It’s good to be good, but good is never great. As leaders we have to consciously work to avoid the trap of good. Join Greg and me as we discuss how to make your good better, and your better best.
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Hey welcome back to another episode of the Craig and Greg show I'm Craig this is Greg I grew up with my grandma reciting a little poem to me that I thought was appropriate to start off today I've got a tattooed in my brain because she said it to me so many times she said good better best never let it rest until your good is better and you're better is best and so she kept telling me keep besting it whenever I was doing something keep besting it you know well I'm doing the best I can no best it you can best it even farther than that and you know I think there's sometimes with leaders that I have put in a lot of hard work to get to this spot and I think I'm good I think I've put in enough work I can just kind of this is pretty good I'm kind of satisfied with my surroundings but I think that there's a danger in us becoming satisfied what can begin to happen to our leadership if we just say this is good enough that quote from your grandma is pretty good I mean I I think do your best and keep doing your bestest you know we're making up good words like gooder yeah yeah more gooder more gooder yeah I think there's something not about perfection which is right balance we can chat about it this morning on our podcast here but I do think perfectionism can be too compulsive it's like where you're never it's never good that also hurts the team but by settling now the teams like well that's as far as we have to go and you know someone else in your group is going to go less right right so eventually it's going to be satisfied to partially satisfied to whatever right do you have a story in your career where you saw someone wrestle between satisfied and perfection that we might glean something today because well there's some lessons for all of us I am yeah I'll be the lesson because I would struggle with okay yeah I would struggle with I'd have a hard time starting something because in my mind I didn't think I could do it perfectly and so since I couldn't do it perfectly I wouldn't start I wouldn't even start doing it okay and and so I had to get to that spot where I would have to say well listen I is perfection even possible on this but could I strive for excellence you know can I can I get to excellence there is going to be some imperfections in that and then slowly I began to realize that those stumbles or those things that weren't perfect were launching points learning points there there are things that helped fuel me to to keep on going but but yeah I I found myself just almost paralyzed by by saying oh man I'm looking down the road and this could go wrong this could go wrong I'm not sure I can do this yet and so then I would just say well I won't even start and that would that be an assignment Craig where you knew what you need to do or was it someone gave you that assignment I think it's where I needed to I knew what I needed to get done this was an internal battle yeah um satisfaction is is nice it's okay um restaurants battle with that right like you and I go out and we'll take the ladies out we'll go get a steak and yeah it was good you know it's good yeah would you go back well I might try something else right that is not a loyal customer that's not a loyal patron that's not a loyal employee right or team member that is the I want to call it cancer but that that is the disease between satisfaction and and actually having a scalable awesome organization with amazing people who are growing and growing which is our goal as leaders right all people right what about the outside like if we settle in or we're satisfied how do we as leaders wrestle with well he even did less what do we do well I I found that whatever standard the leader in our organization sets people will always go a little bit below that and so if we satisfy our satisfied and then it becomes you know a little bit less and then it becomes a little bit less and then it becomes a little bit less you know like you said it's I think you're going from partially satisfied to not so satisfied to I'm dissatisfied it can they can quickly disintegrate and that's why that we have to just we have to keep pushing it you can't you can't say well this is good enough because it never is there is something else that that you can do I had a manager that worked for one of my organizations and she would never hire someone above her I'm not calling her a loser or a number but I'm just going to use numbers for this let's say she was a six out of ten she's a manager of a group she would never hire a seven for her team that in itself even by hiring or promoting which we saw her also promote fours when there were eights on the floor available and they did a float for that's another piece to remember as a leader when someone on your team in management supervisory vice president a director when they're settling to so somewhere in there we have to be it on the same page how do you communicate that as a leader to hey I might be settling to or satisfied but how do we all do this better well I think it sends a huge message to your team when you will hire somebody how do you bring somebody on that is as competent as you are as skilled as you are or maybe even more skilled in a certain area because you might say hey this part over here I'm not so good at that part I need somebody excellent there I think it sends that message to the team oh wait a minute he's not intimidated by that so let's let's keep pushing it I remember one time now this was you know one of the the churches that I had a personal experience with that I wrote about in when she bite so this was an unhealthy church that I came into but right near the beginning I had a friend of mine that I invited to come and speak and he's a very good speaker very good communicator and I had a couple of these unhealthy board members that came up to me afterwards can't believe he brought this guy in why not he's really good yeah weren't you intimidated by that what what do you mean you know like well they're gonna like him better than me and so they're not gonna listen to me anymore but I think it sent the signal to them like no I'm not intimidated by that I learned something from having him here so all of us can move forward as a result of this so I think that that everything like we said before everything rises and falls on the leader so if I make that decision I'm gonna put these people up here I think it sends the message to the rest of the team we're not settling it's it's gotta keep going forward I've had the privilege of being around some pretty cool leaders in my life so have you and some we've had together you know there's one leader that I thought was fascinating compliment from staff yeah he hired Billy Bob and Billy Bob's really good we know he's running the company well it's probably not true but they saw as the CEO was willing to hire a Billy Bob yeah who was amazing right like so okay there's a gap then CEO Billy Bob and us and they would tell me yeah Billy Bob's really the guy that you know he brought in to you know keep the company moving and growing whoo that takes some kaputzkas yeah that's that takes some guts and yet the company kept doing well yep because he he hired well and he was okay getting out of the way yeah what is it about that sort of leadership message where some people get it and some people are like oh the CEO he's he's he's long in the teeth you know he's ready for pasture just because he hired someone really good to right keep the boat going with the direction is supposed to go why is that I don't know you know it's as hard to tell I think that there's some people that just are always looking for an excuse to stay satisfied you know don't don't push me any farther you know because you'll see it sometimes you know a group of people are working and you got a new person that's really eager and everybody else goes hey slow down slow down don't go so fast you make us look bad you know oh we've had that right so I think that I think there's some people that are looking for that excuse and I think there's other people that maybe are saying oh man what is this going to require on the other side if I'm going to have to keep on pushing does that mean does that mean more hours does that mean more you know so I I think if the leaders communicating that hey listen you can get here I want to take you here I want you on this bus with me as we go you know and I'm willing to invest in you to get there but you can only do so much because like again like you know Jim Collins uses that analogy often about being on the bus there's some people that just don't want to be on your bus and that's okay right you know that once they see we're not settling for just being comfortable being satisfied we're going to keep besting it we're going to keep on raising the standard some people are going to go well then let me off at this stop here I just I'm not interested in going any farther with you there's a leadership sales leadership guy that wrote a book Jeff Gitimer and the title is you know satisfaction's worthless loyalty is priceless yes and I think at some point us as leaders and you as well our audience we have to be willing to put our stick our neck out because if we don't push the excellence I like that word really well perfection is potentially paralyzing to a number of people like I don't even know to start that because I'm sure you'll find something wrong with my paper my proposal whatever I think for us Craig you know as leaders is how do we get more a willingness to push ourselves maybe to exhaustion I have a sports analogy where playing sports and a team and they weren't given a great effort and the coach sent us on a lap like punishment you know it and players cut the corner of the end zone sure and they ran around and cut the corner and the coach goes keep going I want a full lap just yesterday I saw a t-shirt I didn't get to find out what the shirt what else it said but on the back it said cut ribbons not corners and there was a championship picture of a ribbon you know like the net of basketball like the you know March Madness or whatever I'm thinking hmm cut ribbons not corners why do we do that what do we cut corners I don't I don't know it's we do have to put the work in I mean there's there's no way around it um you know I I have um you got me a t-shirt a number of years ago and it says on there it on the front of the t-shirt it says don't quit when I use that shirt and I'm working out and it gets wet with sweat then the words come out and it says do it yeah but you don't see that until you put the sweat in I think there's some people that they don't know what's on the other side of the sweat that they put in the work that they put in and so then they're saying well I don't know what I'm going to get as a result of that so they they're cutting the corners they're finding a place let me just be comfortable here let me be satisfied here um most people live far below their capacity they they have shrunk it down to a comfort zone and if I cut corners I get to stay in my comfort zone yeah you know I don't want to stretch I think that's where maximize coaching comes in here's not really a not a shameless plug it's what helps right just in the last month I've had three guys hire me to do like coaching for more their business development side they're already successful what inspired me to say yes was what they said they wanted to be they weren't there yet I think that's us in leadership too where we need a mentor a group a coach maybe maybe a foxhole of of eagles that we want to fly around with you know and but I think the whole piece for me on you know you guys are already doing good but you you want to hire me to get to the next level sure how how do we get that hunger to become our motivator versus our that's good enough right well one of the things that I I've used this before as a motivation is kind of showing people the okay this is comfortable it's a little bit like riding your bike it's a lot of fun when you are coasting down that hill and you pick up some speed and you don't really have to pedal very much but I've developed nothing of lasting value I just had some fun for a little while and so if you're coasting that tells me you you have either plateaued or you're going downhill you're you don't coast going uphill but it's in the uphill climb that that's where you're developed the endurance that's where you develop some great stories along the way and that's where you get to new heights of success and so if people are like well this is pretty comfortable where we've really kind of hit our stride here yep we have but if it feels really comfortable then that means at best case scenario we're plateaued at best right you know so I want us to keep on pushing I don't want it because we can go from plateaued to downhill pretty easily you don't even realize it but if you're still if you're pedaling to go uphill you know that you're still going uphill because you're still pedaling to get there so that's I try to hold that out for people of what's on let's let's go a little bit farther what could we see once we get up a little higher is our desire for comfort because we've already done a climb or is it sometimes because we don't wish to do it we're intimidated by the climb in front of us like mountains you know bible talks about sure you know the mountain in front of you there's a prayer about it remove the mountains you know I wonder maybe that's it you know where there's maybe a lack of confidence or maybe that's our job as a leader to develop them like I see way more just that we won't make this public but kick it in here buddy you got way more go I wonder if that's it I think that some of that is the leader calling that out from people because well yes because otherwise there's some people that I think a lot of times we end up being our own worst enemy because we tell ourselves this this is the best I can do you know I've I've climbed as far as I can climb and and I think a leader that comes alongside us and say it says you know I see somewhat you know kind of like just my grandma saying hey okay yeah you're best you are good yeah I'll get it better well I've hit I've I bettered my better and now it's the best well then keep besting it two sports things I'm so sorry we use sports as analogies but Roger Manister you know broke the what four minute and then how many within the next year 19 19 people passed it you're like so almost a mindset block yep you know so satisfaction versus loyalty might be a mindset block I think I entertained you with this story but my son's high school football team was playing a pretty good team and they were down 28 nothing at half we didn't play very well made mistakes and at halftime I remember the conversation coming out like so you know let's give a little more effort oh no coach no way well I want to give a little more effort well we're given 80 percent if we give a hundred it'll hurt more when it doesn't work I thought can you say that again so you're gonna hold back so if it doesn't work yep it won't hurt so bad yep that just never crossed my mind and I went back to the other coaches and I'm like you know our guys are um kind of hold them back a little bit they're like why would they do that I couldn't explain it right I mean that's why I think if we could create a safe environment to still be competitive that's that I would chase in that too I don't think there is a safe environment for that though I mean because listen it's you're stepping out like we use the word comfort zone yeah when you step out of your comfort zone it is by its definition uncomfortable so it's going to be uncomfortable regardless right if you just want comfort then you're you're you can't have growth you can't have both of those things you can't stay comfortable and grow right so it's going to have to be uncomfortable as you grow our dads are older we're not but they're you know that's right they're outpacing us and I think that was one of the interesting things for our dad conversations as son is telling me hey you should get a walk in you know why don't you go to the balance class why don't you you know do this simple work out by a chair you know you can you know put your leg stronger so you don't need help getting out of a chair it seems like work well if you stay in that chair it'll be more work right you don't get out of the chair it's true and it's almost a hesitation of like you said is it worth it yeah do you think we do that a little bit oh yeah you know like pay the you know pros and cons of yeah work out or have ice cream with my kids ice cream with my kids tonight you know I think there is a real challenge on excellence and so do you have something you practice like for excellence like what do you get up and say I'm going to have this excellent mindset well well for me it's and we've talked about this before I never compromise on my morning routine so my morning routine is to get up and stretch my body physically stretch my heart and my mind spiritually as I so I exercise I work out I read my bible I think about my day I do that first thing in the morning and I every day I do that regardless oh man I just didn't sleep very well last night you know I'm still going to get up and do it this morning because they're evaluating that right then I got to do that let me I found a quote from Charles Sorensen said this it isn't the incompetent who destroy an organization the incompetent never gets into a position to destroy it it's those who have achieved something and want to rest upon their achievements who are forever clogging things up and wow that's a good one I don't want to be the one that's clogging things up right so I know that my the speed of the leader is the speed of the team that the height of the leader is the height of the team I want to be the Rogers banister that pushes through and breaks the four-minute mile mark so that I can show the rest of my team to do it in the bible king david killed a lion a a giant and then all these people that surrounded him they all killed giants at different times so he showed it was possible and then they said we're going to do that and that's how we have to be and as greg mentioned earlier maximize coaching maximize leadership coaching that's the the one of the things that maybe you need to hear me say is calling in a coach does not mean that you are saying I'm no good what you heard greg say earlier was that these are organizations that are good they're getting better and they maybe they're the best of what they do but they want to best their best getting an outside perspective we don't want you as a leader to be clogging up the organization we want to have you soar so the rest of your organization can go even farther than maybe what you've imagined that they could go so if you go to maximize leadership.com fill out the form under the coaching page just tell us a little bit about your situation one of us will read that get back to you get you lined up with us or with one of our other coaches and we were going to help you be able to just good better best to just keep on going and making it better and better as you go we get better too when we get some input from you when you say hey I love this part of your podcast or I didn't like that part so much or could you guys talk about this topic we want to be able to stretch as well as podcast presenters as content creators and to give you the very best so get back in touch with us on X you can do reach out to us at maximize podcast right here on this video leave a comment below tell us about something that you liked you didn't like something you'd like to hear about in the future and that's what we're going to be here for is to resource you so you can be the best leader that you can possibly be so stay tuned get in touch with Craig and Greg through Twitter at maximize podcast or at maximize leadership dot com be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any episodes of the Craig and Greg show [BLANK_AUDIO]
