No matter what kind of standards you set as a leader—high, low, or in between—your people will take them as their goal. If you set high standards, they will strive to achieve them. If you set low standards, they will aim only for those easy targets. You have the power to establish the standard and the tone of employee performance. Employees will follow your lead. If you think excellent performance is important, so will the members of your team.

Some employees will feel that a mediocre performance is all they need to offer to keep their jobs. A leader cannot accept mediocre effort. Even 80 percent effort should be abominable to you. Be sure to emphasize and demonstrate your seriousness about the standards you set by holding yourself and everyone on your team to these standards, and don’t hide the fact that achieving mediocre results will have repercussions.

The following numbers represent a typical team before there is a commitment to personal development plans and a focus on positive performance management:

■    20  percent high achievers

■    60  percent average achievers

■    20  percent non-achievers

Where is the minimum acceptable performance for this team?

Most leaders will say in the middle. Wrong! The minimum acceptable level is what the lowest non-achiever is attaining. He  is still on the team, and all team members will view their performance as acceptable to you. You have to set a high standard and enforce it, or the standard of the lowest performer will be the standard you are actually setting in the minds of your team members.

Your most important expectation of all should always be constant improvement. You must demand it and support it in every way you can. This doesn’t mean you should neglect radical change in some areas of your business, just don’t expect people development changes to happen overnight. You cannot simultaneously work on enhancing all people’s strengths and eradicating any weaknesses you see.

In  their book   Discover Your Sales Strengths  (Warner Books, 2003), Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano write: “In the course of our work we have studied sales forces for some of the best companies, companies that have care- fully  recruited and selected their representatives. Even in  the best companies, we  found that 35 percent of the sales force did  not  have the talents necessary to achieve acceptable results predictably. This  rather considerable group—one of every three salespeople out  there—is consistently in the bottom half  of the performance curve.”

Rather, you have to concentrate on gradually capitalizing on the strengths of individuals and taking these to a new level, isolating any weaknesses that are threatening, and working on these as well. Following are some tips for setting and achieving high standards within your team:

 ■    Tie performance standards directly to the organization’s  strategic goals and objectives.

■    When setting  expectations, be honest, courageous, ethical, consistent, and focused  on results.

■    Involve the team  and obtain  input  before setting  the standards.

■    Model the standards you’ve established.

■    Reward people  who exceed  the standards.

■    Remember that  once you’ve set the standards, it’s your responsibility to remove any obstacles your employees  face in meeting them.

■    Build and maintain a positive environment.

■    Hold a meeting  with key leaders  and establish a plan and detailed program for how new standards will be met and how improvement will be achieved.

■    Accept no excuses, but value truthful, valid, and clear explanations.

■    When stepping into a new role, take some time to engage  your people,  engendering trust  and respect while inspecting performance. Once you’ve learned  the terrain,  act decisively to set clear,  high standards.

■    Make sure the standards are consistent across  the team  or organization.

■    Refuse  to carry passengers—address substandard performance immediately  and fairly.