Raise the Bar.
In leadership, standards matter.
Our employees, our volunteers, and our teams might indeed reach the standards we set for them. They’ll want to do what’s expected. They’ll want to serve to please. They’ll want to feel good about the effort on the front end and end product when it’s done.
But if there’s no clear standard that we set, there’s no way they can be expected to reach the standard. If we don’t set clear goals, we’re left with fuzzy results. It might be a win. It might be colossal failure. It’s hard to know which is which if we haven’t defined the standard.
And so we raise the bar. We get crystal-clear about expectations. We set a North Star and point everyone to it. We get on the same page, we work from the same playbook, we set out towards the same goal.
Raising the bar is uncomfortable. When you get serious about your standards, a few feathers will be ruffled. Some team members will walk away. (And while the goal is to rescue and redeem that, sometimes a walk-away is necessary.)
Raising the bar is hard. It’s difficult to break out of the status quo. It’s tough to get past business as usual. We’ll get a few things wrong on the way to getting the right things right.
But raising the bar is so, so necessary. It’s necessary for the integrity of the work. It’s necessary for the growth of our team. And it’s necessary for our own pursuit of the appropriate standards.
In your leadership, in your systems, and in the people who look to you, where can you raise the bar today?
Related posts:
- 6 Ways to Undervalue Your Guest Services Team
- How to Challenge Your Volunteers
- If We Don’t Equip Them, Someone Else Will.
