When I Fell Asleep at the Boarding Gate

I was 26 and living in Nantes, France.

I had an early morning flight, so I had the then-brilliant idea (but clearly dumb in hindsight) of working overnight so I could sleep better on the plane.

I arrived at the boarding gate an hour before departure and thought: a short nap will do me good.

So I stretched out across a couple of consecutive seats and slept.

When I woke up, there was no one at the gate. The whole area was empty.

I had missed my flight. Fortunately, there was another one a couple of hours later.

While waiting for the next flight, I kept thinking about that lady at the counter.

She probably called my name over the loudspeaker a few times.

She must have noticed someone sleeping at the gate after everyone else had boarded.

She was doing her job as described in her contract.

But she didn't go out of her way to check if the person sleeping a few chairs away was the passenger she was calling.

It sounds easy to do, but she didn't. (And sometimes we don't either.)

I've had similar situations at work and in life with people who simply do what they're supposed to do.

They never truly own the work, and that often yields an unsatisfactory user experience.

They do exactly what's expected of them, nothing more.

On the opposite end, I've met people who go out of their way to get things done.

Like Roland, a manager at a local restaurant who's always happy to accommodate non-traditional orders.

Even if it means putting in effort that's clearly not in his job description, and with no bonus waiting for him.

It's just his attitude: he wants to do his work properly.

For me, it has always been about ownership.

Let’s take the example of Task A, which I’m responsible for.

I can complete it on its own, but if Task B is done alongside it, the overall outcome is much better.

So I'm about to deliver Task A, and I notice Task B hasn't been done yet.

I step in and take care of it, even if it means putting in extra time.

But I don’t stop there. I make sure that Task A is properly accounted for in the process next time.

When I thought about the values I wanted for Supportful, ownership was a no-brainer.

I want our people to deliver even when they're "not supposed to."

We define Ownership as follows:

We take responsibility, going beyond executing tasks to owning them and securing outcomes.

In practice, we recognize and celebrate examples of employees taking initiative and driving success during company updates.

When you have an ownership mindset, you naturally keep learning things adjacent to your immediate expertise because you want to truly own your work.

Ownership leads to growth.

It's a virtuous circle.

Step into it.

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