When a speed skater or skier shaves a full second off of their personal best time - or a football player scores a new high in season touchdowns - or a baseball player has a home-run record season - or a hockey player scores 50+ goals in a season, will any of them be satisfied with a lower performance in future?
What happens when you discover delicious food in non-franchised restaurants or experience a fabulous stay in an outstanding boutique hotel? It's hard to eat at same-old, same-old franchise restaurants or cookie-cutter hotel rooms. Discovering a great bottle of wine or an outstanding beer makes it difficult to buy everyday ordinary brands once you've tasted something so much better.
Once you set a new standard in your life, you realize what you are capable of. This happens too with sales people. Once they hit a great month they set a new standard. And if they don't set the standard themselves, their bosses will do it for them.
If you don't honestly put a great deal of effort into improving your work performance, then you're, at best, an ordinary performer: average, mediocre. You probably complain about your job, make excuses for your results in life and settle for what you get instead of setting a standard for what you could have.
It's people like you who hold your organization back from "greatness." Sorry, but you will never be part of a "great" organization if you're not willing to work for it. Greatness doesn't happen by accident. Greatness is achieved when all members of the organization are pulling their weight. Great organizations get rid of the dead-weight holding them back. It's how they're able to become "great" organizations.
Once you raise your standards, those new standards begin to seep into every other area of your life: relationships, investments, parenting, vacations, etc. It sucks to go backwards. You can never successfully downgrade your standards. Once you get a taste of something great, it's hard to enjoy mediocre ever again.
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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE by Kevin Burns - Corporate Attitude/Culture Strategist
Creator of the 90-Day Strategy to Greatness Culture
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
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Showing posts with label standards. Show all posts
Showing posts with label standards. Show all posts
Monday, February 15, 2010
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Don't Just Lay Down And Take It
When you forget about your customers, your customers forget about you.
When a restaurant server forgets to bring you your meal, admits that she forgot about you, complains that she feels overwhelmed (even if she only has four tables to handle) but doesn't bother to check how long your salad has been waiting under the hot lamps before serving it to you anyway, you would forget about her when it came time to leave a tip right?
Do not reward bad service. Do not reward anyone who forgets that you are the revenue stream to their business. Do not reward any business that does not earn your business and works hard to keep it. Do not accept sub-standard food, sub-standard service, sub-standard quality or sub-standard standards.
You are in charge. You must set the standard of service. Do not accept less than your standard. If you don't set the standard, you will end up taking whatever they give you. You will be a "pushover" customer who does nothing more than encourage the business to continue offering poor service and products. You ruin it for all of the unsuspecting customers who will follow you because you didn't speak up.
Businesses only offer sub-standard service and poor quality because customers lay down and take it. Don't reward them by giving them money for their poor effort. Stop being a coward and talking about bad service behind their backs. Talk to them face-to-face.
Change your attitude and make the following statement a New Years resolution: I endeavor to offer honest feedback to those whose businesses I frequent. I will not use the word "fine" to describe my experience but will be forthright without being hurtful. I will turn off the filters and just say what's on my mind.
Stick to that resolution and watch your results soar this year.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel
When a restaurant server forgets to bring you your meal, admits that she forgot about you, complains that she feels overwhelmed (even if she only has four tables to handle) but doesn't bother to check how long your salad has been waiting under the hot lamps before serving it to you anyway, you would forget about her when it came time to leave a tip right?
Do not reward bad service. Do not reward anyone who forgets that you are the revenue stream to their business. Do not reward any business that does not earn your business and works hard to keep it. Do not accept sub-standard food, sub-standard service, sub-standard quality or sub-standard standards.
You are in charge. You must set the standard of service. Do not accept less than your standard. If you don't set the standard, you will end up taking whatever they give you. You will be a "pushover" customer who does nothing more than encourage the business to continue offering poor service and products. You ruin it for all of the unsuspecting customers who will follow you because you didn't speak up.
Businesses only offer sub-standard service and poor quality because customers lay down and take it. Don't reward them by giving them money for their poor effort. Stop being a coward and talking about bad service behind their backs. Talk to them face-to-face.
Change your attitude and make the following statement a New Years resolution: I endeavor to offer honest feedback to those whose businesses I frequent. I will not use the word "fine" to describe my experience but will be forthright without being hurtful. I will turn off the filters and just say what's on my mind.
Stick to that resolution and watch your results soar this year.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel
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