In chapter eight of What’s KILLING Your Profitability? (It ALL Boils Down to Leadership!), I detail the profitability organizations forfeit when leaders fail to set clear and high expectations for their teams. Since this column is geared more at strengthening our personal relationships than growing the margin in our businesses, let’s consider how not fulfilling what’s expected of us – especially with the folks closest to us – costs so much more than lost profit. But first, a quick story…
In August 2015, I was part of a small group of folks talking with John Maxwell. In the days that followed, I would be one of nearly 3,000 people to complete the licensing process to use John’s material. As John talked with us in that private session, he asked that we always work to exceed the expectations of our clients any time we shared that content he had spent most of his life developing. He went on to share that “80% of the population falls short of what’s expected and just 15% meet expectations. Only 5% ever exceed expectations!” To this day, I don’t remember a specific study he was referencing but his point rings true. In fact, I’m convinced that the 80% has grown since 2020, leaving a far lower percentage of folks who meet or exceed what’s expected of them.
In one of the lessons in our Emerging Leader Development course, Cindy shares about “The 10 Foot Rule” that Sam Walton had in place during the early days of WalMart, explaining that employees were to interact with any customer who was within ten feet of them. I always interrupt her there and make the point that Sam is clearly no longer around because it’s rare for them to make eye contact now, let alone have meaningful interaction – and that’s certainly not a WalMart exclusive either! Just recently, I had to actually go inside of a big box store and was nearly taken out by an employee pushing a pallet jack.
As they approached from 30 or 40 feet away, I quickly realized that they had no intention of slowing down or even looking where they were going. I stepped to the side and they passed close enough that I could have touched them, and they never acknowledged that I was in the store. While I can’t speak to what their customer service training consists of today, I can tell that wouldn’t have flied when I was a high school student stocking shelves – and this most certainly was not a high school student!
While you may not have had that exact experience, I’d be stunned if you can’t related in some way. It seems far more normal to have experiences like that where even our modest expectations aren’t met. Unfortunately, those behaviors don’t just happen in places of business. I don’t think she coined the phrase, but Cindy often reminds me that “how someone does one thing is usually how they do everything,” when I take issue with someone’s behavior. And nearly every time, we soon see that they indeed use the same behavior in nearly everything they do!
Now let’s connect this back to our most cherished relationships, those we have with our friends and family. How often do we look forward to go above and beyond to ensure the time we have with them truly does exceed their expectations? While this may seem like a stretch, or maybe even a crazy idea, I’d argue that it’s not really that difficult. With such a low segment of the population even meeting expectations, every extra thing we’re willing to do will stand out and play a huge part in strengthening that relationship. And who knows, maybe developing this habit will spill over into what we do with everyone else, since how we do one thing really is how me typically do everything!
