Each year I teach this lesson to my high school students. So often as teachers we hear, "what is this stuff going to do for us when we graduate?" or "This is going to do nothing for me when I am older and have a real job."
No? Really? Well then, let me tell you how the work you do in my class translates into the incredible work you will be doing in 10 years at your job.
1. Attendance: Every day I take attendance in my class. I also check to see if you are on time. These two skills will help you in your job. Your boss will expect you at work every day AND on time. Being late, even a few minutes late can have a major impact on the company you work for. Let's say your boss has a meeting with a new client and he wants you to come into the meeting and meet the client. This could be your big shot. This client could help your company makes tons of money. This client could cause you to get a huge promotion. So the boss goes to get you in your office and lo and behold you are not there. He checks his watch and you are supposed to be there, but you aren't. So he walks back to his office where this new client is waiting to meet the best guy to help him and your boss has to tell the new client that you aren't here yet. Now how does that look to the client? How does that make you look? How does that make your boss look? How does that make your company look? Because you were late your company just might lose this client and possibly lose a lot of money. Oh, and that big promotion? Yeah, you won't be getting it any time soon.
2. Dress the part: A savvy teen knows what is cool to wear and what is not cool. Sometimes fashion is not appropriate in school and sometimes in the workforce. Know the rules and follow the rules. You may be working for a company that has a specific uniform to wear. You may not like that uniform but to work for the company you have to wear it. Are you going to wear it? School dress code is the same way. What you wear outside of school is your choice but what you wear inside of school is the school's choice. Follow the code.
3. Know who your boss is. In school your teacher is the boss of the class, the principal is the big boss. The teacher is like middle management. They know what is going on with each kid in the class. The teacher writes the recommendations for jobs, for college, for clubs. Know who your boss is. The big boss, the principal, may know some of the kids well but for most of the students, the principal relies on the teachers to tell them which students should be commended for their effort and their grades. Same as for the work force. In the work force you have the big boss and then you have middle management. The middle management is your immediate supervisor. If you don't impress them then you will often be overlooked for promotions, bonuses, and you will be the first for them to suggest for layoffs. So, do your work in class, impress your teacher and you will go far.
4. Ask Questions: School is a perfect spot to learn how to ask questions, ask for help and ask for suggestions. If you don't learn how to ask questions, and be comfortable in asking then when you get to your job you will be in trouble. When your boss assigns you a task, if you don't know what to do or how to do it you will need to ask questions. This doesn't make you less intelligent, it actually makes you look better. If you don't ask you might do the task wrong. Then your boss may get upset because now you have to do it over correctly and at this point it is late. If you asked questions to begin with you would have done it right the first time. It would have been turned in on time and it would have impressed your boss.
There are 12 qualities in this lesson. I will publish parts II and III over the next few days.
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