The standard you've never said out loud

Hi Nik,

Every Friday I share one thing I've observed in commercial leadership. This week it's about team standards, the ones you hold people to but have never actually agreed with them. If you've ever walked into a hard conversation and ended up arguing opinion, it's worth two minutes.

This week in the field

Most leaders were promoted for hitting the number. And going from "me" to "we" is a big shift, whether you're about to make it, just have, or made it years ago.

Part of that shift is something nobody tells you to do: say out loud what good looks like in your team. Under pressure, standards tend to stay implied, so everyone runs their own version, often the one they picked up from a manager they had. It came up in a leadership conversation recently, where a hard conversation was coming and the standard it rested on only existed in the leader's head.

What it means in practice

When nothing's agreed, what you call urgency, someone else experiences as aggression, and a hard conversation turns into your opinion against theirs. The exceptions you make for your strongest performers quietly become the real standard, because that's what the rest of the team is watching.

One thing to try

I created the CODE Performance System™ to give you clarity, and the tools to make it happen. Here's one piece of it. At your next team meeting, take ten minutes and ask: "Where do behaviours matter most in this team?" Capture the top three moments, pick one, then ask: "When we are operating at our best, what do we actually see people do?" Don't answer it for them. It's the first step of the Defining Team Behaviours and Standards playbook.

What you hear back might surprise you. You'll hear which standards the team already shares, and which ones only existed in your head.

The question to sit with

If you were to ask your team what standards of behaviour they hold themselves to, what would you expect to hear back?

Curious where you'd score on this? Take the free CODE Leadership Scorecard, five minutes, free.