Don’t settle for good

Be great and, in turn, expect greatness from those around you.

So I’ll admit that today’s topic has high potential for sounding trite, preachy, and not particularly useful. That said, I do think there is value in repeating, at least once, what “everyone already knows,” because we all forget this stuff from time to time.

One of the most well known results of the research of W. Edwards Deming, the famous quality guy, is the 85:15 rule. Deming found that when the cause of a failure—everything from poor service in a restaurant to a defective radio on an assembly line—was tracked backed to its roots, 85% of the time that failure was due to a poor system. Only 15% of failures were attributable to a specific action, attitude, or inaction on the part of an actual person.

People want to succeed. People want to excel. They want the acceptance and pride that come from doing an excellent job. Think about it and you’ll see that you have the same trait. We all do. It is the responsibility of the leaders in an organization to build or refine the systems that will create excellent results.

Excellent results begin with expectations. As a leader, you must first expect excellence in yourself. When you are beginning your career, your expectation of excellence in your own results—in your personal corner of your organization—will lead to recognition and reward (if it doesn’t find another organization!). It’s also been my experience that having a high expectation for yourself and your own work will raise the level of effort in those around you, even though they don’t report to you. An expectation of excellence is contagious.

And excellence gets noticed. It’s funny how this one item is the root of so many powerful behaviors. When you expect excellence in yourself you’ll learn to do it right, on time, the first time. This will in turn drive an awareness of scheduling and planning, and over time your desire to stick to your schedules will improve the accuracy of the schedules you help create. In creating and following schedules you’ll monitor your progress with an eye to critical obstacles, and you’ll work proactively to eliminate them before they become show stoppers. When faced with an obstacle you cannot overcome yourself (there will be plenty, I promise), you’ll be able to communicate your need for help before the whole project is sidelined.

Now this is the kind of leadership everyone wants on their team, and it creates the kind of teams that everyone wants to be one. Your peers will notice, your supervisors will notice, and (most of the time) you will be rewarded.

Shoot for excellence in yourself, and expect excellence from others.