“The Power of Leadership”

Yesterday I talked about the absolute commitment to the keeping of promises… today we tighten down the hatches!  This is well documented in the terrific book Broken Windows, Broken Business by the way.  Whatever you accept, you get more of.  A little dirt becomes a lot of dirt.  A little allowed tardiness becomes chronic and thoughtless tardiness.  Lazy customer follow-up becomes no customer follow-up.

All this is rampant in many of our businesses, but today’s market demands toughness!  There is less room for error now than in a long, long time.  This is a very hard lesson and no one and no business is ever perfect, but as our world currently drips with excuses and spread blame for nearly every individual short coming, yet there is nearly no leeway for any and every business which is not “too big to fail” and that list likely includes your business!

There is always a good reason for letting little things slide and only you can decide for yourself how much to permit of yourself and those in your command.  But, be honest with yourself and recognize that isolated and incidental things link, breed, accumulate and communicate.  Tolerance becomes permission and permission become encouragement.

I don’t mean to be beating you up today (here comes the “But”), but, I see many closed small businesses in my everyday life and I hear many complaining business leaders who are also closing their eyes and or holding their noses over slow response to customer inquiries, deviation from proven sales scripts, sloppy order fulfillment, and on and on.  And though I know very well the discomfort which comes from dealing with such problems, I also know that the timing for allowing anything less than spectacular performance in very, very poor indeed.

“I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.” – Vince Lombardi

Be tough today!

Shawn
Performance Institute – A Global Leader in Human Capital and Business Development

Russ M. Miller, LLIF – Chairman and CEO

Sunny Hong Zhang – Managing Partner – China

Shawn M. Miller – Managing Partner – USA

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