Over the past several weeks, I’ve been involved in a number of very disparate conversations. Mostly, focused on various aspects of our business, GTM, selling and other strategies. They all tended to look at various issues around performance, how we attract and engage customers, how we service and develop them.
While each one of them has been fascinating, there has been a common underlying theme in all of them. And it’s made me extremely uncomfortable.
I’ve started having conversations about this with a number of close friends and colleagues. “Are they seeing similar things? Are they as uncomfortable with what they see?”
The responses were a resounding “YES!!!!”
So what is it that is bothering us so much?
As simply as I can state it, it is around the systemic and continuing erosion of our expectations.
State differently, what we might have seen as disappointing or even unacceptable in the past, is common practice today. And somehow we seem OK with it. And next year, it will decline, and we will somehow be OK with that, and the following year…….
Some examples–very business and selling focused examples.
I’ve written, frequently, there was a time when any seller in my organization having a 30% win rate would immediately be on a PIP. We commonly had expectations of win rates of over 40% and did everything possible to help our people achieve this. Today, 15-20% seems to be the standard, acceptable win rate. When I question it, people say, “That’s just the way things are …..”
Or we used to want to see 75-80% of our people make their plans. While we always had very aggressive growth goals, we studied what was happening and how we could boost revenue further, or drive higher levels of profitability with our people. Yet today, we make our numbers but only 38% of our people are making their plans. It means we have accepted much lower levels of revenue growth or profitability. But that’s the way things are.
And we see the same with attrition and tenure rates.
And with employee satisfaction and engagement.
And with customer experience, satisfaction and engagement.
And the lists continue…..
And with this, something I find even more devastating. The excitement, the challenge, the passion, the adrenaline rush is disappearing.
We are now in a world where we don’t seem to look for joy in the work we do, but it’s a paycheck and we look for joy elsewhere (whether we find it is another question.).
And I’m confused. We commit so many of the hours in our days in some of the most challenging jobs possible, why aren’t we seeking that excitement, challenge and joy? Why do we just go through the motions, waiting to go home or somewhere else?
Every once in a while, I reflect on the consulting I’ve done with the major telecom companies. In the 90’s, one of the most important factors in attracting and retaining customers was something called “Quality of Service. (QoS). If there was the least bit of static in a connection, it was a monstrous issue. Then in the early 2000s Verizon had great fun with their, “Can you hear me now” commercials. And today, I ask people to pause for a moment saying, “Let me walk outside, the reception may be better…” What was unacceptable performance in the 1990s is what we accept and pay dearly for today.
And look at our customer service experiences and the endless call ladders we have to navigate, or the new AI agents who respond, “This does not compute….” But we accept this and go on, and inherently we know next year it will be worse.
This isn’t just limited to our business lives, we see it in virtually every aspect of our lives (and I will stay very far from politics…)
I’m not just uncomfortable with my own and “our” acceptance of these declining standards of performance! I’ve always been raised in a mindset of continued growth, continued learning, constant improvement. I try to incorporate that in most of my personal practices—waste less time every day, reduce distractions, add a few pounds to each weight each week, cut my time on the course I’m biking.
I try to do this in my business and in my work with clients. Can we get more done faster? Can we get better faster? In most of our projects, we look at time to results, looking to reduce these as much as possible.
I’m not suggesting that any of this is easy. I’m not suggesting I succeed or those I work with succeed every time. But we do get better we do constantly improve. We do not accept that the way things are today are the way the will always be (or worse).
But I am still bothered! Why do I feel like I am in the minority? Why do so many have such low expectations of themselves and their organizations? Just because everyone else is seeing the same thing is no excuse!
I clearly don’t have the answers to this issue. I’m not sure if there is an answer.
But I everyday, I will continue to seek to improve, to ratchet up my performance. To find the excitement and adrenaline rush of accomplishing things and continually improving.
And every day, I will try to find a way to inspire at least one other person to start their own journey to continuous improvement.
And they, in turn will inspire others.
And together we create a movement.
I invite you to join me, let’s talk about it, let’s inspire each other, let’s outperform everyone else, let’s outperform our own expectations.
Lowering the bar every year has to be unacceptable.
Afterword: Here is the AI generated discussion of this post. I know I keep encouraging you to listen, but after listening to this, I actually was somewhat inspired. It’s very good.
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