Your customers expect a lot from you. To meet those high expectations, you in turn expect a lot from your colleagues and employees. People tend to give what they’re expected to give—so expect the best from everyone, and you shall receive it. You might even get more than you expected.
One company that gives more to their customers by expecting more from their employees is Stihl, the top-rated maker of power tools. Through my consulting work, I have met many of Stihl’s employees, from those in the head office to those on the floor of the manufacturing plant, and I’ve found they all have one thing in common: they expect excellence and will settle for nothing less. If the slightest thing is wrong with any of their products, that item does not leave the factory until it is reworked to perfection. They expect the best not only from their chain saws and leaf blowers, but also from their people—even their guest speakers. I know this because Stihl once hired me to give a talk to their executive team. Long before the event, their head of marketing, Ken Waldron, invited me to Virginia Beach to see their operation and meet some of their people; he wanted to make sure I understood the company’s vision and strategy before I gave my speech. After giving me a tour of the entire facility, he spent a full hour giving me more background on the company and later followed up with an e-mail reviewing everything we had discussed. He even attended one of my other presentations so he could give me feedback on which points were most relevant to Stihl. Ken could not have been clearer about his high expectations for my talk, nor could he have done more to communicate them to me.
That attitude of high expectation should be present everywhere in the organization. Top executives should expect more from management, and management should expect more from staff. In turn, the staff should expect more from their managers, and managers should expect more from the big brass. Most important, everyone should expect more from themselves.
Mind you, setting high expectations will not cost your company one single cent. It does take time and energy, though, because it’s not enough just to set these expectations, you have to communicate them—with candor, clarity, and not a shred of ambiguity. Don’t just assume your employees or team members know what’s expected of them. Tell them. And tell them again. Tell them in every way you can dream up, from memos, to posters on the bulletin board, to e-mails, to tweets, to one-on-one conversations. Leave no room for misunderstanding or contradiction. Consistency is vital. If you don’t make your high expectations clear, you will still get consistent performance, only it will be consistently average or consistently poor.
You might consider creating a detailed document that explains exactly what you expect from your employees. Distribute it to everyone at every level. Never mind that parts of it do not apply to certain people; they might apply to them in the future as employees change positions. More important, everyone will know what is expected of everyone else. After distributing the document, follow up. Make sure every question is answered and all ambiguities are cleared up.
And be sure to include what they can expect from you. When I was running operations at Disney World, I sent a six-page letter to my leadership team titled “Lee’s Operating Practices and Priorities: What You Can Expect from Me, and What I Expect from You.” Among other things, I wrote: “I am available to talk to you 24 hours a day. Use the following means to contact me depending on the importance and urgency of the message [I added all my phone numbers]. I will make myself equally accessible to people who report directly to me and those who do not. I intend to talk with your employees and managers, probe to find out what is happening in the operation, and try to find areas that warrant my leadership focus. . . . I will keep you informed. If you are not getting the information from me that you need on a timely basis, please tell me. As the amount of communication we receive can be very high volume I try to filter as much as possible. If I filter too much, let me know. . . .”
Even if you’re not the boss, you can still set high expectations for those who work with you. Work with your team or department to set goals together and find the best ways to meet them. Constantly challenge your colleagues; push them to do better. A little friendly competition among the ranks doesn’t hurt, either; in fact, it can be incredibly motivating. No matter who you are or what your position, if you have big goals, big things can happen.
Bottom line: Your customers hold you to a high standard. If you want to achieve true excellence, raise that bar even higher for yourself, your colleagues, and everyone around you.