Everyone Expects More but Few Ever Deliver

As we looked into What’s Love Got to Do With It?, I again referenced how our “employees’ willingness to exceed the call of duty” can “lead to a 57% improvement in discretionary effort” and “on average, a 20% improvement in individual productivity” per the Harvard Business Review. But if we want to have any real shot at achieving results like that, we need to be incredibly honest with ourselves; that’s never something that just magically happens! I’m convinced, based on more than two decades of leadership responsibility, that the only way we’ll achieve this over the long haul is by consistently being in that (less than) 5% of the population I cited John Maxwell as describing who exceed expectations when we worked through ways for designing love and purpose into our routines… I believe the foundation for leading with this type of approach lies in putting your definite purpose to words, but that’s just the starting point!

As Napoleon Hill describes the importance of “Definiteness of Purpose” through chapter three of The Master Key to Riches, he references the critical connection between this and a willingness to go the extra mile. He felt this was so tightly connected with working toward and achieving a strong purpose that he opens chapter four on “The Habit of Going the Extra Mile” by sharing defining it as “the rendering of more and better service than that for which one is paid, and giving it in a positive mental attitude.”

While it often seems like customers, clients, or even employers EXPECT to receive more service than which they’re paying for, the reality is that very few actually deliver in that manner consistently or long term; hence the 5% Maxwell mentioned… A key, but easily overlooked piece, in what Hill shared is “giving it in a positive mental attitude.” If we’re being honest, that can throw a wrench into things rather quickly! But as leaders, do we really have an option? I haven’t minced words at any point through this look at the importance of leading with a clear purpose on just how hard leadership often is, but we forfeited the opportunity of having a bad day when we accepted responsibility for leading others.

Don’t misunderstand that last statement; I’m not suggesting that we won’t have bad days, we most certainly will. That’s life… The point I’m driving is that we cannot pass that bad on to the team members we lead or the clients we serve if we hope to exceed their expectations in a way that yields any level of increased discretionary effort on their part. In far too many cases, I’ve seen the proverbial shit roll down hill where a manager under pressure pops off at the supervisor reporting to him then that supervisor follows suit by crawling all over his people. Interestingly enough, I can’t say that I’ve ever known the folks doing that to have their own definite purpose. I also can’t recall seeing the ones I’m picturing be willing to go the extra mile or point to where I’ve seen any of them earn increased engagement from anyone around them!

Will this be easy? Most certainly not, especially when there are so many other responsibilities we juggle as leaders. Quite honestly, there will be times where it’s excruciatingly difficult. And sometimes it will even hurt. But if we’re willing to dig in and remain consistent, it will lead to the kind of results that few will ever see! Those results might even begin to look like we’re winning - and nothing hurts as much when we’re winning - so that’s what we’ll look at next…