Set High Standards

People are rational and people are emotional. Even the most rational among us are more emotional than rational.

Do you agree with that?

I am very sure of it.

I believe that while we are all rational in our basic makeup, we are governed even more by emotion.

I acknowledge that just because I am sure, does not mean I am right.

Emotion.

What does emotion have to do with Set High Standards?

Emotion represents, among other things, the desire to accomplish a goal. But you gotta have a goal.  Goals motivate. They define the end zone, the win. The achievement.

Most, not all, of us want to be recognized. Why do BMW’s and Louboutins sell so well?  Why do folks want them? To display their success. This desire resides openly amongst most.

Goal Setting 101: a goal has to be measurable, attainable, and aggressive.  Those three factors.

Measurable is the easy part, but balancing aggressive and attainable- there is the magic, striking the balance between easy and impossible.

High Standards means you have to be aggressive; make it hard.

Whatever your key measurement of success at work is, start with that. Sales goal, food cost, labor cost, revenue growth, worker’s compensation expense, loyalty scores- you name it. What sounds hard; really presses you? 10% better than last year? What was the growth last year- Can you do better than that?  By how much? Remember, be aggressive. What sounds hard?  Hard doesn’t sound too far from attainable.

Let me use a personal example.  I run every day.  If left to my own devices, with no internal goal, I will not run very far. I tend not to press myself. Some general pain or mental apathy seems to ensure I don’t have an aggressive workout.

Yet if I have a plan, and I do, then I push myself. I run three cross country loops (1.3M) on a wooded and very up-and-down trail.  I do 320 pushups broken into 7 sets.  It’s my routine.  But without that routine there is no question in my mind I’d not extend. I wouldn’t run 4 miles- maybe 2. It’s the standard I set for myself that drives me.  I chase it.

Now consider High Standards as they relate to those around you? First, if you make it clear that you want to set high standards for yourself, you vocalize your standard and you measure yourself against it.  Telling others your goal is, to coin a term, huge. When you tell others, it is out there. The pressure is on, and that pressure is good.

Then you have the ability to set high standards for others. People’s bullshit meters go to red if you set high standards for them but not for yourself.

What a colleague you become when you set high standards for the unit. When you help make others better, how special you are! How awesome would it be to be the best teammate? I know that not everyone else will be thinking in those terms, but the sensation will still be there.

You do others a great service when you let them know you see they can be better, that they have the potential to excel. Believing in others is a great part of being a great colleague. Someone who believes in you talks to you rationally. But it will be absorbed emotionally.

How great it is to work within a unit that takes pride. Where everyone wants to represent. This does not occur where high standards do not exist. If you want that dynamic, you have to set high standards.

There is less joy in accomplishing something alone compared to accomplishing as a team.

We cannot live alone. We cannot go to heaven alone. God will say to us “where are the others?”

Set High Standards touches all the bases of Positive, Productive, Fresh, and Enthusiastic.  If PPFE is the overriding office expectation, Set High Standards is a great retreat theme.  I’ve used it several times.

Best,

Matt