Most leaders I know want to be popular. Do you? At the same time, they recognize that they need to make their organizations profitable. Even a non-profit has to be profitable in terms of the value it delivers and how true it stays to its purpose. In wanting both to be popular and to be profitable at the same time, many leaders face what are probably unnecessary dilemmas. It would seem to many leaders that making popular decisions, like investing in staff welfare and upgrading programs, will eat into the bottom line. However, keeping operating costs low means cutting back on staff development programs, for example. This is a very common mindset among business leaders. It is ironic, considering the plethora of literature and evidence to the contrary.

 

In fact, there are many ways to be both popular and profitable, if one would only stop to think about it. Here's one: Set and enforce high standards of performance in your organization. Wait a minute, you say, isn't everyone already doing that? Think about it. On the surface, yes. We all know that it's not how much work you do, or seem to do, but what the outcomes of your work are. Yet so many leaders seem to be entombed in the vault of this false concept, and no amount of coaxing seems to be able to get them out. Well, here's a step further towards freeing you if you happen to be in that vault. 

Let's look at what "high standards" really mean. Do you realize that when you set high performance standards for your people, it really means that you are setting high performance standards for yourself? Think about that for a while! How many times have your people disappointed you because of their poor performance? Projects not delivered on time, poor quality of work if they are delivered on time, putting the blame on "others" because those "others" didn't finish "their" part of the work, therefore I can't finish mine? Yes, and to your people, those "problems" are actually very real! What have you as a leader done to help your people achieve the high standards you have set for them? Besides saying "My door is always open", have you done your work as a leader by supervising the work of your people? Let's get this straight - setting high standards means nothing if those standards are not consistently encouraged and enforced! Being a leader is hard work, but 

it is not dreary work. If you set specific times when you will "tour the shop floor" and monitor your "management indicators" regularly the way a nurse monitors her patients' vital signs, your people will know that you have not simply thrown them into the deep end, but can be counted on for help because you are there with them. Do this for a few weeks and see the results for yourself! Yes, one of the biggest excuses for leaders setting and then not maintaining high performance standards is because supervision is perceived to be very hard work. Of course it's hard work, you're doing it the wrong way! Tell your people what you want, show them examples of how to do it if they are not sure, deliver consequences for slothfulness, reward diligence, responsibility and initiative, and you will soon find that your main work consists of selecting your people's fantastic ideas for implementation! Structure, processes and procedures are meant to support, not restrict, the spirit of innovation. Take good music, for an illustration. If you are a composer, do you know that the more rules your music follows, the richer your music becomes? That may seem like malarkey to you, but go check it out! It's the application of those rules, not the breaking or bending of them! Of course, that presupposes that those rules were properly set in the first place, but I suspect many actually were! 

 Another excuse leaders give for not setting high standards is the "tall poppy" syndrome. The "tall poppy" is an Australian term describing the tendency to mow down any poppy foolhardy enough to grow taller than its fellows. This is just another example of dumbing down that we see so much of around us. Take a leaf out of nature's book. Nature doesn't dumb down, nature levels up! Why do you think the trees in a jungle grow so tall? They're all reaching for the sunlight! Take a flight over the jungle one day, real jungle, I mean, and you'll see what looks like rich pasture stretching out as far as you can see. Unfortunately, that's a rare sight these days, so you might want to book that aircraft real soon! So, remember, don't be afraid of setting high performance standards because you think you'll be mown down. Reach for the sky and leave your critics in the gloom of the shadows if they don't wish to follow you!   So, this week, go ahead and set high standards for your people, knowing that you are really setting high standards for yourself. And reach out for the sky. Remember, people snap at your heels because they're behind you. Convert them to your cause or simply accelerate and leave them behind! Grand Prix drivers never worry about who's behind them, they only concern themselves with the guy in front!