By Natalia Mezhenska, CEO of OTP Capital
At the end of 2021, I got exceptional insights about the team and the contribution of
each of our members. Like most companies, we celebrated the New Year’s corporate
party in December. Traditionally, one of the units of our team develops the event
program. This time, we had personal chaffy 2022 fortune telling for everybody by the
Legal Department.
The next day after the corporate party, I entered the office and came across the print of
fortune telling, accidentally left by its creators the day before. It was remarked by adding
the handwritten number 19 at the bottom (we are only 18 in the company) with the
fortune telling. Reading it surprised me, and then made me laugh. However, in the end,
this remark made me think. Here is what it said: “In 2022, Olena will break out of her
vicious circle of troubles. She will start her own SPA-center, and the above-mentioned
names will be taking appointments in my SPA. All regular customers will be the happiest
and most satisfied with the service. The best experts will work for the SPA”.
Olena is our cleaner working for a contractor company providing to us relevant services.
We all knew Olena well, because she signed daily the cleaning duty form hanging at the
most visible place in the office, reporting the duty was over. However, we didn’t notice
Olena’s presence, because she came to do her work late in the evenings or very early
in the mornings, when we were all at home. Unfortunately, we did not notice the
cleanness either. It’s ok, it’s clean, why bother? See it from the opposite end: noticing
her work would mean that Olena doesn’t do it properly. However, she did and it was ok.
In fact, I was very ashamed that we forgot to include her in the greeting list. We revised
the situation, and Olena was satisfied. However, this blunder was a lesson for me to
learn from.
First, it reminded me once again of the contribution of each employee to the company.
Sometimes, routinely, we don’t give credit or even depreciate what they do every day.
We do not give credit to the cleaner making her best for us to come in the morning to
start our work in comfort. We do not thank the back office for calculating the value of the
assets of our investment and pension funds every day. We also do not dig into the
volumes of agreements by our investment managers to ensure effective management
for our clients. In addition, we do not reward the sales department for working hard
every day to keep our customers happy. Although, in fact, these common daily tasks
make up the success of our company.
One more insight I made from the story is that in order for customers to be happy with
the service (we measure their happiness by a non-complaint feedback), we must have a
great team, who are not just experts, but the experts able to cooperate effectively and
work in a team. Surely, we have it.
Well, the last insight is the need for each team member to be ambitious. The goals do
move the one ahead. Great when a team-shared goal moves the company up.
Although, it’s not that bad for each to have his personal goal. After all, a motivated
employee is no doubt effective.
Here are the wrap-up. As you can see, just by looking around, you can learn many
useful lessons.
PS: After a while, I came across Olena at the door of our office, and we had a small talk.
She appeared to have been our OTP Pension Fund client for a long time, thinking of
saving money for her affordable retirement. She also said that she follows up our news
and results on our website and even knows how investment funds work. This was our
cleaner, whose work and presence we used to not notice 🙂
