Sometimes when I want to ask my husband a question and there is a standard ‘right’ answer for husbands in general I will preface it with, ‘this is not a trick question.’ That way he knows that even though I asked him if I look good in these jeans, I am not simply prompting him to tell me I’m as attractive to him as I was when we met. I truly want to know if I changing into a skirt would be a good idea. So, I’ll preface this next question to you in the same way, this is not a trick question. How good of a leader do you want to be?
Are you OK with being mediocre? Are you content checking the box? Or, do you want to be average, run of the mill? You want to avoid standing out. You’d rather not hold the lowest rung on the ladder. You also don’t need to cause waves. Do you want your influence to just sort of blend in and get by? Or are you striving for excellence in leadership? Do you want to be an exceptional leader who inspires and motivates everyone around you to raise the bar for themselves? If you want to be exceptional, you’re going to have to raise your standards. This week, let’s explore what that looks like and how you can raise the bar for yourself and inspire others to do the same. Read below or get a little more stories and application on YouTube.
Why bother setting a standard for excellence?
I would venture to guess that if you opened this blog your answer to my question was, I want to be excellent! You maybe even felt a little smug, rolling your eyes, as you imaged people who strive for average. It’s true though. Some people aren’t trying to change their world, or their organization, through influence. They don’t want to have a voice in decisions. They even wrinkle their nose at the idea of championing change on their team. As people who want to be excellent leaders, we think we’re moving above those bad habits simply by wanting it. You want a say in the strategic initiatives. You’ve got goals of influencing major decisions in budget and planning. You even plan your change management so your team is the quickest to adopt change.
Knowing yourself as a leader and what you want to accomplish is the first step. Get to know what is important to you, where you want to make your mark, and set out how you’ll get there with this FREE guide. The guide will help you set the goals and intentions you need to get off the ground. Your goals and good intentions are a good first step. However, a good first step just isn’t enough.
Goals don’t dictate results, standards do.
The problem is, when you simply want things to happen, or even set goals around them, you’ll fall short. Goals don’t dictate results, standards do. For example, I can have a goal of losing 10 lbs but if I just keep eating the way I have been to gain 15, I won’t hit the goal. Even if I buy more veggies and put them in the fridge, I won’t hit the goal. However, if I set a standard, an expectation that supports weight loss, and I follow it, I will get there. It’s inevitable.
James Clear said it in his book, Atomic Habits in 2018. You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. Dreaming and goal setting is a great start, but it’s not enough. You must have standards and systems in place that support you actually achieving those dreams. And if you answered ‘I want to be an exceptional leader!’ then setting your system of standards is a critical next step. So, let’s get into what it looks like to get you to the leadership excellence you want.
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Setting a standard of excellence is a choice
Leadership is a skill that you learn, not a trait you’re born with. That means, that even if your current standard has you acting as a mediocre leader, you can change it. You have the power to stop wrinkling your nose at that change management plan HR keeps sending you, and start moving through that ADKAR model yourself, and with your team. Now, if you’re ready to make the choice, let’s dig into what standards to start with and how to leverage your leadership standards for excellence.
1. Lead yourself every single day
It starts with you. Your experience, your skills, and your strengths are building to take you to each successive step. Exceptional leaders know that no time, challenge, or situation is wasted. Every interaction is preparing you for something bigger. Building that leadership muscle allows you to influence those around you to build their strengths and skills too.
What does this look like on a daily basis? It looks like consistent personal development. Most of what we learn is caught, not taught. So be intentional about what you’re throwing out there. Your team is looking to you as the standard for them, so set it. Read daily, not to tell everyone you did, but to demonstrate your growth as you share new things in the appropriate situations. Set and hold your boundaries. Be the example of what healthy work-life balance is and discuss it openly. Share when you make mistakes with humility and a growth mindset. Don’t berate yourself or others but own what happened and what you’ll do next time.
Years ago I listened to a VP complain to her leadership team about staff skipping an employee engagement event. Engagement is down she said. Did you even tell your staff to go to the event?! My question to her was, did you attend? She hadn’t. How many of her team attended, 2, out of 10. Those who did saw a better turn out from their teams. The managers who saw themselves as too busy to waste time ‘developing their personal brand’ had very few staff who prioritized it. Those who did go knew more about their teams, showed they prioritized learning about themselves, and were able to open discussions of how they’d make time for the event and get the work done. Setting a standard of leading yourself influences those who are watching, and they’re always watching.
2. Communicate persuasively
Communication is a leader’s #1 responsibility. People don’t do what you tell them to do, they do what they want to do. An exceptional leader relates every need to a want. When you do this, every task that must be done, every goal that must be hit, advances the ball for you and them. Tying needs and wants together will have your people leaning in to catch every word. They’ll be committed to what needs to be done, before you even speak it.
An IT manager was working with a business manager on the roll-out timeline for new sales software. The timeline had the new software going live during what is traditionally the busiest month for new home sales. The business manager was completely obstinate. He flat out refused to train his people a new system during their busiest time of the year. IT manager dug his heels in too. Everyone else was onboard with the plan. This guy would have to get on board or get out of the way.
After the meeting the IT manager and I talked about why the system was coming online in the first place, to improve efficiencies for the sales staff. His communication needed to shift from pointing to the plan that was set, to showcasing how much faster they could process home sales during this busy season with the new system. Once he started speaking to what the business actually wanted, they weren’t just on board but were adding wind to the sales by pushing up training to get the highest efficiency when they needed it most.
3. Application trumps time, every time
Let’s be honest, we all know those managers, directors, board members, you name it that are ‘in charge’ because they’ve been around the longest. But in those organizations or teams, almost nothing gets done. If things do get done, it’s because there is an exceptional leader somewhere embedded that is leading without the title. That’s because exceptional leaders use their experience and apply it to new scenarios. This application helps them evolve and grow as a leader continuously.
Recently I worked with a leader who happened to be hiring an executive assistant at the same time. He had actually hired for this position 3 times in the last 2 years and was annoyed that no one he hired was working out long term. We took the opportunity to dig into his interview questions and found the problem rather quickly. He consistently interviewed assistants who had been in their last role for several years. He thought that indicated dedication. In the interview he would ask about what they did in that role and hire someone who had the best skills match. Seems logical, right? All of his interview questions were behavioral too, great.
When we looked at the answers I pointed out a pattern that the assistants he hired didn’t answer based on experience, they gave hypothetical responses. Meaning when he said, tell me about a time you had to prioritize work, they’d say, I would focus on the most important tasks and stay late if I needed to. This time, when he hired someone he looked for the application of the skills. How it actually worked out because a person who has gotten results in the past, even on slightly different tasks, it much more likely to do it again in the future.
Use these as your standards and watch your growth
Imagine this, you’re on a team with one of those figure heads that is in charge because of how long their butt has been in that same seat. You don’t have the same tenure. However, when an unprecedented issue comes up, like a scammer pretending to be a customer demanding a large order be sent to them, everyone still seems to look to you for the answer. Not because you’ve been through it, but because you lead yourself. You’re the one who is the most up on current trends and problem solving strategies because you’ve been developing yourself consistently. You are the one who can communicate both with internal and external stakeholders because you’ve made communication a priority. You jump into action without getting stuck in the why us mentality.
While your counterpart is complaining about what the world is coming to you are finding solutions and setting precautions for next time. He might be willing to settle his standards on average, but not you. In this moment, when it really matters, you’re thrilled that you put in the work following the system to make excellence your standard of leadership.