I was at a huge conference with attendees from the Top 50 IT companies. Speakers were mostly CXOs from different fields.

Attendees were the top few high-potentials from high-performing organizations. The crowd was highly intellectual and spread across management trainees to function heads. One of the CEOs was leading a topic on Process improvement. He emphasized the importance of the Process department, including Quality Assurance and Process Groups, from different organizations. He discussed how their work was important. One of the team leads from some organization raised his hand for a question that drew everyone’s attention.

He asked “You are talking about processes and organizations, how can one position themselves etc. But to me, following processes and getting my teams to do the mundane work is quite frustrating. Why would anyone performing the work want to see the benefit?”

He had put the CEO in a tight spot. There are multiple ways one could have addressed it. I am sure whoever reads this will come up with their own version of their response. However, the response given by the CEO to whom the question was posed got etched in my mind.

The crowd went silent. They waited to hear his response. He smiled at the one asking the question. Then he said, “It all depends on how you see what work you do! Let’s say you are working at a car manufacturing company. You are responsible for fixing the tires. Your job description is to tighten the nuts and bolts. All of us who drive cars understand the importance of this job. If you continue to see your job as fixing nuts & bolts – you will never grow. If you see yourself as being part of a team that builds-cars, you will have a growth mindset and grow. So, think about what car you are building in your work front! If you only focus on the nuts & bolts, you will get frustrated. But when you realize the car you are building, you will see the importance of what you do. You will understand how your work fits into the bigger picture.”

There was a HUGE applause in the crowd. It resonated with everyone who was there. This was true whether one was a trainee, team leader, project leader, function head, or running an organization.

How we see our work and how it connects to the bigger picture, helps us understand how we fit into the broader scope of work. We tend to think of how our work impacts the rest of the areas and are able to better adapt ourselves and focus on how to be a team player in a broader sense. As our perspectives expand, our scope of work expands as well – as we start understanding the rest of the pieces needed to build-the-overall-car in our work front.

So, when you look at what work you do? Think about how you look at yourself and your work. Are you fixing nuts & bolts or are you building a car 🙂