Ben was a lumberjack who swung his ax with great power and could fell a tree in 20 strokes. In the first few days of a new job he produced twice as much lumber as anyone else. By week’s end, he was working even harder, but his lead was dwindling.

One friend told him he had to swing harder. Another said he had to work longer. Neither idea worked. Finally, an old fellow asked Ben how often he sharpened his ax. He said he had no time; there was too much to do.

The lesson of this parable contains the remedy to ineffectiveness in today’s workplace.

Dedicated executives may work enormous hours not realizing how much their failure to sharpen their ax by taking time off reduces their effectiveness. As one exceeds the limits of intellectual and physical stamina, both the quantity and quality of work suffer. Fatigue affects judgment and mental acuity, and the time and energy needed to fix errors can offset the extra time devoted to the task.

Organizations fail to sharpen their ax when they give short shrift to screening job applicants and training new hires. Burdened with heavy workloads, managers consumed by urgency to fill positions often succumb to the “warm body” fallacy: anyone is better than no one.

You need three things in a good employee: competence, commitment, and character. Shortcomings in any area can be costly, consume time and resources, and damage morale. Sharpening your ax in this setting means taking the time to be more diligent in background checks, more selective in hiring, more serious in training, and more demanding during probation.

Without the right tools, hard work isn’t enough.

This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.