No Excuses at Work

by Rob G
(New York)
(a visitor to the Leadership and Motivation Site comments)

Whenever I hire a new management employee, I always think, “You need to spend a day with Mr. X and Mr. Y.” Messrs. X and Y were two of the toughest executives in entertainment history – and two of the best. They wouldn’t like to be considered teachers, but that’s what they were.

They taught us such basic lessons as returning every phone call, remembering that people liked our clients more than they liked us (and just had to put up with us because we offered access to the stars). They taught us how to cut a conversation short (but politely). We also learned to order only salads (or steak tartar if we had to have meat) because you never wanted to be tied to a long lunch if it isn’t going well.

We found out that it didn’t matter if we had a bad night before or woke up on the wrong side of the bed. We were at work – on their time, and they were paying us – and, unless it was a true problem (illness or serious situation), we were to do our work and then pout or yell or whatever we wanted to do. Excuses were not tolerated, especially something like, “He didn’t return my call.” That would be greeted by, “Well, did you call again or send over a note or email?” Duh.

Messrs. X and Y might weren’t gentle or sweet with us, but they turned out a group of executives that went on to be the next generation of leaders. You can’t do better than that.