I recently won a book in a draw and have just finished reading it. It is all about becoming a “shortcut” (in fact the title is “Be A Shortcut”) and according to the author, if you become an expert at what you do, are really kind and helpful to everyone, always complete your work on time adding helpful extras such as information that the boss might not have thought of, but that will make his or her life easier, you will ascend effortlessly to the top of the career tree.
If only things were so easy.
In my experience the above behaviour may get you noticed and liked in the office, but depending on the organisation, it may also result in you being labelled “gullible mug” and the piling on of more and more work. Career advancement seems to come more easily to those who have the ability to tell the boss want he wants to hear or maybe that’s just sour grapes, as I was never any good at office politics, preferring to tell the boss what I thought was best for the business?
Learning to be a “shortcut” is however excellent advice for people owning their own service business and for anyone dealing with the public. It is really about the first principles of marketing: giving your customers what they want, how they want it, in a pleasant way, and finding things that make their life even easier, for example those added extras like a delivery service, so they don’t have to lug heavy products in and out of the car; making it easy to use you instead of your competitor in other words.
In normal economic conditions, people will even pay a premium for a company that gives good customer service. Now they may not, but if it means that you get the sale instead of someone else, it is surely worth doing in any case, so let’s all practise being shortcuts.
