I’ve been blogging every day this week in a special series titled, “Your Best Job Now.”
Today’s topic: The one skill that trumps all others.
What’s the most important job skill you can have?
A strong work ethic?
A hunger for constant learning?
The ability to develop a thick list of network contacts?
Perhaps. But I’m going to suggest that the most important skill you can have at work is knowing and living by something called the Crow Code.
This code isn’t original with me. I gleaned it from a colleague, Shaun Blakeney. Several years ago we wrote a book together about maturity for young men. The code is something he first learned more than 20 years ago.
I’ll let Shaun tell the story in his own words:
During my senior year of high school, I worked as a dishwasher at a noodle-and-soy restaurant.
Washing dishes is seldom fun. Plus in this restaurant they used all these sauces and stuff, so it was even grosser.
But the strangest part of the job was this—
One day two cooks were hanging outside in back of the restaurant, and one cook spotted a crow flying by.
Right there behind the restaurant he whipped out a shotgun and blasted away. KA-BLAM!
In no time flat, the crow was defeathered, sliced, diced, and sizzling in a pot.
The two cooks ate it right then on the spot, spitting shotgun shells out whenever they crunched on one. No lie.
So what’s the Crow Code?
It’s that your work can be full of crazy things. And if your job is completely wacky, then at very least you’ll have some hilarious stories to tell twenty years later.
Knowing that can help keep you sane at the nuttiest of times.
Okie doke, today’s post was for fun.
But there’s vital seriousness to it too.
Keeping a good sense of humor in an incredibly important job skill. Some would say it’s the most important skill of all. It can help you survive and thrive in any job situation.
Have a good Friday, everyone.
Read the rest of this series:
Part 2: Five Ways toTell if Your Job is a Good Fit
Part 3: Three Surprising Realities of Where You Work
Part 4: Ten Strategies to Survive and Thrive at Your Job
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Question: What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened at a place you’ve worked?
5 comments:
I'll keep with the bird theme... A colleague and I went to a small Texas town for some interviews. When we arrived we rented a car and I was the driver. We were driving along and a bird flew right into the windshield. It made a really loud noise. The impact killed it (poor bird) and it stuck to the windshield. I tried the windshield wipers and it got stuck in them which kind of made it all worse. I had to pull over. Although he wasn't thrilled about it, my colleague was nice enough to get out and extract the bird out of the wipers.
What a great story! Happy Friday to you as well!
Great story Kaylee.
Thanks Patricia.
great story Marcus!
I don't remember such a crazy thing at work, but it was cool as the german Bundeskanzlerin (Chancellor) Angela Merkel was visting my company this year. She landed by helicopter.
T
That is cool, Tobias! I couldn't think of anything particularly crazy either which is why I went with the bird theme.
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