Nov 12, 2018<\/p>\n
The False Dilemma of High Standards or High Morale<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In my coaching work, I have heard variants on this headline question numerous times before, and today I offer an answer pulling not just from my time as chief of staff, but from my time in the US Marines. In the Marines, I learned a leadership principle that has evolved over nearly 250 years and is very applicable to every business and nonprofit I\u2019ve worked in. It is not dramatic or sexy but might provide some insight for you if you wonder how hard to push your team: \u201cEmploy your command in accordance with your capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n What it means, in essence, is there\u2019s a fine line between high standards and setting your team up to fail with impossible standards or tasks they haven\u2019t been trained for. As leader, you have to know your team\u2019s capabilities – the tasks they\u2019re trained for and competent in, the range of feasible turnaround times, a sense of the obstacles they\u2019ll face (internal processes that cause friction or competing commitments as some examples) – and their limitations. Only then can you understand what \u201cnormal\u201d or \u201cbaseline\u201d looks like for them, in the current context. From there, you can offer stretch assignments that test those capabilities and limitations, which can illuminate where you need to make changes, fill gaps, or supplement your force with outside help. If you\u2019re seeing unusual levels of demoralization and burnout, you could be pushing too hard or missing pieces of the equation I just mentioned in the daily course of business. Maybe there\u2019s something you\u2019re not seeing or accounting for.<\/p>\n Try measuring your capabilities with available tools like the APQC Process Classification Frameworks (PCF) and see where your strengths and limitations are versus your perceptions of them. In business, as in the military, there can come a time when you\u2019re so far from an ideal world that everyone is required to jump in and do things outside their training, or doing those things longer than they ideally should. That can get a team through a crisis but is not usually sustainable for the long-term.<\/p>\n Only you know what the answer looks like for your team, in your context, but being intentional about applying this principle can help. If this is a challenging area for you, I can help. Email<\/a> or call<\/a> today to ask me how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Does your exec really have to choose between high standards or high morale?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-news"],"yoast_head":"\n