"I love that you've brought this to attention. An extensive database of uncommon but resistant and hardy plants/foods could be developed and organized by climate. Ease of growth and processing should also be taken in to account. I will try to…"
A crash course in changing the world.
Learn from those you serve?
My chosen secret: "keep learning from your customers."
Having recently started my dream job as a library assistant, I felt from the very start the pressure to be the source of an endless amount of information. If someone asked me a question, they would expect me to give a satisfying answer to it with the least amount of delay. This was and still is scary for me; being so new to the career and the workplaces I am in.
I'm beginning to accept that I can't know how best to provide a service for every person who approaches me.
It is my first instinct to respond to questions with the first available answer, and if I have no idea how to answer a query the temptation to panic is very real. I feel a failure if I can't quickly give a customer the answers they need from my own experience. This feeling doubles if I have to then turn to a more experienced colleague for help, especially if the answer is something simple. I feel like a burden to my colleagues.
Maybe the change needs to be in how I approach myself.
If the work I do only involved providing quickfire answers suitable for every problem, my job could be done by a machine (cheaper and quicker?). However it is not. My job could be done by someone much more experienced. However, it is not. So, there must be some worth in me, in the potential I bring, the new viewpoint I bring.
Maybe the change needs to be in how I approach every person.
I am not all-knowing. I can't separate myself from the people I serve! Every barrier I put up between myself and a customer only frames my inexperience. No one loves the one who knows all the answers, because if they know all the answers... why would they listen to you? What could they learn from you? Even if I knew all the answers like a machine I might be answering a question, but not necessarily fulfilling the job. There's no growth there, no learning, and I need these so badly at this point in my life.
Things I need to put into practice:
1. Listen to my customers. I am there to serve them but they can help me grow (if I left them!).
2. Understand my customers. I am not above them, I am not below them, I am their equal.
3. Experience takes time; and there's no substitute for it.
Having recently started my dream job as a library assistant, I felt from the very start the pressure to be the source of an endless amount of information. If someone asked me a question, they would expect me to give a satisfying answer to it with the least amount of delay. This was and still is scary for me; being so new to the career and the workplaces I am in.
I'm beginning to accept that I can't know how best to provide a service for every person who approaches me.
It is my first instinct to respond to questions with the first available answer, and if I have no idea how to answer a query the temptation to panic is very real. I feel a failure if I can't quickly give a customer the answers they need from my own experience. This feeling doubles if I have to then turn to a more experienced colleague for help, especially if the answer is something simple. I feel like a burden to my colleagues.
Maybe the change needs to be in how I approach myself.
If the work I do only involved providing quickfire answers suitable for every problem, my job could be done by a machine (cheaper and quicker?). However it is not. My job could be done by someone much more experienced. However, it is not. So, there must be some worth in me, in the potential I bring, the new viewpoint I bring.
Maybe the change needs to be in how I approach every person.
I am not all-knowing. I can't separate myself from the people I serve! Every barrier I put up between myself and a customer only frames my inexperience. No one loves the one who knows all the answers, because if they know all the answers... why would they listen to you? What could they learn from you? Even if I knew all the answers like a machine I might be answering a question, but not necessarily fulfilling the job. There's no growth there, no learning, and I need these so badly at this point in my life.
Things I need to put into practice:
1. Listen to my customers. I am there to serve them but they can help me grow (if I left them!).
2. Understand my customers. I am not above them, I am not below them, I am their equal.
3. Experience takes time; and there's no substitute for it.
Views: 21
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Comment by Andrew Gill on March 25, 2010 at 8:22pm
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Great take aways, thanks for sharing
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Comment by Eric Koziol on March 26, 2010 at 4:40am
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Riko,
I think you got the point that you are interconnected with your customer. You both need each other otherwise that relationship would not exist. Remember your customer learns as much from you as you do from them. I love your focus on personal growth.
-Eric
P.S. You have an awesome name.
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Comment by Evan Harvey on March 26, 2010 at 4:55am
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"It is my first instinct to respond to questions with the first available answer, and if I have no idea how to answer a query the temptation to panic is very real."
This resonates with me. I had to get over this when I started teaching. A mentor told me once that this kind of anxiety you build up is all in your head. When is the last time you got frustrated at somebody who didn't answer a question quick enough? We expect people to take time to think when we ask them something, but for some reason we don't allow this for ourselves.
Slow down. Nobody will care, and you'll feel a lot more comfortable. Thanks for sharing
Evan
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Comment by Bevin Alison on March 26, 2010 at 8:18am
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Courage. You seem to have it figured out, just some practice eh? Everything gets easier with time :)Your introspection is comendable.
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Comment by Riko Kamachi on March 26, 2010 at 9:31am
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@Andrew: Glad you found it worth reading!
@Eric: I will do! Thank you :) I'm afraid it's an alias (I'm too wary of being stalked online).
@Evan: True, I really agree with that. Thank you for your insight.
@Bevin: I really hope so! It's certainly a more complicated learning process than I thought.
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Comment by Lori Hutcherson on March 27, 2010 at 3:15am
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"No one loves the one who knows all the answers, because if they know all the answers... why would they listen to you?"
I had sincerely never thought of it THAT particular way. That's actually very....freeing. Thanks!
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I was just having a good brain clearout... you know, when you say everything that comes to mind? Taking time to think about it was helpful to me, glad you liked it :)
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Comment by Sylvain Ratelle on March 29, 2010 at 3:27pm
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Riko, I share your point of view, we are there to help not to dictate our vision of what we think would be right
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