I hire people to do all types of tasks for me. The ones who last can do what they are supposed to do without any intervention from me. I hired someone to do sales. I don’t need to badger her to ask if she did what she was supposed to. She just does what she is supposed to and I just pay her. It is simple.
But, I sometimes unknowingly hire other people who just don’t do what they are supposed to. None of the programmers who I have hired get anything done without me constantly cracking the whip. They complain bitterly about how they don’t like me bothering them all the time, but they don’t function on their own, so I wasn’t given a choice.
Then, there are writers. I find people who can write. But, the writing process involves more than just writing. Topic selection is very important. There needs to be some analytics knowledge to be able to pick the type of subjects that will be popular with your audience. But, to pick catchy and unique titles is not that easy. So far only two of the writers I have worked with can come out with lots of ideas. The only problem is that one of them comes up with the same ideas every time I ask him to brainstorm. Once again, if I am not part of the process, things go sour. The other writer just sends me articles. They are pretty good. I don’t have to tell him anything. The articles just come, and enough of them are popular so that I can keep him. Minimal intervention is okay, but constantly having to oversee someone’s work is too much for me to do. If I do that, I don’t have time to do my work!
The best worker not only gets work done on their own, but offers helpful ideas without being asked. Obviously they shouldn’t shove the ideas down your throat, but the idea that they offer on their initiative is amazing, particularly if their ideas are useful.
When you are doing your work, ask yourself if you do what you are supposed to without intervention. Do you get back to people when the job is finished, or do you make them track you down to find out what happened? People who get ahead have their own initiative and crack their own whip. I am saying this after staying up until 4:30am to finish writing 20 blog articles in a single day. I hope they are entertaining!