Why are your efforts worthless?

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I asked a graduate student to collect some information. When I asked him about the result at the end of the get off work day, he found nothing. Seeing that I was about to get angry, he said passionately: "I have tried very hard to find it, but I really can't find it."

As a supervisor, I have heard the words "I have tried my best" countless times, and every time I have to face an extremely sincere face. But I want to say: your "effort" is worthless!

Those who still regard "hard work" as a golden ticket to get out of trouble after work are all "students" who have entered the workplace. When they did not do well in the exams, because they had worked hard, their parents felt sorry for them and their teachers sympathized with them, patting their heads and saying "It's okay, just keep working hard next time." But in the workplace, you'd better not take these pills brought from school. If you still can't get rid of the addiction, I suggest you ask yourself three questions:

1. Can you not work hard?

Of course not. Because the word "hard work" should be the awareness of everyone when they stand at the starting line of the workplace. This is the most basic role setting. Isn't it ridiculous for a person who always says "I have tried my best" like a policeman shouting "I want to be brave and righteous" or a doctor shouting "I want to save the dying and the wounded"?

2. Is your salary calculated based on “effort”?

Of course not. Performance is nothing more than the quantity and quality of tasks completed, that is, how much you have done and how well you have done it. It has nothing to do with how much sweat you have shed. If you work hard for a day but don't get any decent results, then your contribution to the company today is zero. If a company is full of "hard-working" people like you, what do you think the prospects will be?

"Whether the work is completed" is the base number, and "how hard you work" is the coefficient. The cruel fact is that when the base number is zero, no matter how big the coefficient is, it has no practical value. Imagine if Jackie Chan didn't have those good works, would his injuries still have meaning? If Edison didn't find tungsten filament, who would care about his thousands of failures before?

There are two people, A and B. A works overtime until midnight every day. He even takes an hour off to take a look at his wife giving birth and then comes back to work hard, but still can't complete the task; B drinks coffee and reads magazines at work every day, leaves work on time without delay, but completes the assigned tasks perfectly. Which one do you appreciate more?

Of course it's B! The elites are those who can do their jobs well without "trying hard". If you "try hard" but still can't do it well, then you should just quit - since you can't do it even if you burn your inner universe, then you are really not qualified for this job. So according to this logic, if you still want to work, the worse the work is, the less you can claim that you "worked hard". Instead, you should say "I didn't work hard enough" to hide the ceiling of your ability and let others still have hope for you.

It is best to leave the commendatory words like "hard work" to others to judge, rather than to boast about it yourself. Just like when others say "you are so handsome", that is really handsome; but when you say "I am so handsome" yourself, that is really shameless.

But why do many people still cannot help but speak out? One reason is that they cannot produce visible results, so they have to use invisible "efforts" to make up for it; the second reason is that they know that their "efforts" cannot be seen by the naked eye, and if they don't shout them out they will be ignored - in fact, it's just a case of "there is no silver here".

The words "I've tried my best" are nothing more than a cover for complaining and giving in: "I'm so tired, please don't ask me to do this job." If this happens three times, your supervisor's trust in you will basically be gone.

Some people say "I have tried hard", but their bodies are very honest, sitting lazily, wearing headphones, eating fruit... Psychologists say that body movements account for 55% of the impression score. So, if the supervisor can't see your hard work, how can he believe that you have worked hard?

If it is a team project, when the superior holds people accountable, the person who says "I have tried my best" first is bound to be incurred the wrath of the crowd - "You are the only one who worked hard, are we all lazy?!" And you see those stars, after finishing work every day, they say "thank you for your hard work" to everyone on the set - because only by affirming the efforts of others can they get more support.

The more people keep saying "I have tried hard", the harder it is for them to succeed. This is because successful people know how to stay elegant and hide the embarrassment of their efforts. Just like swans swimming easily and gracefully on the water, but in fact their feet are constantly moving, just hidden under the water where others cannot see.

How to reflect the value of "effort"? First, to achieve substantial results, and second, to increase the visibility of "effort". Especially when you encounter an impossible task, no matter how hard you try, there will be no good results. At this time, you must let your supervisor see your "effort". L is the most capable subordinate I have ever led. It is also a simple task like collecting information. This smart girl surprised me the first time. She did it like this:

1List the searched keyword combinations and attach the most relevant results

In the past, my conversations with graduate students often went like this:

“Have you tried all the keywords?”

“I tried them all.”

“Have you tried this?”

"……No."

"What about that?"

"……No."

As a result, my expression became more and more ugly, and my tone became more and more severe.

L's approach avoided such a desperate conversation. I could tell at a glance that she had made various efforts, and I could also spot her problems at a glance and give her clear guidance. In fact, L and the male graduate student had the same blind spot, but when I faced her, my tone was positive and my attitude was kind. Why was there such a difference? Because she recorded her work process, allowing me to see the trajectory of her efforts; while the male graduate student's "efforts" were just words without any evidence, so how could I trust him?

2. Create surprises and compile the collected information into a concise summary

This is an active upgrade beyond my instructions, so I appreciate it very much. Completing the work as required is only 60% effort; completing the work beyond the requirements can get a beyond-expectation evaluation. Just like when you cut fruit for your husband, that is called housework; but if you know how to arrange the cut fruit into a heart shape, that is called creating a surprise in life, and you deserve a kiss.

Occasionally, a male graduate student would find a bunch of information and enthusiastically send tens of thousands of words to my email, which made me vomit blood (a supervisor who vomits blood can only complain about you harshly). L's approach has two advantages: first, it shows that she has read all the tens of thousands of words of information, because the summary she compiled is the proof of her efforts; second, it saves my time - if you spend a day collecting information, do you want your supervisor to spend another day to read it again? The most important responsibility of subordinates is to reduce the burden on their supervisors. Those who are frustrated may wish to evaluate themselves.

3. Actively asking others for help is also a form of effort

There is a classic educational story that goes like this: A father asked his child to move a stone in the garden. The child tried various ways, but the stone didn't move at all. The father asked: "Did you try your best?" The child said yes. The father said: "No, you haven't tried your best, because I was right next to you, but you didn't ask me for help."

Many people simply equate "hard work" with "working hard." In fact, trying hard to ask for help from others is also a kind of effort. Sometimes the person sitting next to you already knows the answer to a problem that you can't solve no matter how hard you try. All you have to do is put on a humble smile and sweet words, and ask this expert for guidance. L asked a colleague from the company's compilation department to help find foreign information. Such a subordinate who is good at collaboration is really welcomed by every supervisor. She also asked me for advice in time - supervisors often hold the ultimate key to completing instructions. As long as your question has enough gold content, there is no reason not to get guidance. So looking at the aggrieved face of the graduate student, I really want to say: "You haven't tried hard yet, because I'm right next to you, but you didn't ask me for help."

Taipei's famous Xin Yeh Restaurant had a trick that became famous in the industry in the early years: the boss knew that the restaurant was full, but he still asked his son to repeatedly check in front of the waiting customers to see if there were any vacancies. His son seemed to have wasted the entire night, but in fact the customers felt the restaurant's enthusiasm and efforts in serving customers.

"Hard work" is something that becomes less valuable the more you talk about it. It can only be realized by doing it. Hard work is a spirit, but to make your hard work valuable, you need both IQ and EQ.