What are Your Standards?

Part of almost every military officer's career is the study of leadership.  I will caveat that and say that, though we almost always talk of "leadership" as a positive virtue, the fact is that leadership is often bad, because bad leadership is pretty easy.  It doesn't take much effort to lead poorly.  Great leadership, on the other hand, is inconvenient.  It requires focus and effort on almost everything put personal desires and comfort. 

 

So, we study good leadership in order to have the tools to lead well those of whom we have been given charge.  I keep several books on leadership on my desk and every day read a few passages or paragraphs in order to get thoughts on leadership flowing.  One passage I read last week really got me thinking about the standards by which we critique ourselves and our oranizations.  The author mentioned how a large athletic shoe company might motivate their employees by setting a goal to "beat" their major competitor, or a rental car company might do the same.  The author mentioned these as possible means by which an organization may establish unifying goals for its members - goals/objectives that motivate everyone to work together to achieve. 

 

The more I thought about this passage, though, the more it bothered me.  It finally hit me why I think this type of goal-setting is only second-rate at best.  Setting your sights on outperforming a competitor, in effect, means that you are letting the competition set the performance standards.  If we succeed by just being "better" than another organization (and what metrics do you use to make the comparison?), then what do we do when we "arrive?"  Does the goal then become, "staying ahead of the competition,"?  If so, the competition is still the one setting the standard by which we judge ourselves. 

 

I just don't think there is any way around the need to have objective, immutable standards by which we judge our own performance and the performance of the organizations with which we are associated.  Let's take our athletic shoe company as an example.  Instead of setting a goal to provide a greater monetary return for investors than the current, "industry leader," this company could decide that its objective, immutable standards include high quality products, great customer service and a corporate environment in which excellence, honesty and valuing individuals are the most important characteristics of daily operations.  What the competition does or doesn't do has no impact on those standards at all.  In fact, the company could be tracking very well on all those standards but not be the "industry leader" in terms of profitability.  So what?  Most people who we want to be around would much rather be part of an organization in which excellence and taking care of people are highly valued and rewarded. 

 

A benefit of being imperfect human beings is that we can always improve.  Therefore, if we have standards that require perfection to attain, we may never get there, but we can always get closer than where we are right now.  Objective, immutable standards of performance keep us focused on the right path and protect us from using subjective comparisons to others in order to justify complacency or laziness.  Improvement is a journey, not a destination.

 

"Take responsibility, finish well & have fun!"

Dirk