High bars

Part of a leader’s job is to hire people to get the very best out of them. There are a couple of reasons for this.   Setting a high bar reduces your chances of making a mistake. Hiring mistakes are painful and expensive.  If you do hire someone who meets your standards, they will much more quickly deliver high performance, making managing easier.  High bars – just the presence of them – are also reassuring to your team.  Plus, when someone makes it over, their teammates are much more likely to trust and accept them.  

We stand at the precipice.  You’ve got a team, and there’s a good chance you and they are somewhat at risk. Some of these people you hired, and you made a promise in your heart to never have to lay them off – they’re at risk.  You promised in your heart to do everything you could. 

Are you giving everything you can?  If I ask your team a month from now during or after a layoff, are they going to say, man that guy was there every second, every minute, doing everything he possibly could?  Are they going to say, if everybody were like her, we’d all be golden?

Are you willing to let your team be just okay?  How much of your plan for their future is just…hope?

Maybe it’s time to say to someone who dropped a ball, “I love you, man, and you gotta be better. This isn’t feedback. Other people’s jobs depend upon upon us.  I’d rather be working hard than worrying, because worrying isn’t effective.  Get back to it, and do it better and faster than you ever have.