Why you need to raise the bar - again

I'm 2 days back at work, reading emails, listening to clients on Zoom calls and attending our weekly webinar last night - and noticing a trend.

Standards are slipping.

A minority of team members have taken their eye off the ball and are forgetting, making mistakes, arriving late, leaving early, cutting corners and predictably, the very same minority are becoming more militant about their expectations of pay.

What is causing this?

The relentless media coverage of industrial disputes over wages?

The summer months and kids home from school (it certainly can't be heat fever in the UK)?

The general labour shortage in dentistry?

Normally a combination of things, of course.

Let's take a moment to pay tribute to those who don't cause problems and just get on with it.

At the same time, on last night's client call I did have quite the rant about good leadership expressed as a combination of fairness and firmness. And a further admonition that firmness includes:

• reminding the whole team that "we do 5-star" and what that looks like;

• zero tolerance on ANY performance or behaviour that is below that standard;

• a refusal to negotiate with terrorists.

Most of all though, a rallying call that we have to be the prime example of the standards of performance and behaviour that we expect from our teams.

You cannot ask for and expect 5-star, if you aren't operating at that level yourself.