Valuetainment - December 12, 2018


Episode 229： How To Raise Standards As An Entrepreneur


Episode Stats

Length

10 minutes

Words per Minute

202.7868

Word Count

2,183

Sentence Count

186

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary

The one mistake companies make is lowering standards. It's subtle, but when it happens, major companies like Sears all of a sudden disappear. This is because they don't know they're making a mistake, which is lowering their standards.


Transcript

00:00:00.960 30 seconds. One time for the underdog. Ignition sequence start.
00:00:07.000 Let me see you put them up. Reach the sky, turn the stars up above.
00:00:11.120 Cause it's one time for the underdog. One time for the underdog.
00:00:17.280 I'm Patrick Bedevi, host of Value Team, and today we're going to talk about what the one mistake companies make,
00:00:21.620 and they don't know they're making this mistake, which is lowering standards.
00:00:25.340 It's very subtle, but when it happens, major companies like Sears all of a sudden disappear.
00:00:31.020 This morning I was at my weekly conference call with the executives, and a topic came up about success
00:00:35.220 and how we can take our game to a whole different level.
00:00:37.600 And I was speaking to one of the leaders, and I said,
00:00:39.920 one of the things we can learn a lot about ourselves is when we succeed.
00:00:45.740 What do you mean? Well, when someone succeeds, there's two reactions.
00:00:50.440 Let me explain to you what happens.
00:00:51.400 One of the reactions is, oh my gosh, I just made $200,000 last month.
00:00:56.240 They go on cruise control.
00:00:57.620 The other reaction of somebody who succeeds, they say, wait a minute.
00:01:01.140 I just did XYZ and I made $200,000.
00:01:04.280 What if I do XYZ and ABC?
00:01:06.880 I could make a million dollars in a month.
00:01:08.940 Are you kidding me?
00:01:10.340 Boom, I'm going after this, right?
00:01:11.740 After they become full, their stomach is full, they're winning, they're making more money.
00:01:15.620 You start going to country clubs, special parties, special invitations, nicer house, nicer car, nicer girl, nicer guy, nicer...
00:01:23.000 Everything changes, upgrade, everybody dresses you, personal tailor, you know, oh my gosh, my watch guy, my clothes guy, my car guy, my this guy.
00:01:32.560 And you all of a sudden become a phenomenon, and that hunger goes away.
00:01:36.260 So many companies, when they go through massive success, all of a sudden standards lower.
00:01:41.480 So again, the number one reason why leaders, companies, and corporations lower their standards, this typically happens following a massive victory, a win, or success.
00:01:50.380 So after you achieve success, a lot of times people stop working that hard.
00:01:54.700 They come in at 11 o'clock instead of 7 o'clock in the morning and do cardio.
00:01:58.200 They stop taking care of their diet.
00:01:59.920 They kind of start eating out too much.
00:02:01.700 They put on 30, 40, 50 pounds.
00:02:03.560 They work less.
00:02:04.460 They're no longer coming to work, working very hard.
00:02:06.880 So what happens when you, the leader, doesn't work very hard?
00:02:10.140 Psychologically, you don't expect as much effort from everybody because you're not putting everything in.
00:02:16.040 And this leads me to number three.
00:02:17.840 When you don't give everything to everybody, in your brain you become very paranoid thinking this person's about to leave you, that person's about to quit, this person's about to take off, this person's going to go to a competitor.
00:02:28.340 So rather than leading your organization, which is what people want, they want to be led, you become someone that is solving for being liked by everybody, so you become a people pleaser.
00:02:37.700 And there isn't any leader I know that's building an organization on high standards that maintains it while wanting to please everybody in the organization.
00:02:47.240 Those two just don't go together.
00:02:49.660 So this leads to many organizations, when they fear losing people, they just start giving titles away.
00:02:55.860 Hey, you are now the vice president.
00:02:57.880 Hey, you are now the chief such and such officer.
00:03:00.740 And they create whatever type of a position.
00:03:03.000 Hey, you are now being promoted to such and such.
00:03:05.340 Let's give everybody the titles because people really want titles.
00:03:08.220 By the way, big thinkers are not driven by titles.
00:03:12.140 Big thinkers are driven by doing big things.
00:03:14.700 So this retains people who are driven by titles, but this same method that we just talked about loses the people that are big thinkers that are driven by doing something that's never been done before.
00:03:26.340 This formula actually becomes absolutely a disaster for any company that follows this.
00:03:30.860 So when companies start giving away promotions and titles to people who didn't earn it, this is what happens.
00:03:35.760 Those who did earn it and they've been around start resenting the leadership person that gave the promotion to another person that didn't sacrifice as much as they did.
00:03:45.420 So what happens there?
00:03:46.280 Yes, you may lose a few people, but what's even worse than that, the team is no longer on the same page.
00:03:52.320 And if the team's no longer on the same page, you are not going in one direction.
00:03:55.940 Think about it this way.
00:03:57.020 Imagine you are attacking, you're playing football.
00:03:58.880 This is not a team.
00:03:59.500 You've got a team, football.
00:04:00.680 Everybody's supposed to go on the other side to score a touchdown.
00:04:02.620 One guy's running this way, one guy's running this way, one guy's running this way, one guy's running this way.
00:04:06.480 You're not going to score any touchdowns, right?
00:04:07.940 There is no play like that.
00:04:09.520 Everybody has to move this way.
00:04:11.380 If your team is no longer on the same page and it's scattered, forget about growth.
00:04:15.520 Momentum is absolutely gone.
00:04:17.340 By the way, here's one thing to be thinking about that could contradict my first five points.
00:04:20.920 Many people you may have known could have been high standards for a three-year period, or a five-year period, or a seven-year period.
00:04:27.880 And you're wondering, wait a minute, that person used to be high standards, but they dropped.
00:04:32.840 Why did they lower their standards?
00:04:34.760 Because their vision wasn't big.
00:04:36.840 It was a small vision.
00:04:38.100 So for a small vision, you only need high standards for a couple years.
00:04:41.200 You don't need it forever.
00:04:42.540 So a lot of times standards get dropped because the vision was also very small.
00:04:47.060 So when the vision is small and the leader's dreams become a reality, all of a sudden what happens is the leader loses fire.
00:04:53.860 The heart's no longer in the game.
00:04:55.240 And you notice this within their eyes.
00:04:57.400 And then you notice this in the language they speak and the effort they put in the office.
00:05:00.980 You no longer see them.
00:05:02.160 And they keep telling me, I'm running conference calls.
00:05:03.920 I'm working hard.
00:05:04.700 I'm running this.
00:05:05.360 I'm traveling.
00:05:06.060 And they want to make sure everybody knows they're busy.
00:05:08.620 But in reality, they're not busy.
00:05:10.720 Their heart's no longer in the business.
00:05:12.180 They're not even connected.
00:05:13.280 They become disconnected.
00:05:14.220 It's almost like, you know the whole thing in a relationship when somebody says, I used to love you, but I don't think I'm in love with you anymore.
00:05:20.720 They're no longer in love.
00:05:22.500 And other people pay the price for this person's heart no longer being in the business.
00:05:26.720 So the company, you saw this happening with Sears.
00:05:28.920 Here's a company that's been around for 125 plus years.
00:05:32.220 They go from dominating everybody, right?
00:05:35.200 World War I, they made it.
00:05:36.580 World War II, they made it.
00:05:37.700 Great Depression, they made it.
00:05:38.920 No problem.
00:05:39.580 They cannot compete against Amazon or Target or some of these other companies.
00:05:42.800 And now they have to pay a debt payment yesterday of $134 million, filing bankruptcy, Chapter 11, closing up another 124 different stores.
00:05:50.760 What happened there?
00:05:52.080 The leader lost heart.
00:05:53.580 And sometimes when you hire the person that doesn't have heart, or you hire somebody that doesn't have the vision, next thing you know, everybody else pays a price for it.
00:06:01.060 So you may be watching and saying, Pat, I don't want to see this happen to my company.
00:06:04.700 I love the people I work with.
00:06:06.200 I even love the guy at the top.
00:06:08.700 I love the CEO.
00:06:09.540 I love the visionary.
00:06:10.720 But maybe he's lost it.
00:06:11.780 What do we do about this?
00:06:13.020 First of all, everybody's got to watch this video here together and ask.
00:06:17.200 Like this is, you've got to be transparent with yourself.
00:06:19.840 It's going to hurt a little bit.
00:06:21.480 You've got to identify some of your blind spots.
00:06:23.540 Then once you go through the first seven issues we talked about, then here's five things to think about on raising your standards.
00:06:29.260 So the first thing you need to do is you need to define what high standards is.
00:06:33.120 A lot of times I go to offices or businesses, I'll sit down with the CEO and they'll say, we run a very high standard type of a business.
00:06:39.420 Our people are expected to.
00:06:41.420 Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta.
00:06:42.700 And I'll say, oh, that's great.
00:06:43.460 Give me an example of what high standards means to you.
00:06:46.260 Well, you know, we expect our guys to be driven by excellence.
00:06:50.700 Okay.
00:06:51.480 The general statement.
00:06:52.700 I'm talking specific.
00:06:53.980 Give me some specific data on what you need to.
00:06:56.140 Well, you know, we expect our people to work very hard.
00:06:59.820 Again, another general statement.
00:07:01.240 This doesn't work.
00:07:02.480 High standards needs to be defined.
00:07:04.800 Very specific.
00:07:06.000 So what is the definition of high standards?
00:07:08.360 High standards to me is somebody who does 38 this, 120 this, shows up at this time, goes out at this time, makes this many calls, runs this many appointments.
00:07:18.280 Define it.
00:07:19.680 Specific.
00:07:20.460 To the T.
00:07:21.440 So number one, define and set high standards.
00:07:24.560 Number two, once you define and you set high standards, then you've got to communicate it to everybody on what high standards are.
00:07:32.300 These are our standards moving forward.
00:07:34.260 In this department, in this department, in this department, with this person, with that person.
00:07:39.980 So you communicate it to everybody.
00:07:41.580 The third thing you've got to do as a leader, after you define high standards, after you go out and, you know, communicate the high standards, then you've got to sell.
00:07:50.420 Why I need to buy into high standards.
00:07:52.580 I'm sitting there saying, come on, man.
00:07:54.120 You want me to buy into high standards?
00:07:55.220 Yes.
00:07:55.500 Why?
00:07:55.860 Sell it to me.
00:07:56.860 They're not saying it to you, but they're thinking that.
00:07:59.060 Sell me why I need to buy into the idea of your high standards.
00:08:01.900 Sell me why I need to believe that you are going to yourself perform based on high standards.
00:08:06.060 Then I'm sitting there saying, wow, I kind of like what he's talking about.
00:08:08.100 What do you mean by selling high standards?
00:08:09.680 This organization won because of high standards.
00:08:12.340 This leader did this because he had high standards.
00:08:14.460 This country did this because of high standards.
00:08:16.600 This sports team won because of high standards.
00:08:18.580 This team came together and they did this because they committed to high standards and look where they are now.
00:08:22.660 You need to sell me, if I'm following you, sell me on why I need to buy into your high standards.
00:08:28.200 If you've done all of those things, now you've got to drive high standards over and over and over and over again.
00:08:35.640 You become a master re-reminder of high standards.
00:08:38.520 Re-reminder of high standards.
00:08:39.960 Why you want people to re-commit to high standards.
00:08:42.580 Re-energize them with high standards.
00:08:44.520 With consistency.
00:08:45.760 With Johnny.
00:08:46.820 With Bobby.
00:08:47.680 With Larry.
00:08:48.620 With Mary.
00:08:49.520 With everybody.
00:08:50.300 High standards.
00:08:50.880 It could be the front desk clerk that all she does is answer the phones, but you've got to say, look, when I answer the phone, I want you to be smiling.
00:08:58.140 I want you to say, how am I going to help you?
00:08:59.360 How are you doing?
00:09:00.080 I want you to have some energy.
00:09:01.700 When you go to the person in the back that's leading their team, I want you to be excited.
00:09:04.940 I want you to come to work and fire me up with your team of three different people that work with you.
00:09:08.980 And then with your person that's the COO, hey, I know you've got 200 people reporting to you, but man, I want you to get them excited.
00:09:14.120 High standards with consistency amongst everybody.
00:09:16.980 Number five is, if somebody says, oh, I know you're just talking about this.
00:09:21.100 Let's just say you have a certain set of rules or principles or guidelines or values that you want to run with every once in a while.
00:09:27.380 Everybody needs to know how serious you are.
00:09:29.300 So what does that mean?
00:09:30.680 Whether you need to let go of somebody, ask them to leave, fire them, any of that stuff, every once in a while, every once in a while, you need to do this.
00:09:38.880 It isn't easy.
00:09:40.420 It's going to confuse some people.
00:09:41.880 Some people are going to get scared.
00:09:43.280 Some people are going to say, oh my gosh.
00:09:45.020 But here's what happens.
00:09:45.920 Because everyone realizes you're not playing.
00:09:48.740 Thanks everybody for listening.
00:09:50.060 And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.
00:09:54.620 Give us a five star.
00:09:56.020 Write a review if you haven't already.
00:09:57.540 And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.
00:10:03.560 Just search my name, Patrick VidDavid.
00:10:05.480 And I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.
00:10:10.460 With that being said, have a great day today.
00:10:12.180 Take care, everybody.
00:10:12.760 Bye-bye.
00:10:15.920 Bye-bye.