Who Will Win Gold on Your High Bar?

“Rise to the occasion”

We have all heard that, we have told ourselves that, or told others (or thought it!).

Since a 1965 study of school children, repeated many times since, we know that expectations about performance are self-fulfilling. People do actually meet higher expectations of themselves or those that have been communicated consciously or subconsciously.

Great leaders, set the bar high. How high is too high? Is there such a thing? Maybe. Now we have moved onto the balance beam – too low and you demotivate your team, too high leads to anxiety, frustration, and stress. I’m still going with the higher the better.

This is Not the Limbo

Set it high, keep it high. As a leader your job is to help your team reach the bar and stick their landing.  

There are only a few ways this can go down – (1) they nail it, or (2) they fall short (not a total faceplant, their fingers skim the bar). Ok, giving up on the analogy for now.

As a leader what do you do if it’s the latter? Do you lower the bar? Hell no! If you lower the bar, it brings the average performance down. As a business you stagnate, and you likely lose your best talent because people want to be challenged or they get bored.

It’s better to fail more than achieve less. Fail fast, and often. That’s the name of the game as a Founder.

As the Founder and CEO, your job is to be the coach. To support, to guide, to give them the tools and resources they need, valuable feedback, and the experiences and opportunities to continuously improve and gain new skills.

You may have to get rid of those who are dragging your average down. "7s kill companies." said Sarah Tavel, a general partner at Benchmark Capital, on a recent podcast. They create a culture of mediocrity. Think about it.

Success comes from setting lofty expectations, maybe some would call crazy or utterly unrealistic, and achieving them.

Train Like an Olympian

I do not mean leave them in the dust (the metaphors are getting all mixed up now!).

Successful leaders set high expectations for themselves. Some might say unreasonable (I’ve heard that a time or 20). They are demanding of themselves. At the same time, they model what it looks to live by these standards and what it looks like to achieve them. They model what is possible.  

High expectations come from this focused, big picture vision that a founder has coupled with the belief that only they can achieve it, with their team, of course (remember, without execution it’s just a great idea).

In article about Bill Gates’ use of negative praise to push for greatness, the author explained why it worked for Microsoft. You have to have A players, your team members have to believe that they are the sh$t, and they must have respect for the leader’s abilities and competence, so they are motivated to keep up.

In his book, Built to Last, Jim Collins, gave us the concept of the BHAG (Big Hairy Ass Goal). He found those companies that had decades of high performance, each had a consistent BHAG.  Consistent = don’t lower the bar.

“A BHAG engages people – it reaches out and grabs them by the gut. It is tangible, energizing, highly focused.”

Expect the Gold

I read an article making the distinction between expectations vs. goals. Another way to see what I just said (idea vs. execution … in case you forgot already). 

Goals are specific desired outcomes, generally measurable quantitively and, sometimes, qualitatively by objective standards.

Expectation is the expectancy or presumption of reaching the goal. A goal without an expectation is just a goal. As a leader, you should clearly message, and repeat often, that you expect that the team can reach these goals. Not in an intimidating way, but if done right, it can be motivating. More ‘I believe in you” less “you better or I will fire your a$$.’

Ok, the founder and CEO totally believe it is achievable. They dream big. See it. The team has to believe it too, right?  Does this mean you have to hire certain types? Certain personalities? I would argue you should always be looking for the 10s, for the motivated, the entrepreneurial mindset, the go-getter, the smart and talented, the As.

High expectations work best when matched with achievement that can only be reached with a leader and a team that rises to the occasion.

Not sure where to set your bar? Or, how to get your team to win gold? Set up a 30 min, no obligation, strategy call.