Your business isn't stuck because it's failing. It's stuck because it's functioning without improving. Good enough quietly slows everything down. We're going to get into that coming up next.
Welcome to The Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.
Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.
Today we are talking about good enough inside of a business and why we might be stuck and why we might be struggling.
And there is a level of success that feels stable but isn't actually moving you forward. Now, we're always looking for how can we be successful, obviously, right?
But what happens when we kind of become just almost plateaued or flatlined? The work gets done, the team shows up.
Things are fine, if you will, but growth feels harder than it should. Progress feels slower than it used to.
So in this episode, we're going to uncover where good enough is showing up and how shifting your standards as a leader changes how your team thinks, works, and takes ownership.
So there's five questions that I want you to be asking yourself that's going to help you to break out of good enough leadership, as I do my air quotes there.
Where have I allowed something to continue because it’s familiar? (00:01:42)
So the first question I want you to ask is this. Where have I allowed something to continue because it's familiar? Why does this matter?
Well, familiarity creates comfort. And while I don't want you to live in urgency and I don't want you to run your business in urgency, something you do have to know is that comfort removes urgency.
So let's think of a situation where maybe a process is slowing everything down, but no one touches it because, well, you know, it's always been this way.
We've always done it that way. That's the process that was set up. You just keep doing the process. So the team adapts instead of fixing it, they don't even think we should fix this.
And usually you've probably experienced this before, maybe when you were working for somebody else.
But when you think of the process of this should be fixed, it usually doesn't go much further than that. Or maybe you take it to somebody and they say, no, no, just keep doing it.
It's-- everything's fine. That's how inefficiency becomes absolutely normal.
What happens is, is that your team learns how to work around problems instead of solving them.
Guys, I will tell you, this is something that will cause you to have to go into babysitting mode all the time.
What do I mean by that? When your team does not solve problems for themselves, when your team does not recognize problems need to be solved, what ends up happening is all the problems come back to you.
What happens to your culture? Well, you create a culture that protects the past instead of improving the future. Why?
Well, because we've always done it this way. This is where the sacred cow should be shot, right?
We should get rid of this thing, butcher that thing up.
Because it needs to change so that we can continue to advance, so that we can continue to move forward, so that we could continue to fix the, the business.
So when you think about the things that you've allowed to continue, and the only answer really is when you get down into it and you dig into it because it's familiar.
Those are things that have to change. What does it change? Well, I promise you, you'll stop confusing this works with this works well.
And that's the thing we need to look at. Just because we're continuing to do something, does it mean that it's working?
Well, I've had many times helping businesses take a look at roles. You know, great people would be sitting in a seat and when you ask the question, why do we do this?
Well, I mean, that role has been in place for seven years. That's not what I'm asking. Why do we do it? Gosh, we started that because such and such.
How does that affect our current vision? It doesn't have anything to do with our current vision. Then we need to reevaluate. Do we change it?
Do we move that person into a more valuable role? So it could be processes, could be roles, it could be anything.
What are you allowing to happen? What are you allowing to continue? Because it's familiar.
Where am I accepting results without examining how they’re achieved? (00:04:55)
Number two, where am I accepting results without examining how they're achieved? Guys, this is a tough one because when you're busy, sometimes you're just happy that things are getting done.
And when you're slammed and so much stuff is coming your way, you're really just happy that things are getting done. But why does this matter?
How, how am I examining how these things, these results are getting achieved? Well, because results can hide broken systems.
So let's think about, maybe deadlines are getting hit, but only through stress or rework or last minute saves. That's not a strong system.
Well, but, but the thing got done. That's not. We're talking about, we're not looking for the thing got done. What are we looking for? Efficiencies, things that are working well.
Not taxing an entire team or taxing people and paying out incredible amounts of payroll for somebody to do something that takes way too long.
If we could have fixed it, we want it to be right. We want it to be a strong system. We want it to be something that's efficient and fast.
We want to be able to achieve results with efficiency. We don't want to just get to results and not care about what's happened to them.
When we don't examine what's going on, then we've got a team that's surviving your system even if your system is broke.
So what changes when we start evaluating processes and not just outcomes? Well, I can tell you this, your team is going to stop relying on last minute pushes and start building consistency.
Now, I will tell you I am somebody from time to time and I'll talk about this in just a minute.
In a different question, I am somebody from time to time who actually enjoys a last minute push. Sometimes that urgency is something.
Well, I guess I'm going to talk about it right now. Sometimes that urgency of that last minute push is something that allows me to focus heavily.
The key is, is that when it is a consistent process that teams are always doing last minute pushes, that's when it's unhealthy, that's when it's not a good thing.
You know, there are times that I will focus on, I don't know, I'm going to be teaching lessons somewhere, I'm going to be doing an event somewhere and focusing on it.
You know, a month out doesn't help me when I get close to the event. Instead I like to actually allow some urgency.
As I get close to the event, I get hyper focused, I get prepared, I'm ready to go, right?
But if I do that every day or every week or every project or every whatever solution, issue, whatever leading teams with urgency, then what happens is it becomes chaos.
And that's not what we're looking for. It's okay to have some last minute pushes. So don't hear me say never have last minute pushes.
But what I'm saying is that should not be consistent, right?
We need to build consistency in evaluating processes and then operating in those processes because they work, because they're correct, because they're efficient, because they are up to date.
So that's what we're looking for. Also. How's it going to affect your culture?
Well, I can tell you that your team is going to shift from, you know, get it done to do it right, which everybody listening to this should want.
That, that should be our goal. Our goal isn't get something done. We want to be able to grow. A big part of growth is efficiency. Think of how much money you're spending.
If you look through your business and find, I don't care, half a dozen processes that are not up to date and people are operating in a way that is taking longer, then you're losing money, you're losing resource.
You're spending too much on payroll because they're spending too much time doing it. You're losing out.
The opportunity cost is that you're losing out on them moving on to the next thing that they should be doing.
You can't take on more. And you're probably, you know, looking at some team members if there's a big lack of efficiency, that are probably getting burnout in the process, you know, or eventually they might.
So things to think about, you know, make sure you're asking, where am I accepting results without examining how they're achieved.
Where am I stepping in instead of building a system that works without me? (00:09:14)
Third question, where am I stepping in instead of building a system that works without me?
Please, please spend some time focusing on this question. Where am I stepping in instead of building a system that works without me?
You have to create systems that work without you.
The person who does not create those systems is usually somebody who's getting all of their worth, you know, all of their identity from the thing that they're doing or somebody who is afraid, thinking that they're not going to be needed or useful once they build systems that work without them.
Leaders, let me tell you, you are needed at a higher level than you currently are at, okay?
So every time you step in instead of building a system, you reinforce dependence. Dependence on you. What we need is people growing, people maturing, people being able to do stuff without you.
You being somebody who overlooks things, who checks things, who makes sure systems and processes are going well, but not the person that everybody depends on.
I will tell you, and I say this all the time and strap plans and all kinds of stuff. My team doesn't depend on me in the day to day.
They depend on me to do the higher level stuff that keeps the business running and operating.
They run the day to day. They kill it. They don't need me. My leadership team does a phenomenal job of leading the teams.
I lead the leadership team. That's what's important. So think of a team member, I don't know, asks a question that you've answered before and yes, you know, you go to answer it again because it's faster.
I should just give them the answer now, they're going to come back over and over and over again, looking to you to solve their problems.
That is how leaders accidentally train dependency. You answered it before.
What do I do with it now? How do I handle this now? How do I solve this now? So what should you be doing?
You need to start creating. And at the very bare minimum, stop answering every question that comes your way. Think of your kids. Same concept.
Quit answering every question that your kids ask. Start training them to think for themselves. It's exactly what you should be doing inside of your business.
Start training your team members to think for themselves. When they ask you a question, don't answer it. Ask a question back.
Hey, that's a great question. How do you think you should handle that? What are some. Well, I don't have any ideas. That's why I came to you.
Okay, take a couple of minutes and I want you to think about this. Come up with some ideas of how you could solve this.
Why? I don't know any. All right, go take 20 minutes. Go sit down. And I want you to come back with three possible answers to this.
Get them to start thinking for themselves. It can be a painful process in the beginning, but I promise you, eventually they will start answering the questions themselves and stop coming to you.
So this makes your team stop escalating every single thing to you, which means that you can get on to more important things and they can start solving things at a level that they need to.
What does this do for your culture? Well, ownership absolutely increases because decisions don't stop at the top.
So you move from solving problems to developing leaders who solve them or developing team members who solve them.
Guys, that is going to be a such happier place. I can tell. I've. It's all I've done for decades. That's how I have trained teams, leaders, people, my children as well, because that's vitally important to me.
And it is a much happier place than people coming to you all the time not being able to solve something on their own. My grandkids.
When I'm spending time with my grandkids, I will do the same thing. I will help them to think for themselves instead of, papa, can you do this? How do you do that?
How do you think you solve that? And what do you normally get?
I don't know. Well, let's work on it. Same exact thing is going to work with your team.
Where is “good enough” showing up in my standards? (00:13:38)
Fourth question I want you to ask. Where is good enough showing up in my standards? Ouch. Now, I am not saying one of our core values is excellence.
A lot of our core values are not Corporate, Corporate core values. But we do have a couple that, you know, a lot of other businesses may have.
Excellence is one of those, right? We think excellence needs to be in everything that we can do, especially anything that's customer facing.
But it doesn't mean that every single thing has to be at a certain level of excellence. Right.
Ordering coffee may not, you know, if you're buying coffee for your business, that probably doesn't take a high level of standards. Find the coffee you want, make the purchase.
Rock on. Good enough. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the areas that good enough is not good enough. Right?
Where we don't want good enough to be in our standards, you know, taking care of clients, how we deal with offenders, allowing team members to not have accountability, making sure that our communication is not high, you know, that's a--
We-- we might be communicating or talking a lot, but not making sure we have high levels of quality communication.
So your standards define your culture. So if you see something that's, you know, almost right and you let it go, well, now your team knows almost right is acceptable.
This is huge to use the kids again. How are your kids learning? They're watching you do what you do, right? They hear what you're saying, but they watch your actions.
It's the same exact thing your team is doing. So if they see you being okay with something that is know good enough, then that is going to absolutely spread through your team.
Good enough will be good enough. What do we have to do? We have to change that. We don't want our team mirroring that level of, you know, tolerating something.
We have to understand that in our culture, actions and attitudes rise or fall to match our consistency as a leader.
So what do we have to change? We have to become more intentional about what we allow and what we do not allow.
We have to take a look at things and go, here's where standards need to be higher. Here's where good enough is. Okay, I'm, I'm all right with that.
I don't mind if the team sees this and, you know, they're good here. But all these other areas, we have to be modeling that level of excellence.
We have to be modeling and have to see it consistently again. Consistency is key here.
The more they see it, the more they will realize, I have to do that. And when they are not rising to the level of excellence, this may be where we're having tough conversations.
You know, you may have to sit down and go, hey, that is not acceptable, right.
If they come back with a, hey, but I saw you doing this, take responsibility, shift change, do what you need to, but get the standards up.
Where is my lack of clarity creating “good enough” execution? (00:16:54)
Number five question I want you to ask, where is my lack of clarity creating good enough execution? So it's not just enough to have standards of excellence.
Where is your communication and your clarity driving inconsistent results?
So let's just think about, you know, a situation where the team is busy but they're not aligned and everyone is working hard, but definitely not in the same direction.
You know, we would call that a shotgun approach.
That's not a performance issue, folks. I know it might seem like it. And you can be looking at the team going, oh, the team is not doing well in their performance.
The truth is, it is a leadership clarity issue.
We're not getting in there and communicating really well to get the team operating in the right direction and doing what we want them to do and making sure they're getting up, you know, to the standards and getting past this good enough concept.
When you do, then your team stops filling the gaps with assumptions, because that is probably happening throughout your team right now.
Right? There's probably a decent amount of assumptions that is driving toward execution. We can't have that.
So we need our culture to be where alignment replaces this scattered type of effort. Instead, we operate well, we're clear, we're consistent. You know, again, clarity is going to drive that consistency.
When you provide great direction, it eliminates guesswork.
What “Good Enough” Actually Costs You (00:18:32)
So what does good enough actually cost you? Well, it keeps you answering questions you shouldn't be answering.
We know that. It keeps you, you know, fixing problems that your team should actually own and be able to do on their own and be able to solve on their own.
It keeps you managing work instead of leading people, which, for the love, you don't have time for that.
Lead people to success. Let them operate really well as well instead of having to go back and manage everything. I hate managing.
Hate managing because if I have to get into managing, that means I have to stop doing the things I'm focusing on to manage a situation or a team member or a team when I'd rather lead them to success and hold them accountable to that success. Right.
So what else with all of this? It keeps your business dependent on you.
What to Do Instead (00:19:25)
So what to do instead? First thing, raise the standard. Clearly, don't assume your team knows what better looks like. Define it. Get in there, define it.
Help them to understand it and help them become successful at it. Number two, stop rewarding broken systems with your time for the love.
If you keep jumping in, the system never, ever has to improve. So fix the systems and start by stopping jumping in.
Number three, build clarity into everything. Clarity is going to remove hesitation, it's going to remove rework, it's going to remove dependency.
And number four, reinforce consistently. Culture is built by what you consistently allow, not what you say once.
And I know there's a lot of folks out there that are like, well, I told them doesn't matter. Consistency on clarity.
The more clarity you give, the more accountability you hold. They will get it and start making the right choices.
A Challenge For You (00:20:27)
So here's I want to challenge you this week. This week. Identify one area in your business or where you've been tolerating Good enough.
Then call it out. Clarify the standard and fix the system behind it. Then hold the line. Continue to have the same level of clarity, excellence and consistency over and over again.
So if you want to see what this looks like in a real leadership situation and how to respond in the moment, go follow us on Instagram!
@chrislocurto on Instagram, and we'll help you recognize it faster and lead through it better.
Good Enough doesn't feel like failure, but it's the reason your business isn't moving forward and why it still depends on you. Raise the standard and your team will rise with it.
Well folks, that's all the time that we have for today.
I hope this has been hugely beneficial for you. As always, take this information. Change your leadership, change your business, change your life and join us on the next episode.
