Some years ago (actually, too many years to even contemplate) I was in a position to learn the following story.

It’s a story of a sports team that was operating on a shoestring budget and yet had a multi-million dollar appetite.

Working for this organization was a young intern. He couldn’t have been much more than 19 years old. He had never before worked professionally and yet he was the entire “marketing department.” Let’s call him “Al.”

“Mr. Big” in this organization was doing what so many business owners do; he was using Al to do things that were way beyond his ken, and yet paying him the peanut-sized salary that interns traditionally earn.

Al wanted to succeed like no one I had ever seen before. Today, some three decades later, he is the owner of a very successful business. This doesn’t surprise me.

Anyway, Mr. Big (I’ll call him “John”) brought the young man into his office and said, “You’re my marketing guy, right?” Al, and after looking around the room for someone else, concluded that yes, he was the “marketing guy.” He had to be. Like I said, there was no one else in the room.

“Yes, sir,” responded Al in his most U.S. Marine-like manner, “I’m your marketing guy. What do you need?”

Feeling emboldened by Al’s sudden admission/recognition of status, the sage boss pressed the issue, “Well, and as you know, we’ve got a hotshot kid coming in here for a visit and we need this kid on our team. He’ll be up at the facility a week from Tuesday, and I need you to do something that will absolutely convince him to come our way.”

“Yes, sir,” again, the Marine thing, “What did you have in mind, sir?”

The boss practically jumped out of his chair, “Dammit, you figure it out! I pay you to think, don’t I? So, think of something. Should I also have to do your job as well as your thinking?”

The poor 19 year old was practically shaking, “No sir --- I’ll do something that will make his day unforgettable. I promise.”

And then the kid went off and did the damndest thing. On the day that the hotshot was at the team facility, he actually got the Goodyear Blimp to fly over, flashing the kid’s name. The boss was astounded. The hotshot was astounded. Perhaps most of all, Al was astounded.

I later learned that Al had a relative who flew the blimp. This relative knew that the blimp was returning to its home base in Akron, Ohio after a weekend of flying over sporting events in both New Jersey and Philadelphia (Monday night football). All the pilot had to do was divert the dirigible some forty miles to the south and the favor would be done. And so he did the favor. (I also learned that the kid agreed to pay for the fuel for that 80-mile diversion, but the company was so impressed with the kid’s bravado and attitude they instead ate it themselves.)

Needless to say, Al was shortly thereafter promoted to the full-time position of Marketing Manager and as I already mentioned, he never stopped moving up the success ladder from that point on.

I tell you this story today because it’s every employer’s dream to have on their team people who just go out and do the thing that they themselves (that is, the employer) would have done.

Or better.

It’s very hard to find people like this. Partially because many of them have previously worked for bosses who insisted on spoon-feeding them their work. Another reason why it’s so hard to find self-starters is because many bosses simply will not allow people to exercise that much latitude in the conduct of their job.

(Why this is so, I will never, ever know.)

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in 40 years of growing more than a dozen businesses, it’s that you must have these kinds of people on staff. People who understand the big picture and then do the things necessary to ensure that their company adheres to the big picture.

I would guess that it’s roughly one in twenty that behaves as our friend Al did. But there are ways to make that ratio much smaller. And here they are:

• First, you must create an atmosphere whereby employees know that it’s ok to swing for the fences. This should always be tempered by the proviso that, and before any hard steps are taken, a plan must be created, submitted, and approved. This plan should have a budget and a well-written terminal objective.
• Next, this only works if your business is crystal clear about where it is going. Yes, Virginia --- a business plan. For without a business plan, there is no roadmap to follow.
• Finally, it is incumbent upon management to reward, and substantially, the kinds of people who behave in this manner. And these rewards should be made out as a big deal. I’m not saying that the specific amount of a raise or bonus should be publicized, but employees should realize that the best way to the best compensation is through initiative.

I always say that any employee can do the work that they are assigned. Employees aren’t stupid --- they know that if they are assigned something, then someone is awaiting the results. But it is the “above and beyond” behavior that separates the men from the boys. It is this willingness to go an extra mile that propels companies to greatness.

All that John said to Al was, “Make sure that our guest never forgets his visit to our facility.”

Obviously, Al took those words of advice and figured out a way to hit a home run. The fact that he executed the whole thing without any input or assistance from anyone is just pure gravy.

Think what your organization would be like if it were made up of a couple dozen guys like Al.

We should all be so lucky.