Saint or Sinner

Two employees:

Employee 1: Jane

• When faced with an issue, Jane will improvise and adapt her approach. She doesn’t bother her manager or others.
• If Jane notices that somebody else has made a mistake she fixes it. There is no noise or palaver, she keeps things moving.
• Jane never makes any mistakes herself, or at least never talks about them.  Jane is a delight to manage, she never causes any trouble.
• Jane is absolutely committed to the organisation. She doesn’t moan or complain. She understands exactly the “way things are done around here”.

Employee 2: Joan – rhymes with moan

• If there is an issue Joan will fix it. But she also feels compelled to let those around her know that the system has failed and what she has done about it.
• If Joan notices anybody else make a mistake she points it out.  Not in a nasty blame-creating way, just to stop it happening again.
• Joan is always messing things up, and when she does she lets everybody else know about it. She says she doesn’t want them to fall into the same trap.
• Joan is forever challenging and questioning. She is always suggesting  a better way to do things, constantly rocking the boat.

Two questions:

• Which of the two would you rather have on your team?
• Who is the saint and who is the sinner?

Let’s be honest…

We would all rather employ Jane than Joan.  But Joan is the one who will do the most good for our organisations.

It is just a pity that most of us, when faced with a “Joan”, do our best to turn her into “Jane”.