Albert O. Aina Is a Management Consultant with a divine mandate to raise effective leaders for the church, empower business people and motivate the young generation for a life of purpose and achievement. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Christian Leadership Inc. and Alaryn Management Centre Ltd. Rev. Aina is the senior Pastor of Foursquare Gospel Church Saabo Zonal H/q. Lagos.

"Do your work; not just your work and no more, but a little bit more for the lavishing sake, that little more which is worth more than all the rest." - Dean Briggs

Matthew 5:41 And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.

Harvey Mckay, the writer of the best seller, "Beware of The Naked Man Who offers You His Shirt", said, "Don't try to meet your quotas. Exceed them". An important ammunition for firing your boss is a willingness to go extra mile. What is going extra mile? It means rendering of more and better service than that for which one is paid, and giving it in a positive mental attitude.

This is the principle of God's creation. You will notice that for every grain of wheat or com that the farmer plants in the soil, God makes it yield, perhaps one hundred grains. Why is this so ? You may ask. The reason is this,: God enables the soil to go the extra mile by producing enough of everything for the farmers needs together with a surplus for emergencies or wastes. By producing more than enough of every living things, God goes to insure the perpetuating of the species, allowing also for emergencies. If this were not true the species of all living things would soon vanish.

TEN BENEFITS OF GOING EXTRA MILE, DOING MORE THAN REQUIRED

1. The habit of doing more than required brings you to the favourable attention of those who can and will provide opportunities for self advancement. Do you realise it was this habit that brought Joseph in contact with the two jailed ministers in the same prison with him? What was his business, for instance, in checking up the faces of others and picking up the two jailed officers of Pharaoh? After all, each of them were in jail and each had enough share of problems Genesis 39:6-8; Proverbs 22:29 (AMP) Do you see a man diligent and skillful in his business? He will stand before kings; will not stand before obscure men.

2. It makes you indispensable. It is a fact that there is no job security anymore, any where. The truth, however, is that there is employment security. Going extra mile in your present job, and position guarantees you the benefit of indispensability.

The man who follows this habit of doing more than required places the purchaser of his services under a double obligation based upon his sense of fairness and based upon his sense of fear of losing a valuable man.

When Jacob threatened to resign his appointment with Laban, his response was And Laban said to him, please stay, if I have found favour in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake. Then he said, Name me your wages and I will give it. Genesis 30:27-28

What could make an employer to practically go on his knees pleading for the staff not to quit? Jacob proffered an insight to how he earned himself indispensability in the employment of Laban, Genesis 31:38-40 These twenty years I have been with you; you ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. There I was in the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes.

3. You command more than average compensation for personal services. Why do people receive normal compensation and nothing more?
Luke 17:9-10 (AMP) Is he grateful and does he praise the servant because he did what he was ordered to do? Even so on your part, when you have done everything that was assigned and commanded you say we are unworthy servants - possessing no merit. For we have not gone beyond our obligation; we have merely done what was our duty to do.

An average worker, not going beyond what was his duty, should not expect above average compensation. It is even possible that the above average worker is not adequately rewards but God has a way of letting your extra ordinary effort attract the attention of the right person outside." Consider Jacob's ­testimony. Genesis 31:6, 7-9. And you know that with all my might I have served your father. Yet your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times... So God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me."

4. Extra mile mentality makes you to stand out. Going extra mile distinguishes you, since the majority of people do not practice the habit.

5. It develops in you a keen, alert imagination, because it is a habit which inspires one continuously to seek new and better way of rendering service.

6. Extra mile habit develops the quality of personal initiative, self reliance and courage.

7. It is an insurance against aimlessness' and procrastination.

8. It is the only logical reason for increased compensation. If a man performs no more service than that for which he is being paid, then obviously he is receiving all the pay to which he is entitled.

9. Extra mile service, rendering an over plus of service, is a means of accumulating a reserve of credit of goodwill, and to provide a just reason, for demanding more pay, a better position, increased prices or fees.

The first man in history to ever earn a million dollar a year as salary was 38 years old Charles Schwab in the 1920s. He was General Manager of United States Steel Corporation. He started as a day labourer. His employer Andrew Carnegie, who paid him $75,000 a year and bonus of $1millon, had this to say, "I gave him his salary for the work he actually performed, and the bonus for his willingness to go extra mile, thus setting a fine example for his fellow workers"

10. You receive pay for schooling yourself for a better position and greater pay. See yourself as an apprentice. Ralph Emerson in his Essay on Compensation wrote, "If you serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more. Put God on your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid. The longer the payment is withholding, the better for you, for compound interest on compound interest is the rate and usage of this exchequer."

One powerful shot you can fire at your boss is to be faithful and take the job as your business. See yourself as in business for yourself, only being paid by someone else.

Luke 16: 12 says, And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's who will give you what is your own?

 

 

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