Raising the bar

We tend to get exactly what we expect. No less, no more.

From our lives, from our business, from our teams.

Where do you as a leader need to change your expectations? Where do you need to raise the bar?

You know, I can remember a number of years ago, going back to my old college town and seeing the house I lived in senior year with a couple of buddies of mine and senior year when we lived there, we thought it was a really nice house, it was in a nice part of town. But when I went back to look at it 30-35 years later, said, how did we ever live in that slum? I saw a crack in the window up on the third floor. And I remember that crack was there when I went to school there back in the late 80s.

Now, did the house get worse? Did the neighborhood get worse?

I don't think so. But over the years, I raised my expectations. And what was great for me back then was a slum for me now.

I can remember my wife and I going on our first cruise back, almost 30 years ago, she was pregnant with my first child with my son, Richie. And we went on that cruise. And it felt like we had arrived, it was this luxurious thing, the best food the best service.

And then more recently, we went on a cruise. And we thought, oh my god, the food's not very good. The service is horrible. We weren't happy at all. We started to wonder how much of it was that the cruise wasn't as good and how much of it was that over the last 30 years, we had been slowly raising our expectations. And what we thought was great, was no longer great.

So where do you need to raise your expectations?

Where do you need to raise the bar, in your business, maybe performance that you thought was A-player performance two years ago, that was no longer A-player performance.

Maybe to get where you want to go in your business. What used to be A-player performance is now maybe B-player performance. Maybe the quality of your folks on your leadership team were the right quality, it was the right culture on the leadership team you were executing as a leadership team, two or three years ago when you were $10 million business, but now that you're a $20 million business or a $15 million business that just doesn't cut it anymore.

Where do you need to raise your expectations?
Where do you need to raise the bar, on your team and in your business?