"However menial and trivial your early assignments may appear, give them your best efforts." William Swanson

Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management: unwritten rule number eight...

"It is important to set high standards for your career and to be demanding of yourself - to want to perform challenging tasks well. However, you are more likely to be given the opportunity to take on complicated, difficult assignments if you first demonstrate that you are willing and able to perform simpler tasks well. You will be surprised how much your performance may be recognized if you execute even a mundane task with a little pizzazz.

Conversely, if, early in your career, you act as if the simpler assignments are beneath you, then your manager may feel you are challenging his or her judgment and your peers may feel you are not a team player. Building strong relationships with management and peers early in your career will help you immeasurably later on.

Everything you do, no matter how menial or trivial it may seem, has your name associated with it. For that reason alone it is worth doing well.

Remember that if your manager is good, he or she will always be trying to develop talent - you. When you are a manager, you will want to do the same."

More wisdom from William Swanson. My thanks to him. The last sentence of this unwritten rule contains a critically important concept - "always be trying to develop talent." Finding, recruiting, developing and retaining talent should always be job one, however, that is rarely the case. Quality of leadership makes a big difference here. "Differences in teacher quality account for more than 90 percent of the variation in student achievement" say education writers Rosemary and Harry Wong. In my experience this holds equally true for business leaders and those they lead.

Congrats & cheers: Tony Coles - during his watch Portland's K103 has come back. #1 cume, #1 12+, #1 25-54 Adults, #1 18-49 Adults.