Attention To Detail
Thoroughness For Success

Thoroughness, doing things with an attention to detail. This one leadership habit, which encourages us to do all things to a complete finish, is a common characteristic of successful men and women.

A person who is willing to take the necessary pains to do a task correctly, the first time, is someone who becomes respected and admired by others.

The trouble with so many people today is that they seem to think they can, and should, advance in their career even though they are making a minimal effort. One cannot expect first-class results, with a low-level effort.

Too seldom do young workers realize that all great achievement has been the result of someone taking extreme care, making a maximum effort, even to the smallest detail.

No one should ever hope to accomplish much in this life who does not possess a high standard for himself. Thoroughness and accuracy must be engrained into his character. He must have "pride in his workmanship", a trait that will support him throughout his lifetime.

Laziness, inaccuracy, and the habit of doing things “good enough” is a sure way for any youth to ruin his future, even one fortunate enough to be born with a brilliant mind or family wealth.

If we were to examine a list of the men and women throughout history who have left their mark of excellence upon the world, what do you think we would find? As a rule, we would discover that it is not composed of those persons born with an extremely high intellect, or even those who were identified by peers and faculty as "most likely to succeed" at a very early age.

Instead, the list would consist mostly of those who early on experienced great hardships and who had to overcome many obstacles. Most parents, if given the choice, would never allow their children to experience these same struggles.

These "children of adversity" somehow called upon their inner reserves to press forward, always delivering a full day's work, every day. They stayed with a task until it was done, and well done. Through stubbornness, grit, persistence, common sense, and honesty - their characters were molded for future greatness.

They found out that the more they worked, the luckier they became! Their hard work gave rise to one opportunity, then another - until they were able to rise out of their harsh environment, which was sometimes abusive and poverty-stricken.

It is these hard-working virtues, united with average ability, which enables any man or woman to outperform the low expectations of his or her environment.

This quality of doing everything to a complete finish is what gives our young people a great advantage over their less-disciplined peers. Every employer is looking for devoted employees who possess thoroughness in the quality of their work.

Most high-ranking employees will credit their training and the quality of their preparation for the position they currently hold. They will always be in great demand because they continue the struggle to learn and grow.

How seldom do we find a young man or woman who is willing to fully prepare for his or her life's work. A little education is all they want, and then they feel they are ready to own and manage a business; to lead and motivate a team of complex individuals who are looking to be a part of something bigger than themselves.

These unlucky employees are starving for leadership. They seek to work for someone with an exciting vision and a clear purpose that they can understand, grasp hold of and adopt as their own. They wish to learn along the way as they help turn the leader's vision into reality.

How soon they become disillusioned once they realize the "boss" doesn't know as much as he should know. They soon recognize that he does NOT possess the leadership traits necessary to:

• Motivate and inspire
• Manage the finances to create and implement a strategy for profitability
• Negotiate using tact and diplomacy
• Overcome all obstacles and successfully direct his team on to victory through grit, determination and will-power

The effort so many take to cover up their ignorance, rather than invest the same amount of time to bridge the gap with quality education and experience, is pitiable. Short cuts and get-rich-quick methods are in too high demand these days.

I was greatly impressed by this motto, which I saw recently in a very successful establishment:

Surely, this is a life-motto that all should aspire to!

How quickly we could revolutionize and revitalize our cities and nation if every man and woman were to adopt this motto as their own; to become resolute to the promise that, whatever they did - only the best they could do would be good enough!

Adopt this life-motto as your very own. Hang it up where you can be reminded daily; in your office or place of business, put it into your pocketbook, weave it into the texture of everything you do, and your life will slowly but surely become what everyone's should be - a masterpiece.

Do you need to kick-start your sales team? Are you looking for a new twist to an old approach? Try out this "Good to Great" team exercise at your next staff meeting.

Based on the life-motto suggestion we unveiled in the above article "Where Only The Best Is Good Enough", we decided to provide a sales management exercise to encourage team leaders to raise the level of expectations, moving the results of their sales activities from Good to Great!

Facilitate your team through the following quick steps:

1. Identify the Top 3 high-leverage sales activities. These consist of the action-items that tend to give you the most measurable sales output for your investment.

   (Examples: In-person outside calling in the market; calling existing customers to build the relationship or to obtain prospect referrals, direct mail, newspaper advertising, etc.)

2. Split your team into multiple small groups. Preferably 3-5 employees per table.
3. Inform the team that each group is to come up with one new idea for each of the three high-leverage activities. Each new idea has to be something that will add new life to the activity, a new twist in how each activity is executed, or a new tactic for executing the old “tried and true” sales behavior.
4. Let your staff know that the ideas they offer should be doable, within the current allowable budget. If you do not clarify your terms on what types of ideas will qualify, you may spend a lot of time having to shoot down "pie in the sky" type requests. The idea here is to energize the sales staff by getting them each to think outside the box to come up with ideas that can be fully leveraged. These ideas should benefit the organization, as well as improve upon each team member's sales results.
5. Plan to allow adequate time for discussion; a minimum of 10 minutes per item, so 30 minutes in full should be plenty of time. Ask each team to identify a captain, someone who will present the team's ideas to the entire group.
6. Once the 30 minute time period has expired, ask each team captain to present their team's "Good to Great" ideas in front of the entire group. At the end of all the presentations, the entire sales force must vote individually on the quality of each idea.

   (If possible, establish an executive panel of various department/team leaders and/or top performers to analyze the viability of each suggestion, perhaps asking a question or two of the team in order to ensure they fully understand how each idea would be executed.)

7. As the leader, now it's up to you to show your trust and commitment to your team. You should commit to supporting the top qualifying suggestions provided by your team. CONGRATULATE your team for being so creative, and be sure to CELEBRATE any positive outcomes that result from this exercise.

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