When we hear this phrase we automatically think of the exemplary employee. They don’t just stop at what their job description says, they invent new ways to serve, create, support etc. We love this attribute in a barista, manager – anyone really.
We love it so much that we begin to expect it from all of our employees. When we think someone is not “going above and beyond” we start to doubt their commitment. We compare them to their coworkers who stay longer, take on extra responsibility, and really just make us and our business look good. Problem here is that we are getting what I will call a false negative. The employee is not doing a bad job at all, they are simply being held to an unfair secret standard.
By making going above and beyond the expectation and not the exception we are setting up otherwise stellar employees for failure in our eyes. I see this a lot when owners secretly hold everyone to a standard that is not explicitly stated and then go on to punish those who dont guess their wishes with a lack of praise, lack of resource, attention, and opportunity. Going above an beyond cn be rewarded without creating a false dichotomy of, you are either doing more than expected, or failing. I am not sure why owners tend to be so black and white but it has to stop.
There is another manifestation of this mentality that is self-imposed but also facilitated and supported by the company. Managers especially can be prone to over working themselves by taking on too many responsibilities and tasks in an effort to prove their worth. This is often due to a lack of clarity in their role, lack of accountabilit, and especially because of a lack of affirmation and care from their boss. Remember, the boss may be giving off those vibes we described above where they save their praise for the new who do extra and so the employees who want to be seen and rewarded are now under pressure to perform accordingly. Even without this external pressure we can create this expectation for ourselves and the only way it can be combated is for you, as a boss, to call it out and fix whatever underlying accountability, clarity, and affirmation issues enabled the behavior to begin with.
We can enjoy and even reward employees for going above and beyond. We can, ourselves, go above and beyond in our roles. What we cannot do is allow these expressions of passion and generosity to be motivated by unfair top-down pressure or insecurity with our role in the organization.
Work is already filled with enough difficulties. Let’s not create more by letting “Going above and beyond” to go too far.
-Chris
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