The Biggest Sin in Business Today

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[Dean Boyer]

Rosa,

I'm glad it bothers someone other than me. Ranting about this is not only appropriate but needed! "Mediocre" - powerful word. I looked it up and saw these disturbing words. After the list, look at the antonym.

ordinary, average, middling, middle-of-the-road, uninspired, undistinguished, indifferent, unexceptional, unexciting, unremarkable, run-of-the-mill, pedestrian, prosaic, lackluster, forgettable, amateur, amateurish; informal OK, so-so, 'comme ci, comme ça', plain-vanilla, fair-to-middling, no great shakes, not up to much, bush-league.

antonym excellent.

[Robert Hruzek]

No need to apologize about something like that, Rosa! It needs to be said, repeatedly and everywhere!

That's the insidious problem with prosperity: it can lead to bad habits of complacency and mediocrity. Then, when it comes time to need the customer-service skills that will keep customers raving about you, those habits are gone!

Not a pretty picture, I'm afraid. Keep the chin up, Rosa - there's on-the-ball folks out there just waitin' for you to show up, I'll bet!

[Rosa Say]

Goodness Dean, those words do help drive the point home! Thanks for sharing them.

Interesting how "excellent" stands alone too. A good prepping to the follow-up I now have queued for Thursday!

Thanks Robert. I get very conscious about being a complainer versus a cheerleader, and much prefer to be an evangelist, but this is not a problem we can afford to ignore either, and mediocrity - though jarring when you look at Dean's list of words again - can be sneaky at first, for it creeps in as complacency and boredom, and then apathy. Once we get to mediocrity the manager really has his/her hands full.

True about what you called "the insidious problem with prosperity" for success can be the worse thing that happens to a business, we see it play out time and time again.

[Brad Shorr]

Hi Rosa, Mediocrity has been a serious problem in American enterprise for some time now, and it's getting worse. At the moment I think we are in a mediocrity mindset, for which I blame two things - prevailing political sentiments and a massive failure of private enterprise to provide economic and moral leadership. Today the mood is, we need to cut the pie into fairer pieces. There isn't enough to go around. We have to settle for less. I've seen this mood before in all its glory, in 1976 in the Soviet Union. Believe me, that's not where we want to go. Keep ranting, Rosa!

[Karen Swim]

Rosa, I read this post and before turning outward I looked within asking myself the hard questions - have I allowed mediocrity in any part of my business or life? My answer, honestly is "yes" so thank you for this post. As for those businesses, sadly when people are not held to a higher standard they very often don't rise there on their own. We need leaders who challenge us to be our best, in the workplace that means putting people in positions of strength and setting the bar high enough to challenge but low enough to knock it out of the park. I don't see this as a rant but a well written, insightful, impassioned call to action.

[Rosa Say]

Brad, I chose the word "Sin" for my title because "serious problem" just isn't getting our attention anymore... thought about calling it a crime... both are immoral and an assault on the business values that help us realize our full potential as the good people we are.

Sticking with my own circle of influence for now, I agree that we in private enterprise need "to provide economic and moral leadership" - and not shy away from that concept of morality. It is time to stop being "politically correct" and wimpy. We need NOT settle for less.

[Rosa Say]

Karen, the way you instantly self-reflect first is such a strength (and it is a very consistent strength with you). Knowing you as I do I really doubt there is a shred of true mediocrity in your business, but we all have traces of the warning signs that can begin to take us there, and I appreciate your coaching added to mine here!

You also caused me to remember a article I read last week by Po Bronson - which incidentally, I read while waiting for my tire since I had the print copy of Fast Company with me. He wrote:

"...the roomful of CEOs stood up one by one to agree: The value in their companies came from the employees who were motivated to be there. One passionate employee is worth 10 dispassionate ones.

This seems simple, yet over the last six years I've realized that the question "What should I do with my life?" still triggers some major misunderstandings. So let me bust through a few of the major fallacies that people project onto this dilemma.

Myth 1: People are the architects of their own change.

Extremely few people quit because of career ennui. Rather, most are pushed into change: They're laid off or can't make ends meet or have at-home family demands or find their new, postmerger boss to be an absolute ass. They are not naive idealists."

He goes into 6 myths altogether, but this first one really hit me with illustrating this dire need we have for leadership right now: Most of us DO need to be pushed into change - all kinds of change, not just in regard to our careers - and we need brave leaders who will get us to be idealists again, and make us want to change (i.e. getting our self-motivation to kick in).

We do need the tough love of pushing each other and supporting each other on the road to more greatness. Life is a full contact sport, and in business we need to play ball.

Here is the link to the article online if you'd like to read it:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/134/what-should-i-do-with-my-life-now.html

I like what he has to say about understand how we grow into our "calling." (Myth #5)

[Rich G.]

Very nicely put.

It's a horribly depressing thing to go to a place run and staffed by zombies.

I have to say though, you had every opportunity to use your powers for evil and name the bad guys in this post and you didn't. THAT is something I respect a great deal from you.

If they'd been outstanding and wowed your socks off I'm 85% sure you'd have mentioned their name but in this case, when you could have said "Joe Bob's Tire Emporium on 13th and Palm is teh suxors!" you didn't and I find that very classy, and very cool. They didn't work to earn the respect you showed them just there and they didn't give it to you. And the fact that you did them the courtesy they didn't do you is very cool.

You've got class even when you're upset. I think that's very cool.

[Rosa Say]

Thank you Rich. If they were truly evil I might warn people to steer clear I guess, but only if I'd talked to the owner concerned and was sure he/she refused to change their ways and would continue the travesty adding true injury to insult. I prefer to believe that everything can get better and be improved, and I don't want to be the one driving that first nail into their coffin.

Plus, how cool would it be, for them to read this, immediately vow to pump up the pulse, and then prove me wrong with the service they deliver to each customer walking in their door from now on? They know who they are, and I am giving them the chance to prove to everyone else that I wasn't talking about them :-)