Never lower your standards

I’ve always strived for the highest personal standards and I’ll never compromise that for anyone. I expect to win at the highest levels, and I understand the effort and performance it takes to make that happen. Over the years, I've known plenty of people who settle for less, who are happy with average, but that’s not me, I’m just not wired that way. My battle to improve and raise standards will never end.

Looking back on the early days of my business I took the easier option, not through choice but because I simply didn’t have the means to bring in the professionals, though I learned the hard way that these ‘amateurs’ often end up costing you more in the long run. I always wanted to work with the best people and I knew early in my career that I had to improve and raise my own standards before the professionals would work with me. Professionals prefer doing business with other professionals. Poor quality advisors and partners with low standards slowed me down, and I hate losing time. Nowadays I’ve no tolerance for people who accept average, I demand better.

Growing my business and shifting from ‘I’ to ‘we’ meant surrounding ourselves with others. People don’t always share your high standards and often end up letting ?you down because of that, but ultimately I’m responsible for setting the standards so it starts and ends with me. Its up to me to make the necessary changes to improve standards, looking at my own first.

As our businesses expand, we battle to maintain and improve standards, and although it’s difficult, it never ends. I call out poor performances, the stakes are too high to accept low standards, or amateur results. I won’t accept anyone compromising my standards. We give our customers, shareholders, partners, and wider stakeholders the best possible standards, so we wouldn’t accept anything less. For me, track record is critical, it makes a big difference in business, and I won’t let someone on my side impact that. It’s sore when people let us down because their standards simply aren’t at the same level as our own, but their sub-standards have the ability to damage our reputation, so I won’t tolerate that.

I take ultimate responsibility for the performance of my team, so I want to ensure the highest standards. By bringing in the most professional people and advisors, I can assume top level standards…and make quick changes if they’re not being delivered. As our standards increase, those who can’t keep up will fall away, to be replaced by those who can. I owe it to myself, and to those I’m responsible for to elevate the challenge, set even bigger goals, and work with the people that can help make it happen. Average won’t get me to where we’re going, and my ambitions keep growing, so my battle to improve and raise standards will never end.

I read a fantastic book many years ago, which I recommend, on the process of raising standards called Turning Pro by a great author Steven Pressfield .