The Symptoms of Good-Enough

I was helping someone this week by meeting a service person at their home. It turns out that the service ticket had been created incorrectly, so the wrong type of service person was sent to fix the issue. Unfortunately, the incorrect service person had been sent to their home before.

He felt badly about the inconvenience to the customer and that the customer’s issues could not be resolved that day. Wanting to try to correct the service ticket so the customer could be served, he asked if I had a few more minutes to wait.

He spent more than 20 minutes on the phone talking with people who continually passed him to another person. In the end he was told that the customer needed to call in, once again, to make the request to have the service ticket changed. Clearly frustrated about not being able to help by resolving the service ticket issue, he apologized profusely and expressed his appreciation for my patience and understanding.

His actions and his great customer service was a PR boost for a company that clearly has an internal issue with scheduling the correct service call. He is a 4-star front-line employee!

This is part 3 in the 5-part series on the Culture of Good-Enough by Diana Gabriel, Certified Strengths Strategy Coach.

…indicates that leaders don’t really care enough about excellence to truly implement it. Click To Tweet

I’ve been exploring how organizations suffer from a culture of good-enough. I’ve noticed, in my coaching practice, that leaders in these organizations are not focused on excellence, they’re not focused on others – they are, however, focused on themselves. They exhibit behaviors of being disengaged and an energy that is clearly felt by the people they lead. And, they are found throughout the system. Here are a few examples:

Good-Enough Behaviors in Leaders

• Leaders often ignore the elephant on the conference room table. Certain bad topics are not discussed. Waves are not made. Upsetting bosses with bad news or concerns is avoided at all costs. When staff leave a meeting knowing an underlying issue has been deliberately left unaddressed it’s a sign that the status quo is too important to disrupt. Good enough is good enough.

• When red tape bogs down a process and is discussed with no effort to get to root causes, this is a trouble sign. In these instances, leaders simply want the bottleneck to go away by any means necessary, and there’s no real concern for preventions or improvements. They permit an exception to the rule and everyone goes about their business because good enough is good enough.

• Leaders are more focused on delivery numbers than product quality when production nonconformance arises. Standards are conceded to get the product out the door, or leaders approve a Band-Aid for the problem, hoping it’s just a limited issue. The concessions are easier than diving into causes and effective solutions – because good enough is good enough.

Good-Enough Behaviors in Employees

• People start blaming one another during stressful situations rather than trying to reach understanding. Gaining clarity and collaboration takes work, sometimes a lot of it. Leaders don’t see teamwork as worth giving of their time and effort, so they allow their people to endure disunity because good enough is good enough.

• Employees are skeptical of feedback forms, company surveys or informational meetings because their voices are rarely valued, heard or acted upon. Suggestions go unanswered, survey results are not shared and organizational information has no real substance. Any improvements are minor, not requiring a significant investment. Leaders don’t emphasize positive change because good enough is good enough.

• Specific departments turnover, and exit interviews indicate a leadership or managerial problem. Leaders choose to make due, overlooking the manager’s weaknesses because good enough is good enough.

These behaviors are a general indication that leaders don’t really care enough about excellence to truly implement it, and probably don’t care to learn how.

Where are you as a leader in these behaviors? Do you strive for excellence? What about your teams? I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me here and on LinkedIn.