SUCCESS MAKING

The Visionary Employee (2)

The “Visionary Employee” part two is a continuation of where I stopped in part one. In the part one, we looked at who a visionary employee is all about. We noted that the visionary employee is a highly effective employee who acquires and applies all the personal effectiveness skills necessary to be optimally productive in achieving organizational and personal goals. In part one; I outlined three of the eight characteristics or traits of the visionary employee. In part two, we shall examine the last five attributes of a visionary employee.

(4) They Understand the Business Terrain

Who is your company in competition with? In marketing, there is what is called “Strategic 3cs: Company, Customer, and Competition”. As an employee, you should know your company inside out—its vision and mission statement, goals and objectives. Knowing your company is not the physical building. You must know what your company stands for, where it is heading, and who your competitors are. The visionary employees are well informed—on their own initiative, they research to see what is happening in the market and then pass valuable information to their company that could help them forge ahead of the competition.

(5) They Know & Serve Their Customers:

Knowing and caring for the customer is the bedrock to achieving business success. The visionary employee understands that “customers are really everything” (care). Customer care is a crucial element of business success. If you do not take care of them, they take care of their money elsewhere—usually to your competitors. As Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart said: “There is only one boss—the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else”. The visionary employees know that every contact the customers have with their company is an opportunity for them to improve their reputation with them and increase the chances of additional sales to the company.

(6) Embrace and Initiate Change

There is only one universal constant, and that is CHANGE. Change is constant, and you cannot avoid it. If I may ask: Do you look the same way as you were last year? Absolutely not! It’s either you have added some weight or lose some. In fact, you have grown older—because as each day goes by, you are aging. The same goes for organizations. Change is a constant factor in organizations which results as new policies are being made. For instance the recent economic melt-down that cut-across the globe forced many companies to merge, downsized, and reformate their company’s strategy. The visionary employees do not resist change—rather they flow along and embrace the change.

(7) They Are Diligent & Go The Extra Mile

The visionary employees work diligently, smarter, faster, and better. The love of work is the secret of personal progress, productivity and fulfillment because work encourages the release of potential. Laziness, which is the absence of work, absorbs potential and sacrifices possibilities. No one succeeds by accident. There is a price to pay for your success in life. One of such prices is diligence. It is about going the extra-mile. It takes diligence to succeed. Even the scripture makes it clear that “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule.” Meaning, if you put that extra effort, you will rule and reign. As Laurence Olivier, a prolific actor and filmmaker, said, “I’d like people to remember me for a diligent expert workman. I think a poet is a workman. I think Shakespeare was a workman. And God’s a workman. I don’t think there’s anything better than a workman”.

(8) They Commit to Lifelong Learning

Self improvement is adding value to your life. It is a quality decision by you to improve yourself and learn new things that will enhance your personal growth, achievement, and fulfillment in life.  The visionary employees are great learners who understand the principle that says, “If you stop learning today, you stop leading tomorrow.” Personal development is the ability to recognize the need to grow and transform from mediocrity to excellence.The visionary employee does not stop learning—he sees learning as a lifestyle. Creating time to read and career development is at the heartbeat of visionary employees. As an employee, maximize your potential by learning new things in your area of competence. If you are an accountant, become a leader in that field and develop yourself with current accounting journals.

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About the Author

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