Satisfy

I was listening to a great bass player describe what makes a great bass player and he used the words "to satisfy." This really took me by surprise, being a great player is to satisfy. He went on to explain that: of course you needed to be technically proficient, of course you needed to be thoroughly familiar with the genre but after that you need to satisfy your first audience which is the rest of the band.

It struck me that this is true in business teams as well. You need to be proficient in your discipline, this is why the company hired you. You need to be familiar with your company processes, this occurs over time. But moving from good to great means you need to satisfy your co-workers. They don't need to hear all your best solos. They don't need to hear how great you were in your last job. They need to know how you will satisfy them with the work at hand.

And strangely enough he said that the "audience" was the second audience. It turns out that if you are not satisfying to your first audience, your band mates, than the music will most likely not be satisfying to those people paying to watch you perform. I believe this is true at work as well. If you cannot satisfy your co-worker team mates than you likely will not be satisfying to you customers.

Think about this for awhile. You might find it freeing because you do not need to be perfect, you do not need to be right every time, all you need to do is to satisfy.