As you walk the extra mile, please ensure that you are not blocking somebody else in their journey.

Sometimes people get so excited about over-achieving that they will step on the toes of other people who are just trying to get through their day.

Today, there was a Budget truck in front of our gate. Yes, it’s a rental truck and FedEx was using that truck to deliver packages. You see – they have the “Next day, guaranteed!” promise and they have to meet it. Since this is holiday season and a lot of packets to deliver, they might have rented a truck. That’s definitely walking the extra mile to keep their promises.

The problem. They never told their drivers to block the gate. The truck was blocking the gate and the driver had gone missing. After a few minutes, he surfaced from the back of the truck with a set of packages. I told him that he was blocking the gate and he just said, “Sir, it will only be a few minutes. I have to deliver these packets first…” and proceeded as if it was not a big deal to block the gate.

I was waiting there twiddling my thumbs smiling at the whole situation. After a few minutes, the driver came back and drove away.

Ten minutes delay because of the “traffic jam” and if the driver continues the behavior, I am sure he would have caused a lot of such “traffic jams” throughout the day.

It seems funny but when the same thing happens in your career, it is no longer funny. Somebody in your office is ambitious and wants to get ahead in their career and in the process they will try to walk over everyone else in the office. The Boss can see that this person is walking the extra mile and if the Boss is not sensitive enough he or she might NOT see that a few other people are suffering because of the actions of the ambitious person.

I am sure you are not the ambitious person who is insensitive to the needs of others around you. Hopefully you are not on the receiving end. Either one of them will be bad.

Happy holiday season to all of you and wish you all a very happy new year. This is the last post for the year and I will be back again 2011!