Leadership Lessons from the Bottom #1

The other day I was working at Bob Evan's in the most humiliating position possible, and I could help but think; "Why would God leave me in this place?" After, a little while I began to realize that I'm in an excellent position to learn how to lead while being led.

The first thing that I came to realize began while I was still in college. Those in leadership should expect excellence from those they lead. There are a few different managers who work at Bob Evan's, but so far there is only one I know who expects excellence from his employees, we'll call him "John". You can tell the difference in the employees when John is working, they do their jobs better and they don't do the things they aren't supposed to do (at least while he can see them). Even I find myself thinking, "John's working tonight, I better do this right."

There are two things that you should do to communicate that you expect people to be excellent. First you should always reward those who perform excellently, this doesn't just mean to reward the best of the best, but also those who are improving or doing their best. The other important factor in communicating that people should be doing there best is to never accept mediocrity. When people can get away with doing less than their best, even those who really want to perform with excellence will find themselves without much reason to improve.

What do you think? Let me know by leaving a comment below.