Hard Work

When I interviewed for my current position of assistant men's basketball coach at Houghton College, one of the questions I was asked was: "What is your definition of hard work?" I will admit, this caught me completely off guard. I felt I was fairly well prepared for any questions about basketball, and the inevitable questions about how my relationships with our players would change (I was a student at Houghton for the previous four years and had lived with one of our players the year before).

I don't remember how I answered that question, but I'm sure I didn't answer it well. Over the course of the last year I've thought about this question a number of times and, I've decided on an answer that I believe is fluid, but represents an accurate view. I believe hard work is doing what is expected of you in a prompt and efficient manner to the best of your ability, and then finding a way to contribute something extra.

To do what is expected of you isn't working hard, it's working. There are responsibilities that come with any job or assignment - that's why it's called work. To say "I worked hard because I got it done" is to say that you may not have been qualified for the task at hand. To do what's expected with efficiency and timeliness are important to making sure that the next person can take your work and do what they need to do with it. Doing things with efficiency and timeliness also allow you to create time at the end of your task. Working to the best of your ability may be the most important part of this first note. If you are given a task, it's because you have specific qualities that make you the best person to complete it. If you give anything less than your best effort, somebody else could have probably done it instead of you.

The second part is what I think pushes it from "work" to "hard work". It is easy to do what's expected of you. It's probably explained ahead of time. You've probably done it multiple times. And you were chosen specifically to do it. You should have confidence that you can do that job well.  Working hard is doing everything already discussed, and then finding other ways to contribute to your team or organization. Whether that's assisting someone else struggling with their work, starting your next assignment, or finding a problem ahead of time and fixing it, that "above and beyond" mentality will prove invaluable to your employer and set the bar for everyone around you.

Confidence

When I look at my career and my life, one thing that I think stands out is a confidence in myself. I've always had a strong belief in myself and my abilities - especially on the basketball court. But when I look at it critically, I don't think that is enough to qualify for confidence.

Simply thinking you're good enough, talented enough, or smart enough isn't confident. It's cocky. The reason I say that, is because I think you need to have that belief grounded in a bigger picture. To move from cocky to confident, you need to understand why or how your gifts allow you to be more successful than your opponent.

To achieve this, you must first understand your role within your team or organization, then embrace it. You're assigned specific tasks for a specific reason. Most of the time, it's because you possess skills or traits that will allow you to perform those tasks better than someone else.

When you are assigned a role, take a few minutes to understand what is truly required to fulfill it at the highest level. Write down the traits you think are necessary in order to be successful at the tasks assigned. This is especially helpful when you feel that the role given to you is less important than the one you would like to have. By thinking critically about why you were chosen for that specific task, you may better understand how the decision was made, and have confidence in the fact that you possess whatever is required to accomplish it.