Setting the Standard Starts at the Top

I once worked with a CEO who was frustrated that “none of his employees cared anymore”.

His evidence for this apathy was based largely upon the fact that people were frequently late to meetings.

“If they cared, they’d find a way to be on time,” he told me.

Punctuality was indeed an issue at this company. I had personally been in countless meetings where someone shuffled in late, disrupting the entire thing. But not once had I heard the CEO (or any leader) say anything about it to anyone.

No surprise then, that being late had become a norm.

There is a saying in the military that if you see something below standard and do nothing, then you've set a new standard.¹

The inverse works too.

If you want to set a standard, you have to do something. Talking about the standard doesn’t work.

There’s a great scene that illustrates this idea in The Redeem Team, the Netflix documentary that follows the USA Basketball Men’s National Team and their quest for the gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing after being humiliated in Athens four years prior. 

The team was gathered for training camp in Las Vegas and the first thing everyone wanted to do was go out and enjoy the nightlife.

Almost everyone. 

Young stars like Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Carmelo Anthony recall running into Kobe Bryant at 5 am in the hotel lobby as they returned from a night out. 

At first they assumed Bryant had been out partying too, but they were confused by how he was dressed.

And then it dawned on them . . .

They were headed to bed; Bryant was headed to work out. 

By the end of the week, the rest of the team joined Bryant in the gym each morning and from that point on they “were all on Kobe’s schedule", says teammate Carlos Boozer.

(You can watch the short clip here, but beware there are a couple of f-bombs if that sort of thing bothers you.)

The Redeem Team (spoiler alert) won the gold medal and restored the legacy of USA Basketball. James and Wade would credit the experience as the wakeup call they needed to take their own careers more seriously and they would go on to win a combined 7 NBA championship rings.

“Lead by example” isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but just because something is obvious, doesn’t mean it happens.

That CEO lamenting how little everyone cared?

Almost always late to meetings.

¹  Credit to Ben Horowitz‘s What You Do Is Who You Are for introducing me to this idea.

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