Expectation

I just finished reading Jim Collin’s book “Good To Great.” It is a book about transforming good companies into great companies and includes many examples of some of American’s iconic companies. The success of these firms is centered on a few major premises: the presensce of a level 5 leader, someone who is charismatic and humble having an unfailing desire for the company to succeed; an executive staff that is talented, educated, and driven towards success; the right people in the right places who are motivated on their own accord; a culture of discipline; and the tools and resources necessary to succeed in today’s dynamic global business environment.
This book was an interesting and debatable read. While I agree with many of the premises and statements that Collins makes, I feel that he over generalized too many critical items. I also feel that the teachings in this book are not practical for every industry. Finally, I think in business, as in life, we often learn more from failures than from success stories. There are countless success stories of companies in America, as Collins depicted. These companies are led by charismatic and humble leaders, they have fabulous executive teams, and an organizational culture that fosters creativity, innovation, and prosperity. Can we really define while some business have luck and others do not? I just don’t think so. That being said, I think what this book does provide is a great foundation for the elements a successful business needs. If you don’t have these traits, it is not likely that you will be successful in the long term. But I also think that there are plenty of examples of great companies out there that may be lacking one or two of these elements.
I work in the restaurant industry, operating seven McDonald’s franchises. The biggest problem that I face on a daily basis is how to motivate people that are only motivated by a paycheck. The majority of our business is run by teenagers and people without a high school education. Quite frankly they don’t have the knowledge, drive, or dedication to run multi-million dollar restaurants, but the nature of the industry forces us to put the stores in their hands. With low profit margins, high labor costs, and high food costs, it is nearly impossible to hire and retain level 5 leaders. Sure we have a great senior executive team, full of knowledge, drive, and desire that works endlessly to help keep the business running. But in an industry that operates 24 hours a day 365 days a week this staff just can’t be at every store every minute of every day. And thus ensues the problem. Turnover in the industry averages 300%. Through a lot of hard work, dedicated hiring/interviewing practices, and a disciplined training team my company has managed to reduce turnover to about 150%. I’d love to abide by the principal of firing someone the moment I realize they need to be terminated, but with today’s unemployment practices and labor laws, frankly, that just isn’t practical (or legal). I have to discipline and document, numerous times, suspend employees and put them on probation, and then I can fire them. Now the next argument is, “if you have the right people in place they will be motivated and you won’t have to fire them!” I have dreams that this would be true, in my business, it just is not. Again, I revert back to the fact that we employee mostly teenagers looking to earn a paycheck for spending money in high school. So what do we do in this instance? Does this mean we can never be great? Do we settle for “good?” Of course not, we always strive for perfection and never settle for mediocrity. But it leads me to wonder if our expectations might be too high and therefore we will continually be disappointed. At what point does the rift between desired and actual become so great that expectations need to be changed? If our company is the flagship operation in McDonald’s entire West America Division and we are only “good” is there even such a thing as great in this industry? Is that possible? I tell you this, the entire executive team is dedicated towards achieving greatness, but if we can’t get the workforce to produce these results, what do we change? Our perception, our expectation, or our philosophy?

Obviously this applies to life as well. It is a well known fact that have the highest expectations of everyone I hold in my circle of trust. My friends and family all know this. I expect nothing but the best from them, but more importantly from myself. I've thought about this a lot. At what point are expectations so high that they are just unrealistic and lead to a life of disappointment. And if we are continually disappointed is it because our expectations are in fact too high or are we just not trusting the right people? It seems to me like if we surround ourself with the right, good, honest, trustworthy people our expectations should always be met? Inevitably there is a constant struggle between settling for disappointment and settling for mediocrity. I tell you this, I cannot under any circumstances settle for anything other than great. I refuse to. Not in life. Not in work. Not in school. Not in friendship. And certainly not in love. What in the world is the point in settling for anything less that everything?

~ T