Bedtime. Every parent knows the challenges associated with getting kids to bed. It’s a battle I assumed would get easier over time but teenagers changed the rules. “Everyone has a later bedtime” my 15-year-old complained one evening. Sympathetic to the fact that she is getting older and some of the rules need to relax I agreed it was time to let her stay up later to read. One problem – I forgot to tell my husband. Five minutes later he walked into her room and told her off for having her light on. You can imagine this did not go down well.     

As a leader we can think that everyone should know the standards – to us it’s obvious. What time work starts, when breaks should be, where things belong. The problem is that different leaders can place a different value on what they see as a battle worth fighting. In these instances, standards can get muddied, and this can create issues.   

Employees are looking at your consistency. Do you come in hot on an issue but let it slide the next day? If you have a team of leaders, does one leader let standards slide more than another? This creates confusion and employees may not know what the expectations are. Setting standards and adhering to them will ensure that everyone is on the same page and people will be clear on the areas that are important to the company. To get consistency for your team, here are some steps that I suggest following:

1)     Define the standards. As a team its important to sit down and set your non negotiables. Answer the question “what does good look like in our team?”.  For my husband and I we needed to discuss what the new bedtime for our 15-year-old would be. 

2)     Communicate the standards. Once we decided that lights must be out at 9:30pm it was time to discuss it with our 15-year-old. When talking with her, its important not to just tell her the standard but to explain why. A rule is more likely to be followed if you can explain why its important. During this discussion you should also discuss the barriers that may prevent someone from following the newly set standard. Additionally, you should also explain that you will be monitoring the standard and be clear on what will happen when the standard is not followed.   

3)     Remove the barriers. Once you have had a conversation with the team, its important to show that you were listening. Removing the barriers that you can remove is an important part of this step. For our daughter, not knowing the time was a barrier to turning her light out at 9:30pm. A simple solution of purchasing a clock for her bedroom fixed this problem.

4)     Monitor. Many people hate the idea of monitoring. Why can’t someone just start to follow a new standard? The reality is that habits are hard to break. People may also test how serious you are. Once the lights off standard has been set, my husband and I need to get off the couch to check. This seems tedious and hard work but by monitoring we are showing we mean business. Once it appears a new habit is formed you can back off and only monitor occasionally.

5)     Hold accountable. The last step is holding someone accountable when the standard is not followed. This will be different based on the standard set. I recommend starting with a gentle warning the first time the standard is broken and then following a more robust disciplinary process.

It is easy to set a standard and communicate it with the team. The hard part is in the monitoring and holding people accountable. This is when being a leader is hard.  You can feel like the bad guy, and no one wants to be that guy.  By being consistent and setting clear standards your staff in the long run will know exactly what is expected of them and will see you as a fair leader. They will come to respect you far more than if you don’t follow up on the standards set.