How Managing Towards Perfection Makes You Excellent
I’m walking up the steps to a set of glass doors situated at the corner of a small production plant. The stairs are much bigger than they should be. Wider. They create a sense of grandeur that doesn’t match the rest of the building.
I open the doors and walk into the lobby. It wasn’t a lobby. It was a man trap — an unmanned man trap. There’s a phone with a contact list. I look through my phone and confirm the spelling of the last name of the person I am coming to meet.
I call in and let them know I’ve arrived. Two people come out to greet me at the door. One is a coworker and the other is my new boss.
I have taken a job as a distribution supervisor for a company in the food industry. Managing day-to-day delivery operations. You can imagine the type of fit this was for someone who graduated with a law and anthropology degree.
This was a whole new world and I had no idea how any of it worked.
The One Thing That My Career Success Is Built On
I’m sure you’ve heard of the phrase sink or swim. I’ve felt like my whole life has been a series of sink or swim experiences.
That doesn’t mean you aren’t supported. It doesn’t mean that some form of training isn’t provided.
I have found that playing by the system’s timeline isn’t fast enough. Eventually learning enough doesn’t cut it. That’s why it’s sink or swim. If you are going to achieve your goals, you have to own the outcome.
To own it, you need to have wicked high standards for yourself.
In practical terms, what does that mean?
Push into the details
Ask a lot of questions
Connect the steps of a process
Connect each process
Never, ever settle for “this is how it’s always been done”
Solve the problem like it’s your own business
Never settle for good enough
This is an important lesson for anyone to learn. It’s applicable no matter what role or level you find yourself in.
The reason why it’s so important though, it’s because it makes you a significantly better leader.
From You to Them
Everyone wants to get things done. When you are in a leadership role, you want your team to perform well. That’s a lie, you want them to be the best.
I’m so proud of my team because they are mediocre and barely get things done … said no one, ever.
For a team to perform at excellence, your standards have to be set there. Here’s the catch. If you don’t hold yourself to higher standards, your team will never follow.
People don’t follow someone who asks more of them than they are willing to give.
When I put a challenge out to my team. A problem to solve. They know what my expectations are. They know that I’m not satisfied if we left something on the table. It’s not about doing okay, it’s about delivering on what we thought was possible.
The reason I can hold the line on my standards is because of one thing.
I never ask my team to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself — and they know that.
Execution is Everything
You might be getting frustrated. Thinking that you love what I’m sharing but you have a problem. What happens when people aren’t delivering? What happens when they aren’t pushing the limits? You can’t make them … right?
I won’t pretend that sometimes there aren’t gaps. Sometimes you do have a problem with a person. Sometimes you have a skill-set problem.
That isn’t usually the case though.
When people aren’t pushing boundaries, it’s usually because they are afraid. They are afraid to look stupid, make mistakes and show people that they aren’t sure.
Here is another golden rule I have learned over the years. Things are rarely as complicated as people make them out to be. When you break things down, examine each piece and take the time to understand how it all connects; you can achieve amazing things.
Having high standards means you push past the status quo. The expectations that are often put in front of us are what the average person can achieve.
To achieve more than average, you have to move past the line of acceptability. You have to do things differently. You have to think about things differently.
When you try to do something in a new way, there’s a risk. There is uncertainty there. If the outcome was already known, that’s how you would already be doing things. Because it’s unknown, there is an inherent risk of failure.
To lead high-performing teams you have to get them (and yourself) comfortable with taking the shot and missing. It’s the only way you will learn.
Final Thoughts
Keep things simple. Focus on the goal and make sure you understand it as much (or better) than anyone else. Ask a lot of questions. When you have asked a lot of questions, ask 5 more.
Having high standards for yourself, allows you to hold your team accountable to the same. Don’t settle for mediocrity. Fail, learn and keep striving to the next level. You’ll figure it out.
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