Care about the task in front of you, even if you don’t have to. You never know when it will make a difference.

It was a pivotal moment. My boss had just told the president of the company that he would be leaving in two weeks. The president had asked my boss who he recommended as a replacement. My name was mentioned. Half the battle was won, but major hurdles remained.

The president left his office and stopped by the Director of Customer Service’s cubicle. She was a powerful voice at the company, often serving as a critical advisor to executives. The president asked: “what would you think about Craig as the new manager of the software group?”.

“Craig is pretty good. He works well with my team and seems to be customer-focused. He even got a 96% on the LSU test.”

What just happened?

At this pivotal moment, when my candidacy for manager could be made or broken by the opinions of others, the Director of Customer Service brought up the fact that I aced the daily tests during the weeklong customer training I attended when I started with the company. 

Most new employees didn’t care about the tests. My new boss even told me not to worry too much about them, since he never saw the grades. I cared anyway, reviewing my notes to give the best answers I could. Little did I know that my good scores impressed some people. Those people reflected their positive views back to the company president when he asked one year later.

It is impossible to care deeply about everything. In fact, saying “yes” to everything is perhaps the fastest path to burnout. At the same time, it would be wrong to not care when people are forming fresh opinions about you. Put another way, just because you can ignore something doesn’t mean you should.

I could have gone home 15 minutes early if I had just skipped the daily test during LSU training. After a long day of learning laser light scattering, I definitely wanted to. At the same time, it felt important. I stayed. I studied. In the end, it made all the difference. So, pick your battles wisely knowing that some of them are investments in the future.

Photo: Railroad sign near Boreas Pass on the continental divide in Breckenridge, Colorado.