“So…What do you do”?

“It’s not always my job, but it is always my responsibility”.

Often one of the first things we say when we meet someone new is to ask (or be asked) “so what do you do”?  While we know as a cultural reflex, this mean what do you do for a living or what is your job or occupation.  If you strip the cultural context away from the question, it is a powerful and versatile question to ask colleagues within your organization and most importantly to ask yourself.

This is part two of a three-part series on Questions Every Organizational Leader Should Ask. Click here for Part 1: If It Ain’t Broke, Improve It” to bring you up to speed.

Part 2: “So…What do you do”?

If we are purposeful in how we respond this this simple question, it can provide incredible depth and serve as reminder of our mission, serve as a tool for coaching and help us measure our actions against our words.  The question can be answered individually or it can be used as a part of a staff development exercise.

The power in the question comes from taking a question that is so common our response has become reflexive and creating the practice of reflection prior to responding.  When we factor in a few seconds of reflection it can elicit the following response types:

Q: What do you do? A: Core Mission

One way we can respond is to focus on the core mission of what you do in the context of your role within your organization. What do you do? Here are a couple of responses that focus on your core mission:

• I educate customers and work to resolve technical issues with their computers so they maximize their productivity and develop loyalty to our company
• I help student supplement their academic learning by helping them develop interpersonal and leadership skills through co-curricular programming

Q: What do you do? A: Self-Coaching

Another response type is to use this question as a tool for coaching yourself or, in teams, for coaching each other.  Here a couple of examples:

• I consistently commit to take one extra step to ensure that the customer has his or her questions answered (those they asked and those they may not know to ask).
• I support my teammates as they support our customers – It’s not always my job but it is always my responsibility.

Q: What do you do? A: Measure actions vs. words (reflection)

This is not so much a response but a reflection by asking the question: What do I do?

• Is the work I doing within my organization contributing to other? If so in what ways?
• Am I in the habit of purposeful responses to what is happening at work or do I find myself reacting instead?
• How do my daily activities measure up to  my actual work responsibilities?
  • Am I finding time to help others with their work? Is it at the expense of my own work?

Like many things in life we can often fail to notice things that have become so common to us it becomes part of the background.  Next time someone asks you “so, what do you do”? Pause, take a moment, and then respond.

Have you ever taken a phase we take for granted and truly taken some time to reflect on it?  What other simple phrases might be out there that you could use in the same way?  Let me know in the comments below.

Visit thyrone.com where you can read past blog posts and we can connect on LinkedIn and other media.  Follow me on Twitter @thyrone and if you are in the Columbus, OH area @careercolumbus and I will let you know when part three of this series is posted.