)

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaha...

catches breath

...hahahahahahahahahahahahahaahha

Not worked long in software eh?

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#96

Post by whatusername »

jrockway wrote: post #73
cosmicray wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> doesn't consider himself too high to do the grunt work too go read 'Up the Organization' by Robert Towsend (written many years ago when he was the CEO of Avis Rent-a-car). Everyone at Avis (janitor, receptionist, CEO, all the way down the line) was required to work 1 or 2 days a year at the counter, renting cars. Helped everyone what business they were in, and why they had a job.

Or, "this is why I don't know anyone smart that works at Avis". No offense, but the day I have to work as a bank teller is the day I stop working for a bank.

And that is why Bank Teller software sucks.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#97

Post by jarek »

jasonlotito wrote: post #94
jarek wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> seriously, you use this word to describe yourself? No. That was tongue in cheek. Does anyone refer to their entitlement seriously?

I was referring your use of the word 'millenial', not the entitlement part. As for anyone referring to their entitlement seriously: yes. I see it happen all the time. I guess, however, they just don't realize it's their 'entitlement' they are talking about.

The entire "maybe it's just my millenial entitlement" was tongue in cheek. I've never seen anyone seriously refer to their own entitlement using the word "entitlement" in a positive content.

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#98

Post by jarek »

alnayyir wrote: post #95
jarek wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Will you clean the bathroom? Yes. (Though I better be getting paid overtime for that weekend work if the schedule slip isn't the dev team's fault.) There is a large difference between cleaning a bathroom in an emergency on a Friday evening and cleaning a bathroom because the boss wants to test you on a Monday morning. Are you assuming that just because someone cleaned it when their boss forced them to as condition…

>(Though I better be getting paid overtime for that weekend work if the schedule slip isn't the dev team's fault.) Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahaha... catches breath ...hahahahahahahahahahahahahaahha Not worked long in software eh?

Long enough to learn to say "no."

Re: Want to be a leader? Wash the Dishes When Nobody Else Will.

#99

Post by Deestan »

edw519 wrote: post #51
jarek wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's just my millenial entitlement, but that strikes me as a bad strategy. Unless the business was a cleaning or maintenance company, cleaning the bathroom seems far removed from anything relevant to my work and is in essence busywork. Questions that immediately spring into mind: is this some weird attempt at saving money by having employees do both their job and cleaning? Is this supposed to be some hazing rit…

Did you understand the grandparent? This had nothing to do with relevance, busywork, hazing, saving money, or evaluating talent. It had a single purpose: to determine willingness to do an undesirable job. That's it. Which, interestingly, is just as important in a software start-up as it was in my father's business so many years ago.

In this case the cleaning is clearly an initiation ritual/test.

The psychological traits needed to submit to arbitrary unnecessary labour (brownnosers good, independent thinkers bad) are entirely different from the psychological traits needed to spot problem areas and deviate from assigned tasks to fix them (independent thinkers good, bronnosers bad).

I hate litmus tests with a passion.

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