IT'S YOUR JOB: TAKE CHARGE OF IT
ABOUT THE BOOK
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is the essence of It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It?
How does it do this?
Aren't there other books that do this?
Why should I buy this book?
Is this book needed?
Who in an organization should have this book?
What's unique about your book?
Why five parts and not four or more than five?
What are some examples of the 41 fundamentals?
Are you sure you've included everything, anyone needs to be successful?
Do all parts need equal attention and do all people put the same attention on the same parts?
The book is 85% stories. Why?
Can you give me a few story excerpts from the book that illustrate Deciding and Influencing?
What other examples are in the book?
How does the reader measure his or her success?
Exactly how does a person improve his or her performance?
In what ways does this book help managers?
Why should I buy this book and not some other book?
Is there one item in It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It that you are especially proud of?
Why is it important to do all of the five parts of your job competently?
Is there anything really new in this book?
In hindsight, could you have used any of the lessons in this book when you were president of Signetics?
Why did you write this book?
It appears that everyone can benefit from this book. Should everyone own it and follow the path you've laid out?
What is the essence of It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It?
The book teaches any person, in any job, at any level in any organization how to be successful.
top
How does it do this?
It divides all work for any person into five parts—KNOWING, DECIDING, ASSIGNING, INFLUENCING, and COPING. The book also teaches 41 fundamentals - "What-to-dos" and "how-tos".
top
Aren't there other books that do this?
None that are short, complete, cover all jobs, provide an excellent methodology, and are inexpensive.
top
Why should I buy this book?
This handy guide will help you improve your livelihood, your income potential, your future, and more immediately, your on-the-job satisfaction. It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It will show you how and inspire you to improve.
top
Is this book needed?
You are given written job requirement, description and responsibilities or know what you should be doing. However, job descriptions can be confining and are very precise for each job. They don't describe the breadth of skills people need to be successful. It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It gives you the fundamentals―the "what-to-dos" and "how-tos"―for success that apply to every job. This information is contained in just 15 pages. The other 85 pages of the book illustrate the fundamentals primarily through stories and examples. No matter what your job―now or in the future, no matter how high you go up the ladder of success, the lessons are the same!
top
Who in an organization should have this book?
EVERYONE! That's because you will all be talking the same language. And, you can't get very far in the book before you learn that an organization is a "team sport". Everyone has to work together, help each other, teach each other and learn from each other. When that happens everybody does better, and the organization does better, too.
top
What's unique about your book?
I've broken down all work―done by anyone―into five parts: Knowing, Deciding, Assigning, Influencing, and Coping. This is what makes Just Do Your Best unique―and practical. This approach lets people get their arms around their jobs, one part at a time. It is an easier way for them to think about their jobs and how to improve their performance―and in the end become more successful.
top
Why five parts and not four or more than five?
I started by asking myself, "What are the components that make up a good piece of work?" I thought about my own work experience and various other people's experiences, and decided there were five: Knowing, Deciding, Assigning, Influencing, and Coping. These five parts include everything a people could, would, or should do in their jobs.
For instance, a waitress in a restaurant has to know everything about her job. She makes a number of decisions for each table she serves―how much to tell the guests about the menu, which table to serve when, when to ask a busboy for help, and how to "handle the chef" that evening. She accepts assignments from the guests--their orders. She gives their orders, to the chef; she serves their meals. She is influenced to do things better or differently by other waiters, the chef, the manager, and the owner. She also influences others by telling them what the guests liked or didn't like. Finally, she has to cope with the occasional complaining, unruly, surly guest or the occasional temperamental chef or owner. The restaurant owner, the chef, and others working at the restaurant have the same five parts to their jobs as well.
top
What are some examples of the 41 fundamentals?
Here are a few examples, and the book explains these and others in more detail.
For KNOWING: Learn the organization's culture, its values, and its customs.
For DECIDING: Collect questions to ask.
For ASSIGNING: Make sure there are consequences.
For INFLUENCING: Help, teach, mentor, or coach.
For COPING: Don't let success go to your head.
top
Are you sure you've included everything, anyone needs to be successful?
I believe I have included all of the fundamentals of doing any job. However, nothing would make me happier than to get a message from someone saying, "you left out such and such". That would mean the person is using the book and making himself or herself more successful. And, making people successful is my purpose. It's what I want them to do for themselves. At the back of the book there are four pages for notes; so you can add other advice or advice expressed in a different way.
top
Do all parts need equal attention and do all people put the same attention on the same parts?
No and no. Each person should match the parts and fundamentals, what I call the "what-to-dos" and "how-tos", to his or her job. For example, managers will spend a great deal of time on assigning, while a financial investment counselor will spend more time on deciding. That's why this book fits everyone!
top
The book is 85% stories. Why?
Most learning comes through stories, examples, observations of what's going on and one's own experience. Seeing similar situations through the eyes of people who've gone through what you are experiencing can open doors, shed light, and help you accomplish what needs to be done.
top
Can you give me a few story excerpts from the book that illustrate Deciding and Influencing?
Herb Brooks, the coach of the U.S. Hockey Team that defeated Russia in the 1980 Olympics made a number of critical DECISIONS that affected the performance of his team and the outcome of the game. " . . . Brooks carefully considered every single player proposed for the team. Every one he accepted represented a significant DECISION on Brook's part, as did every player he turned away. Once Brooks had chosen his team, he DECIDED how to motivate them, how to play them, and how to rest them. He gathered all the facts. Brooks not only studied every member of his team, he studied every player on the Soviet team, as well . . ."
Rachel Carson changed the world through her INFLUENCE. "By all counts one of the most influential people of the past century was a shy, unassuming scientist and writer . . . In 1962, when the environmental movement was little more than a slogan, she shocked the world with her book, Silent Spring . . . . She was not a born crusader, but an intelligent and dedicated woman who simply rose heroically to an occasion and used her INFLUENCE to change the world."
top
What other examples are in the book?
Rosa Parks made the DECISION not to move from the front of the bus, and that was the match that lit the fire of the civil rights movement
Norman Rockwell, a beloved American artist, learned his craft by studying with other talented artists and studying the paintings of world famous artists. KNOWING his job was most important to him. He said, "People somehow get out of your work just about what you put into it, and if you are interested in the characters that you draw, and understand them and love them, why, the person who sees your picture is bound the feel the same way." He had talent, but he learned and understood what he was doing, and that made him successful.
A summer camp director just naturally used all the fundamentals of ASSIGNING when he got each boy to write two letters home each week. Once each boy knew what was expected of him and the supporting help was in place, it became a habit.
And, President Abraham Lincoln successfully COPED with the members of his cabinet who had their own ambitions and agendas. He also COPED with his generals' early defeats caused by their lack of talent and forcefulness in battles.
top
How does the reader measure his or her success?
People should measure themselves as follows:
Do I competently perform to my job requirement?
Do I always meet my long- and short-term objectives, sometimes called goals and targets?
Do I competently do all the five parts of my job as described in the book as they apply to my position?
I believe that if all of these are done well, they can call themselves a success and are considered by others to be a successful person. Success does not infer you must aspire to attain a higher paid position or a position with more responsibility. That decision is up to each person and depends on his or her ambition and talent.
top
Exactly how does a person improve his or her performance?
I write that people should do the following:
Make sure you are meeting your job requirements (description, responsibilities), your objectives, and your daily and weekly assignments.
Periodically ask yourself: How am I doing on KNOWING? How am I doing on DECIDING? How am I doing on ASSIGNING? How am I doing on INFLUENCING? How am I doing on COPING?
Critique your own performance. Compare it to the best that others have done in your position and look for ways to improve.
Listen, talk, and observe.
Find a mentor or role model, coach or confidant. Read. Go to school. Study. Practice.
Help others.
top
In what ways does this book help managers?
The five parts of each job apply to manager's jobs as well, but they have an additional challenge. They must design and put in place the structure of the organization (the plans, practices, procedures, policies, processes and rules). So I have included a 3-page "reminder" for managers. What managers learn elsewhere can add more to the fundamentals included in It's Your Job: Take Charge of It.
top
Why should I buy this book and not some other book?
It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It tells you in a straight forward way what to do and how to do it. It's an easy to read guidebook. Other books go into parts of what you must do, and it's fine to read them. But this book covers the basics for all jobs anywhere, and it has the potential to inspire you. You'll begin to think, "If Rachel Carson can do that, I can do better at what I am doing." "If President Lincoln could cope with the pressures of his office, I can cope with the onerous circumstances of my job."
By asking yourself some of the questions I've posed in the book, you will begin searching your memory for some of the good and not so good things you have done. And, in the process, you will learn a great deal. A lot of good stuff is there in your memory―use it!
Many ideas in the book will shed new light, from new angles about things you are doing or not doing, and that can really help you succeed.
top
Is there one item in It's Your Job: Take Charge of It that you are especially proud of?
Yes, the questions at the end of each chapter, because you can't change until you ask yourself these 5 questions.
How am I doing on KNOWING?
How am I doing on DECIDING?
How am I doing on ASSIGNING?
How am I doing on INFLUENCING?
How am I doing on COPING?
They will start you thinking and stewing, and then hopefully they will lead you to take the steps to improve.
top
Why is it important to do all of the five parts of your job competently?
Compare your work to your automobile. You may have bought it because you liked the way it looked, or how it handled. But if the engine misses, or the windows leak, or the brakes squeal, or the tires wobble, you've got a lemon. All the parts have to be working properly, and the same goes for you and your work.
top
Is there anything really new in this book?
At the basic level of wisdom, probably not, but It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It includes basic wisdom for the workplace. But, if we look at the application of that wisdom, the answer is yes. What's new is the five parts of work, the 41 fundamentals, the questions at the end of each chapter and the stories and examples I've provided.
top
In hindsight, could you have used any of the lessons in this book when you were president of Signetics?
Yes. We started a little "skunk works" to make a 360 class computer to compete with IBM. We should have taken time to learn more about the computer business. After spending several million dollars, we sold it.
I decided, with the urging from others to build an assembly plant in the Philippines that would employ 1,000-2,000 people at the same time automatic assembly equipment became feasible and affordable. Had I put that information into our planning, we would not have built the plant. We shut it down after a few years.
We started a corporate-wide continuous improvement effort, and I left out the assigning steps for "setting objectives". Without precise assignments, people did very little. After limping along for a year, I corrected that, and we were successful.
I was not forcefully influential with our parent company Philips about how they were going to pursue a direction in the business. I was influential inside Signetics, but I ignored involvement in community affairs and participation in industry trade associations. I hadn't realized that they were part of my job, too.
As for coping, my sense of humor helped when we were in one of the industry's awful downturns. We had to layoff 40% of our people―4,000 people―knowing that we'd hire 4,000 people back in the next year or two. I gave a talk to a group outside our company and was asked, "How are you getting along in these tough times?" I said, "I'm sleeping like a baby. I wake up every two hours and cry."
top
Why did you write this book?
I wrote It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It because I think there are a great many people in the work force that are not doing their best, and are not working up to their potential. There are three reasons for this:
They don't think they need to; they are getting by OK.
They don't seem to have an obvious incentive to do better.
They don't know what to do better or how to do better.
In speaking to top management, they have become numb to the daily problems and unachieved opportunities, or they don't know how to fix them.
This book will greatly help individuals and management reach their potential.
top
It appears that everyone can benefit from this book. Should everyone own it and follow the path you've laid out.
I couldn't have said it any better.
top
How does it do this?
Aren't there other books that do this?
Why should I buy this book?
Is this book needed?
Who in an organization should have this book?
What's unique about your book?
Why five parts and not four or more than five?
What are some examples of the 41 fundamentals?
Are you sure you've included everything, anyone needs to be successful?
Do all parts need equal attention and do all people put the same attention on the same parts?
The book is 85% stories. Why?
Can you give me a few story excerpts from the book that illustrate Deciding and Influencing?
What other examples are in the book?
How does the reader measure his or her success?
Exactly how does a person improve his or her performance?
In what ways does this book help managers?
Why should I buy this book and not some other book?
Is there one item in It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It that you are especially proud of?
Why is it important to do all of the five parts of your job competently?
Is there anything really new in this book?
In hindsight, could you have used any of the lessons in this book when you were president of Signetics?
Why did you write this book?
It appears that everyone can benefit from this book. Should everyone own it and follow the path you've laid out?
What is the essence of It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It?
The book teaches any person, in any job, at any level in any organization how to be successful.
top
How does it do this?
It divides all work for any person into five parts—KNOWING, DECIDING, ASSIGNING, INFLUENCING, and COPING. The book also teaches 41 fundamentals - "What-to-dos" and "how-tos".
top
Aren't there other books that do this?
None that are short, complete, cover all jobs, provide an excellent methodology, and are inexpensive.
top
Why should I buy this book?
This handy guide will help you improve your livelihood, your income potential, your future, and more immediately, your on-the-job satisfaction. It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It will show you how and inspire you to improve.
top
Is this book needed?
You are given written job requirement, description and responsibilities or know what you should be doing. However, job descriptions can be confining and are very precise for each job. They don't describe the breadth of skills people need to be successful. It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It gives you the fundamentals―the "what-to-dos" and "how-tos"―for success that apply to every job. This information is contained in just 15 pages. The other 85 pages of the book illustrate the fundamentals primarily through stories and examples. No matter what your job―now or in the future, no matter how high you go up the ladder of success, the lessons are the same!
top
Who in an organization should have this book?
EVERYONE! That's because you will all be talking the same language. And, you can't get very far in the book before you learn that an organization is a "team sport". Everyone has to work together, help each other, teach each other and learn from each other. When that happens everybody does better, and the organization does better, too.
top
What's unique about your book?
I've broken down all work―done by anyone―into five parts: Knowing, Deciding, Assigning, Influencing, and Coping. This is what makes Just Do Your Best unique―and practical. This approach lets people get their arms around their jobs, one part at a time. It is an easier way for them to think about their jobs and how to improve their performance―and in the end become more successful.
top
Why five parts and not four or more than five?
I started by asking myself, "What are the components that make up a good piece of work?" I thought about my own work experience and various other people's experiences, and decided there were five: Knowing, Deciding, Assigning, Influencing, and Coping. These five parts include everything a people could, would, or should do in their jobs.
For instance, a waitress in a restaurant has to know everything about her job. She makes a number of decisions for each table she serves―how much to tell the guests about the menu, which table to serve when, when to ask a busboy for help, and how to "handle the chef" that evening. She accepts assignments from the guests--their orders. She gives their orders, to the chef; she serves their meals. She is influenced to do things better or differently by other waiters, the chef, the manager, and the owner. She also influences others by telling them what the guests liked or didn't like. Finally, she has to cope with the occasional complaining, unruly, surly guest or the occasional temperamental chef or owner. The restaurant owner, the chef, and others working at the restaurant have the same five parts to their jobs as well.
top
What are some examples of the 41 fundamentals?
Here are a few examples, and the book explains these and others in more detail.
For KNOWING: Learn the organization's culture, its values, and its customs.
For DECIDING: Collect questions to ask.
For ASSIGNING: Make sure there are consequences.
For INFLUENCING: Help, teach, mentor, or coach.
For COPING: Don't let success go to your head.
top
Are you sure you've included everything, anyone needs to be successful?
I believe I have included all of the fundamentals of doing any job. However, nothing would make me happier than to get a message from someone saying, "you left out such and such". That would mean the person is using the book and making himself or herself more successful. And, making people successful is my purpose. It's what I want them to do for themselves. At the back of the book there are four pages for notes; so you can add other advice or advice expressed in a different way.
top
Do all parts need equal attention and do all people put the same attention on the same parts?
No and no. Each person should match the parts and fundamentals, what I call the "what-to-dos" and "how-tos", to his or her job. For example, managers will spend a great deal of time on assigning, while a financial investment counselor will spend more time on deciding. That's why this book fits everyone!
top
The book is 85% stories. Why?
Most learning comes through stories, examples, observations of what's going on and one's own experience. Seeing similar situations through the eyes of people who've gone through what you are experiencing can open doors, shed light, and help you accomplish what needs to be done.
top
Can you give me a few story excerpts from the book that illustrate Deciding and Influencing?
Herb Brooks, the coach of the U.S. Hockey Team that defeated Russia in the 1980 Olympics made a number of critical DECISIONS that affected the performance of his team and the outcome of the game. " . . . Brooks carefully considered every single player proposed for the team. Every one he accepted represented a significant DECISION on Brook's part, as did every player he turned away. Once Brooks had chosen his team, he DECIDED how to motivate them, how to play them, and how to rest them. He gathered all the facts. Brooks not only studied every member of his team, he studied every player on the Soviet team, as well . . ."
Rachel Carson changed the world through her INFLUENCE. "By all counts one of the most influential people of the past century was a shy, unassuming scientist and writer . . . In 1962, when the environmental movement was little more than a slogan, she shocked the world with her book, Silent Spring . . . . She was not a born crusader, but an intelligent and dedicated woman who simply rose heroically to an occasion and used her INFLUENCE to change the world."
top
What other examples are in the book?
Rosa Parks made the DECISION not to move from the front of the bus, and that was the match that lit the fire of the civil rights movement
Norman Rockwell, a beloved American artist, learned his craft by studying with other talented artists and studying the paintings of world famous artists. KNOWING his job was most important to him. He said, "People somehow get out of your work just about what you put into it, and if you are interested in the characters that you draw, and understand them and love them, why, the person who sees your picture is bound the feel the same way." He had talent, but he learned and understood what he was doing, and that made him successful.
A summer camp director just naturally used all the fundamentals of ASSIGNING when he got each boy to write two letters home each week. Once each boy knew what was expected of him and the supporting help was in place, it became a habit.
And, President Abraham Lincoln successfully COPED with the members of his cabinet who had their own ambitions and agendas. He also COPED with his generals' early defeats caused by their lack of talent and forcefulness in battles.
top
How does the reader measure his or her success?
People should measure themselves as follows:
I believe that if all of these are done well, they can call themselves a success and are considered by others to be a successful person. Success does not infer you must aspire to attain a higher paid position or a position with more responsibility. That decision is up to each person and depends on his or her ambition and talent.
top
Exactly how does a person improve his or her performance?
I write that people should do the following:
top
In what ways does this book help managers?
The five parts of each job apply to manager's jobs as well, but they have an additional challenge. They must design and put in place the structure of the organization (the plans, practices, procedures, policies, processes and rules). So I have included a 3-page "reminder" for managers. What managers learn elsewhere can add more to the fundamentals included in It's Your Job: Take Charge of It.
top
Why should I buy this book and not some other book?
It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It tells you in a straight forward way what to do and how to do it. It's an easy to read guidebook. Other books go into parts of what you must do, and it's fine to read them. But this book covers the basics for all jobs anywhere, and it has the potential to inspire you. You'll begin to think, "If Rachel Carson can do that, I can do better at what I am doing." "If President Lincoln could cope with the pressures of his office, I can cope with the onerous circumstances of my job."
By asking yourself some of the questions I've posed in the book, you will begin searching your memory for some of the good and not so good things you have done. And, in the process, you will learn a great deal. A lot of good stuff is there in your memory―use it!
Many ideas in the book will shed new light, from new angles about things you are doing or not doing, and that can really help you succeed.
top
Is there one item in It's Your Job: Take Charge of It that you are especially proud of?
Yes, the questions at the end of each chapter, because you can't change until you ask yourself these 5 questions.
How am I doing on KNOWING?
How am I doing on DECIDING?
How am I doing on ASSIGNING?
How am I doing on INFLUENCING?
How am I doing on COPING?
They will start you thinking and stewing, and then hopefully they will lead you to take the steps to improve.
top
Why is it important to do all of the five parts of your job competently?
Compare your work to your automobile. You may have bought it because you liked the way it looked, or how it handled. But if the engine misses, or the windows leak, or the brakes squeal, or the tires wobble, you've got a lemon. All the parts have to be working properly, and the same goes for you and your work.
top
Is there anything really new in this book?
At the basic level of wisdom, probably not, but It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It includes basic wisdom for the workplace. But, if we look at the application of that wisdom, the answer is yes. What's new is the five parts of work, the 41 fundamentals, the questions at the end of each chapter and the stories and examples I've provided.
top
In hindsight, could you have used any of the lessons in this book when you were president of Signetics?
Yes. We started a little "skunk works" to make a 360 class computer to compete with IBM. We should have taken time to learn more about the computer business. After spending several million dollars, we sold it.
I decided, with the urging from others to build an assembly plant in the Philippines that would employ 1,000-2,000 people at the same time automatic assembly equipment became feasible and affordable. Had I put that information into our planning, we would not have built the plant. We shut it down after a few years.
We started a corporate-wide continuous improvement effort, and I left out the assigning steps for "setting objectives". Without precise assignments, people did very little. After limping along for a year, I corrected that, and we were successful.
I was not forcefully influential with our parent company Philips about how they were going to pursue a direction in the business. I was influential inside Signetics, but I ignored involvement in community affairs and participation in industry trade associations. I hadn't realized that they were part of my job, too.
As for coping, my sense of humor helped when we were in one of the industry's awful downturns. We had to layoff 40% of our people―4,000 people―knowing that we'd hire 4,000 people back in the next year or two. I gave a talk to a group outside our company and was asked, "How are you getting along in these tough times?" I said, "I'm sleeping like a baby. I wake up every two hours and cry."
top
Why did you write this book?
I wrote It's Your Job: Take Charge Of It because I think there are a great many people in the work force that are not doing their best, and are not working up to their potential. There are three reasons for this:
In speaking to top management, they have become numb to the daily problems and unachieved opportunities, or they don't know how to fix them.
This book will greatly help individuals and management reach their potential.
top
It appears that everyone can benefit from this book. Should everyone own it and follow the path you've laid out.
I couldn't have said it any better.
top
