Never Apologize For This

In the working world, the lack of apologies given is huge.

Think about it, most wars are started because of pride and stubbornness.

But there’s one area as a leader you should never apologize for.

Having high standards, aka a standard of excellence.

First, let me make a discrepancy between: expectations vs. standards.

Expectations

These tend to be subjective and based on a person’s worldview.

As leaders, you should have high expectations for your people.

But be realistic about the abilities, personality, potential, etc. of the individual.

As someone who tends to have expectations, many times it has resulted in disappointment for me.

I should focus on what I can change and what I expect of others by communicating more.

Standards

This is the level of results desired by your team. 

How this differs from expectations is these don’t change based on the person.

Think objectives, deadlines, outcomes, etc.

How you reach the standards may differ, but you don’t lower them for a lack of performance.

A good example is sales goals.

Now here is how this relates to leadership.

Imagine you’re a teacher (doesn’t matter the age of the students).

You as the teacher set the standards right off the bat.

Your students will either rise or fall to the level of leadership provided.

• If you set high standards for your people, they tend to rise up.

• If you set low standards, they tend to get lazy and cut corners.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Leaders can’t control the effort or results of their team, but they can heavily influence the motivation to accomplish them.

I like the visual of a thermostat, setting the “temperature” of the room instead of being a recipient of the collective mood.

Here’s a practical example.

I volunteered to teach an elective class on servant leadership for teenagers last year at my kids’ school.

Normally, teens are looked down upon when it comes to maturity so I knew I needed to set the tone from Day 1.

• I told the students during my introduction that I was going to treat them like adults and expected the same type of respect in return.

When I had a guest speaker visit our class, she told me it felt like a college-level run course.

The students perked up off that comment and it validated the standard set.

In your career, whether you hold a leadership position or not, your reputation is based on your body of work.

1. To put it simply, you determine the standard put forth consistently.

2. In leadership, your responsibility includes your team’s performance.

3. Fair or not, that’s what you signed up for.

When you set the standard at a level of excellence, you never apologize for shortcomings.

No excuses are accepted and that standard becomes contagious.

I get it. Life happens and there are setbacks, but high standards don’t welcome mediocrity.

Don’t ever settle for low standards as a leader.

Or you’ll drown your team in inferiority.

In case you’re having a hard time holding your team accountable for high standards reach out before it’s too late.

God Bless,

Scott

If you found this helpful and you’re looking to improve your soft skills as a leader, here are ways to work with me directly:

• 🗣 Hire me to speak at your company or next event (watch my speaking reel here)

• 🎤 Invite me to lead an interactive training workshop, remotely or in-person (depending on location)

• 🤝 Start 1:1 coaching with me as a new manager, current leader or executive (I once managed 30 people 1:1 weekly❗️)

Also, you can help me out by forwarding this to friends whom would benefit from it! Thank you!