Margaret

I have been thinking about Margaret a lot recently.

Who’s Margaret? Margaret was a cleaning lady I employed years ago in the second business of which I was a managing director. She was tiny and well beyond retirement age and I would describe her as a typical North Eastern housewife- a compliment of the highest order, believe me. She was a part time member of the team and her job was to keep the place sparkling and business like. That meant not only cleaning but keeping me and the rest of the team in order, so we could perform at our best. She looked after us all and absolutely knew the importance of the job and the role she played in the business’s success.

Why have I been thinking about her a lot recently? Well last week I wrote about teamwork and I posted some stuff this last week about ‘quiet quitting’ as we now refer to a general lack of engagement and I marvel at how Margaret seemed to absolutely ‘own’ what some would describe as one of the more menial jobs in the business. She did her job with pride and dedication and unswerving dedication.

The difference it makes when someone is prepared to take pride and ownership in their job is phenomenal, it was then and is even more so now when so many people seem to take no ownership of what they do.

Of course, I would argue that ownership like Margaret demonstrated comes from a combination of two things. The first is the inherent nature of the individual and Margaret was of a different time, a different generation, and a different value system. The second is the role of the leader whose role is to help everyone find purpose and fulfilment in their job and a clear line of sight from what they physically do every day and the greater purpose of the organisation.

At that time, we had a great team, with everyone working together to achieve a common goal and so that team spirit was not only contagious but also self sustaining and self enhancing.

How would you rate your team spirit?

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