When an employee does more than what is being asked to do, he is said to have walked the extra mile. It is now being considered as an HR parameter and considered as a positive sign, signifying that he is an engaged employee. The can do and will do attitude exhibited these employees can become handy for the organization as they can be counted and trusted. They turn out to be the frontline warriors of the organization when difficulties crop up, even if it is beyond their roles, KRAs and KPIs.
How can one walk the extra mile at work?
- Be willing
- Be helpful
- Volunteer in your strong domain.
- Keep service as a value
- Take responsibilities
- Get involved
- Keep the purpose bigger than you.
- Do sacrifice something.
The employee who goes an extra mile truly exhibit leadership traits and are a source of inspiration for many. They are seen as people with strength of character and are held in high respect.
Story
Hayley started work as an administrative assistant for Dean right out of college. She’d been working for a few weeks in Washington State government and things were going well. She liked the people and the work came easily. She felt happy and confident.
But when she found out she was required to attend a new employee training in Tacoma, a 32 mile drive up the interstate from Olympia, she panicked. She didn’t want to go. She dreaded it and became a visible wreck. Dean asked what was going on.
Hayley confessed that she did not know how to merge onto the highway. She had learned to drive in Hawaii, never going more than 45 mph, then later her driving was limited to rural Washington and around the State capitol. She’d only been driving to and from work for a few weeks and even then she took a 15 minute detour to avoid the need to merge onto the highway.
She was distraught knowing she needed to drive to Tacoma on the highway five days in a row, merging both coming and going, and no one could help her.
To his credit, Dean did not laugh at her. Instead, he said, “OK, let’s do this together. Let’s drive together once and have merging lessons. You can drive, and I’ll be with you, practicing merging. I need to go to Tacoma that first day and introduce you to people anyway.”
Once he made the offer to teach her, Hayley felt immediate relief. She’d been dreading this drive so much she was giving herself headaches, but they immediately stopped that day and her shoulders relaxed.
Dean was a performance administrator with 80 people in his organization, certainly a busy leader with many demands on his schedule. But he took the time to drive with Hayley for that first meeting, coaching and training her on merging on the way up and back.
Today Hayley laughs as she looks back on this experience. But it also holds a deeper meaning. She recalled, “I felt like he could have chosen to only care about work and my performance. But instead he chose to consider me as a whole person. The fact that he was willing to take this extra step with me really impacted me.”
Activity
Write down an instance wherein you have walked the extra mile at your work place. How do it make you feel ?
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Quote
“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.”– Roger Staubach
Takeaways
- When an employee goes above and beyond his job description in his performance at work, he is said to have walked the extra mile.
- By taking up the 8 point strategy, we too as employees can walk the extra mile at our work place.
