PREFACE:
It seems like standards have been lowered just about everywhere in our society and it appears to be happening just when we need the highest standards ever. If any society is to compete in a global marketplace, and for that matter just on the global stage, that society must have standards that exceed average and expectations for performance that match the standards. But evidence persists that tells us that our standards have been lowered and along with those lower standards we expect less as well.
In what areas have we lowered our standards? I believe we have lowered our standards in a multitude of areas such as education, safety, product quality, efficiency, and morality. Some folks might ask why the government has done this but I will tell you it’s not the government that has lowered the standards; it is us—we the people! Our government cannot do anything unless we allow it to do so. We relinquish our responsibility as citizens and allow others to decide for us when less than half of the people who are eligible to vote actually vote in important local, state, and national elections. Our elected officials should be important to each and every one of us but millions of Americans have decided it is not worth their time to become informed and to voice their opinion. It is easier to complain about the politicians than it is to personally take responsibility for making the nation stronger and better.
Our standards have not been lowered by design; they have been lowered by default. Somewhere, someplace someone got the notion that when our founding fathers said that “all men are created equal” that the statement had something to do with more than just rights. Believing that all people should be able to do the same things, in the same way, and achieve the same outcomes is not what America was founded upon. It is not in our own best interest to homogenize our nation. The only way we can do that is to “lower our standards.” Every American has the right of opportunity but attaining the fruits of labor is dependent upon one’s own labor not the collective.
There has been a great amount of argument put forward supporting the observation that many in our society begin life at a distinct disadvantage and so they need some help along the way. I will not argue against that notion but if we decide that the way to help these less fortunate individuals is by lowering standards we actually do these individuals a huge disservice. For what we are telling them is that you cannot meet the expectation so before we even ask you to try we are going to expect less from you and say it is the same. That is dishonest and more often than not will result in a very rude awakening for the person who achieved to a lowered standard when they hit the real world that demands the higher standard of performance.
Nowhere in our society has the lowered standard had a greater impact than it has when we consider our nation’s morality. We have allowed ourselves to be exposed to all sorts of immorality and have defended it in the name of “Freedom of Speech.” But it doesn’t matter if the Courts or Congress or the President say that you all have the right to access anything you want to access, the decision belongs to each of us. It’s not a matter of knowing those behaviors have always been there; it stems from the fact that they have now become mainstream. The fact that we now accept lying, cheating, stealing, and most crass behaviors as being “everyday things” sets us on a path to destruction and I’m not suggesting that “God will strikes us down for our sins.” What I am saying is that as we allow our standards to be lowered, we allow our expectations to be lowered and this will result in poorer performance which will affect us in every possible negative way as a nation. When the standards slip the discipline required to succeed will also slip and ultimately it is the lack of discipline that will do us in.
As a leader it is critical that you know what you value and believe in. It is essential that you hold yourself to a high standard and that you hold your team to a high standard as well. As soon as the standards are allowed to be lowered you will prove that the team cannot discipline itself to a point that will be needed for success. In reality it is not about all the other trapping; it’s about being disciplined enough to keep on going when the faint hearted want to call it quits. As a leader you must be the one that says we can produce the best and we can do it with an efficiency and effectiveness that will be the model for our industry. If you expect less you might as well say—let’s cheat!
THE ARTICLE:
Do We Have to Lower Our Standards?
Last week I suggested that there are several reasons why leaders might lower their performance standards. This week I want to dig a little deeper into each of these reasons. Our values system will dictate how we approach each of these and what we need to understand is that those values will push us in that direction whether that is where we say we want to go or not. A better understanding of why we accept OK when what we really hoped for was excellence and why we allow our standards to be lowered, is the first step in making a conscious effort to do things differently. That’s the key, making a conscious effort; being intentional. Let’s look at the first four of these this week and we’ll examine the rest next week.
We all want to have more fun but somehow many people got the idea that work is supposed to be fun. I agree that we’d probably get more done if our work was more enjoyable but no job can be fun 100% of the time. Fun comes from events that provide instant gratification while enjoyment can result from delayed gratification; knowing that your efforts can result in achieving a desired outcome. We all have to learn that waiting for an outcome can be more rewarding and the feeling can last longer than the instant.
Family pressures affect many of us. Our spouses expect us to do certain things. Our kids have expectations. For many of us, our parents have needs as well. But our role as leaders doesn’t stop because our families need us. So once again we need to be more intentional. Instead of allowing work matters to intervene into family time, we need to learn how to prioritize and delegate. Some things can wait. Some actions can be carried out by a trusted assistant. By truly prioritizing and learning to trust others we can discover time for our families.
One of the biggest false beliefs is that we can’t afford quality. Reality demonstrates, over and over, that quality often costs far less in the long run than does the shoddy. Perhaps the classic example of this was the Yugo, a cheap car that gave the buyer a huge maintenance headache. It ended up costing more to maintain and they needed to be replaced long before higher quality cars. In our role as leaders, we can get wooed by short cuts but they too often lead to higher costs than does expecting quality.
One of my very good friends is the Knowledge Manager at a very fast growing company. I have told him that I am impressed with his company. Understanding that we now live in the information age most companies have Information Technology Managers but what they fail to realize is all that information produces knowledge and we need to manage that knowledge. We need to document what do know and as best we can what we don’t know. But there are also things we do not know and are completely unaware of. Our leadership can hinge upon our ability to find out what’s out there that can affect our performance, and then figure out how that new knowledge can impact our performance.
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