One man is frustrated by the utter lack of excellence he sees almost everywhere.
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I am checking into a hotel and the desk clerk asks me how I am doing. I smile and say “fantastic” and I mean it. She looks at me, puts her hands on her hips and says “what is your problem?” she snaps “no one is that cheerful!” I laugh and say “I figure every day above ground is a good day.” Here is the question why should I have to justify myself to the desk clerk for being cheerful? Why am I the one who is cheerful and not her? Why is Oscar the grouch at the front desk anyway? What is this hotel thinking any way? Why? Why? Why?
When I ask what he does for a living he says “I am in IT.” He then states he doesn’t have customers he has “users” and he doesn’t care what they think.
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Yesterday I spent three hours on the phone with about ten different people from a well known service provider. Every one of them except for one were rude surly or sarcastic. They are always advertising on TV how great they are. They aren’t. They are horrible.
I am doing customer service training for a company in South Florida. One of the people in the class says “I don’t understand why I am here.” I ask what he means. He says “I am not in customer service. I don’t have customers. This is a total waste of my time.” This is all said with an angry tone and a red face. I ask “you don’t have any customers?” The answer is no. When I ask what he does for a living he says “I am in IT.” He then states he doesn’t have customers he has “users” and he doesn’t care what they think. We then have a lengthy discussion about outsourcing. He just doesn’t get it at all.
I am searching for excellence. I am finding it in short supply. Where has all the excellence gone? Why can’t I find it? Excellence has become the exception not the rule. I want it, I need it I crave it and by golly and gosh (sorry for the language) I am going to keep expecting it. Sadly I am surprised when I find it.
We all acknowledge the Apple’s, the Ritz- Carlton’s, the Disney’s and the Ruth Chris’ of the world. We love Zappo’s.We agree that that is how things should be- and know they are successful and this is the excellence that people want to experience. So why can’t I find it? Why am I still searching locally and nationally? I blame leadership. There. I said it and I am not taking it back. The reason organization and people are not excellent is they are not being led. Leadership is failing. So what can be done to be excellent? Here are few ideas.
- Have a robust interviewing process– First far too many companies hire people who pass the mirror test ( they are breathing- they fog the mirror) and they hire the wrong people for the wrong reasons and that is the beginning of the end of excellence. The quality of excellence in your organization is in direct correlation to the quality of the interviewing process and the quality of people you hire. Second many leaders have not been trained in the subtle art of interviewing and they just don’t know how to interview effectively. Poor interviewers create poor employees.
- There are no standards– If the organization does not have a mission vision values and service standards there is no target to aim for. We also need to have standards that we can use to hold people accountable to and reward and incent them for meeting them. Let me be blunt- we also need to get rid of people who don’t follow them. In many cases the reason people don’t perform in an excellent manner is there are no consequences. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. That person doesn’t get rewarded for excellence or punished for lack of performance. Let’s set the cruise control on “mediocre.”
- There is no benchmarking- I talked to a client recently who told me “we want to be THE model for greatness- not in our industry but in all of North Dakota.” They then listed companies they wanted to be like. When you set a benchmark like “we want to the IKEA of architecture.” We can kind of get an idea of what that would look like. You must set up a benchmark to aspire to, and not just in your industry but the world. Most companies don’t ever benchmark and have no idea where they are going and what they aspire to be “when they grow up.”
- Leaders aren’t modeling it- You need to model what you want your team to be- from the top to the bottom. It is not what you say that team members learn from it is what you do. You can’t say “we expect excellence” and then not be excellent your self. It’s like an an overweight fitness trainer who has a pack of smokes in his front pocket. In order to inspire and motivate them we have to do it ourselves.
- Cut out the dead wood- I see organizations that keep incredibly inept performers for a long time before they let them go. They finally fire them and the team wonders what took so long. We must hire for excellence but also fire for excellence. In a true culture of excellence, lack of excellence is not tolerated. Do you think a Navy Seal would be around long if they were not excellent? Nope. Not everyone can be a Navy Seal. Here is a point to consider; the reason Navy Seals are so well respected is everyone knows they have very high standards of excellence.
So as a leader are you truly excellent personally? Professionally? How excellent is your team? How excellent is the company? If you hesitate in answering any of the questions- then you have a lot of work to do. The sooner you start the sooner you will have excellence. Then let me know- I am looking for excellence.
This article originally appeared in B2B Magazine under a different title.
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Photo: Getty Images