In a webinar presentation this week entitled, “Building a Go-Fast Organization” sponsored by HCI and Globoforce, I recounted a story in which former U.S. Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger had asked a staff member to do a report on something. When Dr. Kissinger got the report, he sent it back to the fellow with a note asking, “Is this the best you can do?” The staff member re-worked the report and returned it to Kissinger. The same thing happened again. The guy reworked the report another time and returned it to Kissinger, who again asked if this was his best work. The fellow replied that, yes, indeed, this was his very best work, at which point Kissinger reportedly said, “Good… now I’ll read it.” The clear implication was that Dr. Kissinger felt that he was entitled to nothing less than the best effort of those on his team.

This week, Steve Jobs took a step back from his role as CEO of Apple. Not unlike Dr. Kissinger, Mr. Jobs is known for a lot of things, but accepting mediocrity is not among them. The introduction of uber-successful products like the iPod, iPhone, IPad, and Macbook Air would never have come about without Jobs’ relentless focus on producing “insanely great” gear, to use his words.

(One can only wonder how the U.S. Congress would be behaving right now if Dr. Kissinger was the Speaker of the House and Mr. Jobs the Senate Majority Leader.)

Most of us understand deep down that high standards are a necessary requirement of winning. Sure, we whine about it at times, but nobody gets up in the morning and says, “I want to go lose today. I want to go to my job, hang out with some really mediocre people, and do crummy work for a supervisor who is a self-centered weasel.” We get it that high standards and winning performance go hand in hand.

Too often, as leaders, we handicap the performance of our team by setting the bar too low, by holding ourselves and others to a standard that is less, far less than our best effort. We do so for lots of reasons… because we’re tired, or we know our team is tired, they haven’t gotten raises in a while, they haven’t been fully trained or equipped, the list goes on. And all that is probably true.

Yet, when we do that, we step onto a very slippery slope by enunciating that there is a new operative standard called, “good enough.” In so doing, we absolutely incense those who really are giving it their very best. In effect, we are telling them that their expenditure of discretionary effort is foolish. No one likes to feel foolish, to wit a decline in their effort is almost certain, and mediocrity becomes the new norm.

Very frankly, I think sometimes we’re too quick to apologize for having high standards. There’s nothing wrong with asking people to do their very best work. And when we fail to ask for or expect it (starting with ourselves), our chances of getting it are greatly diminished.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be on a team where I’m surrounded by mediocrity, or striving to do mediocre things. I’d much rather create a big smoking hole in the ground as the result of a failed effort at something fantastic.

As leaders, it is imperative for us to push through the rough patch that we find ourselves in right now. It is entirely possible to expect (and require) best effort while still being sensitive to the needs, feelings, fears, and aspirations of our teammates. Indeed, that is the only way to secure a better future for them and ourselves. Let’s get on with it.

*****

A pathfinder in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the newly released book,Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit theirwebsite, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Have you noticed recently that airline flight attendants are becoming considerably more insistent that boarding passengers place only large items (e.g., roll-aboard suitcases) in the overhead bins, and stuff everything else under the seat in front of them? Some even take it upon themselves to remove smaller items like backpacks from the overhead space, identify the owner, and tell them to stow it underneath the seat, whether they want to or not.

This is occurring because most of the major domestic airlines introduced exorbitant checked baggage fees as part of their a-la-carte pricing schemes. Yes, they gain revenue from the checked baggage fees, but three costly and undesirable things happen as a result:

1. With a substantial disincentive for checking baggage, most passengers opt to schlep all of their items for the trip thru gate security and onto the plane. Security lines get longer and the inspection process becomes less effective.
2. As no aircraft has ample overhead bin space to accommodate all this stuff, the boarding process groans and drags as passengers make futile efforts to cram it in anyhow. This results in lots of late aircraft departures, not to mention broken overhead bin doors. I was on a flight recently where we pushed back 11 minutes late purely due to “packing” delays.
3. Under pressure to get the aircraft boarded for an on-time departure, flight attendants become the luggage police, which puts them in constant unhappy conversations with customers, and diverts attention from their far more important safety-related duties, like observing that 5 of the 6 passengers seated in an emergency exit row don’t speak English.

Now, imagine what might happen if the luggage fee was reversed, and luggage could be checked to the passenger’s final destination for free (within limitations), but any carry-on items other than a single, small personal bag would incur a $25 fee.

My bet is that, again, because people (all of us) do what we are incentivized to do, the bulkier items like suitcases would go in the belly of the plane where they belong, airlines would still make money from “boarded luggage” fees, operating expense would improve from a more efficient boarding process, flight attendants would be much better utilized, and passengers would be a lot happier.

Let’s step back and look at this thing thru a wider lens. This situation didn’t get to where it is because airline executives are idiots (okay, a few are, but not in the main.) The fact of the matter is that all (repeat, all) of us have similar situations where, with the best of intentions, we have incented people (employees, customers, vendors, partners, children) to do the wrong things. We pay a steep price for that.

As a suggestion, take a half-hour this week and look for some areas where you might be able to improve organizational outcomes (and maybe some people’s lives, including your own) by adjusting or eliminating counter-productive incentives.

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the newly released book,Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their  website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

Having already wrung needed and significant concessions from them, the newly elected Governor of Wisconsin has been making a rather poorly disguised effort to nullify the collective bargaining agreements and rights of various groups of state workers, principally teachers. As with nearly every other issue of import these days, the whole world is suddenly watching, including like-minded governors in several other states who are licking their chops at the prospect of following the lead penguin into the drink. Whoa… Full Flaps, Brakes, Stop!

In the interest of full disclosure, I am no fan of labor unions. Indeed, a significant portion of my professional effort over the course of 3 decades has focused on helping organizations obviate unions by maintaining a positive employee relations culture, a culture in which both the individual and the organization can do their best work and gain the most from it.

That said, I respect every worker’s right to make a choice as to whether or not they are willing to enter into a direct, cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship with their management. That choice is most often based on whether or not management has earned the benefit of the doubt. If the answer is yes, workers feel no need to reach out and seek (let alone pay for) the protection of organized labor. Are you with me so far? Alright, hang on.

Demonstrations notwithstanding, I believe there is an even chance that Governor Scott Walker will pull off some kind of flash bang, middle of the night vote and get his way, even if it means reinventing the law right before our eyes. Even if that comes to pass, while winning the hand, he will lose the game. Correction, the people of Wisconsin will lose. How? Because there will still be a need for thousands of teachers, and every one of them will STILL make a quiet daily decision as to whether they want to give their full measure of effort that day, or mail it in. Given the backdrop, which choice do you think they will make?

For the last twelve years we have worked almost entirely within the field of Discretionary Effort, studying, writing, speaking, and teaching leaders about that extra layer of effort that every one of us can give to a situation if, but only if we want to. Eerily consistent with similar work by Towers Watson and Gallup, our own engagement surveys suggest that barely 50% of workers are, by their own admission doing their very best work, and that most of us routinely expend no more than 60 to 70% of our maximum effort in the workspace. In other words, a lot of unspent capacity goes home with us at day’s end.

So, if just half of the 50,000 or so teachers in a state, any state choose to ratchet the ‘ole effort meter back another 10-20%, what is that going to cost to compensate for the lost productivity? Perhaps more importantly, what will it do to the level of educational performance in the state? If you’re getting a mental image of a post office being superimposed over your local school district, you’re getting the picture.

Since the publication of our first book, Contented Cows Give Better Milk in 1998, we have maintained that giving workers (be they on an assembly line at GM, or a school in Racine) benefits they haven’t earned, the market doesn’t require, and you can’t afford is the antithesis of good employee relations, because some day you have to take all that stuff back. As the folks at GM did, and now a lot of teachers and other municipal workers face that same music, the last thing in the world we, through our elected representatives ought to be doing is rubbing their faces in it, just because we can. It’s not good business or good politics, and it’s certainly not good employee relations. Motivated people move faster.

As always, your thoughts and ideas are welcome

*****

A thought leader in the arena of leadership and employee engagement, Bill Catlette is a seminar leader, keynote speaker, and executive coach. He helps individuals and organizations improve business outcomes by having a focused, engaged, capably led workforce. He is co-author of the newly released book,Rebooting Leadership. For more information about Bill, his partner Richard Hadden, and their work, please visit their  website, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows

For some reason I don’t yet fully comprehend, we do a lot of work in Alaska. I’m not complaining. I love Alaska, its people, its terrain, and yes, even its weather.

Last week, I had one of the most unique and memorable experiences of my professional life, when I conducted a site visit to our client, Alaska Clean Seas, at their base in the settlement of Deadhorse, on Alaska’s North Slope, in the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Bill and I will be speaking for their annual meeting in Anchorage in April. We’re serious when we say that we’ll go to any length to do our homework in preparation for a keynote presentation or training session. In this case, the “length” was about 5,000 miles. And did I mention that I made this trip in January?!

I learned far more than I could squeeze into a single blog post, so let me hit the high points. My chief curiosity before making the trip was, “What’s the attraction? What makes somebody want to work on the North Slope of Alaska, where the work is hard, potentially dangerous, isolated from family and friends, and where winter means double-digit subzero temperatures, 21-24 daily hours of total darkness, in a labor camp with no private homes, hotels, restaurants, schools, stores, or anything else we associate with ‘community’? Most Slope workers work 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. That means 12-hours a day, for 14 days straight, then 14 days off, back at home. The company flies them to the Slope for their 2-week hitch, and then back home, wherever that might be. In Alaska, Seattle, San Diego, Montana, you name it.

Why would anyone do this?

Is it the big bucks? Partly, yes. There’s no denying it. These folks are paid well. And the work schedule – work HARD for 26 weeks a year, and do what you want the other half of the year – that’s VERY attractive to the people who work here. But it’s more. And in the case of Alaska Clean Seas, it’s much more. Here’s what I learned:

1. Mission is motivating. Alaska Clean Seas is a not-for-profit coop of North Slope oil and pipeline companies, whose mission is to provide response and cleanup for oil spills on the North Slope. These folks clean up this unique environment after routine operations in the production of North Slope oil, and after larger scale accidents and mishaps, like the pipeline leak that happened just this week. Do the people you lead have a clear motivating mission? Something that’s important to them?

2. Professionals want to work in the company of equally committed professionals. Everyone I spoke to said they genuinely like the people they work with, trust them with their safety, and respect them for their professionalism. Lessons: high standards beget high standards. Nobody wants to work with turkeys. We should keep that in mind as we recruit, hire, and promote during the economic recovery…and always.

3. People like doing cool things with cool stuff. Regardless of the temperature, this is cool work. ACS employees tout the variety in their jobs, and the “toys” they get to work with: snowmachines, 4-wheelers, oil skimmers, airboats. Serious work, but fun, too. Lesson: work a little fun into some of what your followers do.

4. Creature comforts matter. OK, Prudhoe Bay is no resort. Conditions are extreme, and virtually no one lives here permanently. They don’t call the town “Deadhorse” for nuthin’! But employers here do what they can to take the edge off. Workers live in attractive “camps” – think upscale college dorm – with wide screen plasma satellite HDTV’s in their rooms, really good food (and lots of it), well-appointed (and well-utilized) fitness facilities, wi-fi, social gathering areas with nice furnishings, religious opportunities, and much more. Lesson: every minute your employees have to worry about taking care of their own needs is a minute they can’t be focused on your customers’ needs.

5. Finally, you can’t pay anyone enough to be miserable. One worker aptly pointed out that almost all jobs on the North Slope pay well, and offer the 2-and-2 schedule. “If it weren’t for the schedule, none of us would be here. But,” he said, “I don’t care how much you pay me, and how much time I have off, if I didn’t love what I did, I wouldn’t work in these conditions.” Lesson: nevermind…you get it.

My timing for this trip was uncharacteristically fortuitous. Not only did I miss the pipeline leak (in which case my client would have been very busy), but the low temperature during my 2 days on the Slope hit about minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit. The week before, it had hit -47, and it’s headed back in that direction this week. Minus five was quite cold enough for this Florida boy.

Richard Hadden (twitter at http://twitter.com/ContentedCows) is a leadership speaker, author, and consultant who helps organizations improve their business results by creating a great place to work. He and Bill are the authors of the acclaimed business classic Contented Cows Give Better Milk, and Contented Cows MOOve Faster, and the brand new book Rebooting Leadership. Learn more about them and their work at ContentedCows.com.