Five Steps to a Standard

If you’ve been in the Navy for any amount of time you should be familiar with the concept of meeting standards. Whether as a Bluejacket in boot camp preparing for a locker inspection, the Commanding Officer of a submarine preparing for deployment or a Chief Petty Officer who wants to improve the military bearing of a division, meeting standards is key to what we do as leaders and managers. The word standard has been defined as:

A written definition, limit, or rule, approved and monitored for compliance by an authoritative agency or professional or recognized body as a minimum acceptable benchmark.

An established norm or requirement. Those morals, ethics, habits, etc., established by

authority, custom, or an individual as acceptable: He tried to live up to his father's standards.

In the Navy we are expected to meet many standards from uniform wear to how we operate and maintain our ships and aircraft and how we conduct our personal behavior in accordance with our core values. At some point in your career you will be responsible for how well your organization performs to standards, in fact, your success will depend on it. My experience leading and managing Sailors and programs has helped me develop a five step framework for achieving standards that I hope you will find helpful and that you can apply to any facet of your life. If you have a goal of achieving something personally or professionally, use this process and I think you will find it a useful tool.

The first step of the process is Defining the Standard. This is the process of sitting down and figuring out what it is you want to achieve. It will come down to knowing what you want to do or where to find governing regulations that support your goals.

For the most part, many of the standards you find yourself exposed to are defined by some governing policy or regulation. In the Navy, Uniform Regulations govern our uniform wear and appearance, Reactor Plant Manuals govern how nuclear propulsion plants are operated, safety regulations govern safety procedures and standards and policies exist that define the minimum requirements for personnel advancement. As a leader you must take time to

periodically read over policy and regulations to ensure you know what the standards actually are and to keep up with changes that may have been implemented since they were incorporated.

Keep in mind however, that not all standards are defined for us. As a leader you will have the opportunity to define standards of excellence and achievement for your organization. Prior to taking a leadership position, take time to put some thought into what your vision, goals and standards are going to be. Perhaps your organization is functioning effectively and you want to influence them to perform at a higher level of performance and/or efficiency. Perhaps they are performing below standards and your focus is to achieve the minimum standard first. Whatever you aim, take the time to develop your standards.

Once you have defined and/or know your standards it’s time to move on to Communicating the Standard. You can know in your own mind what your want your organization and people to accomplish, but they won’t unless you effectively communicate with them. There are much literature that deals with the art of communication that I won’t delve into at this point. My point is to ensure you tell your people what it is you want to achieve. When it comes to communication, the more you do it, the better. Utilize all available avenues of communication available; face to face is the most effective, but use electronic and paper formats (newsletters, plan of the day etc). These communication vehicles are effective and by using as many as possible and communicating frequently, you will ensure your message is absorbed.

Training is an extremely useful tool you have to help communicate standards. When you conduct training, you are communicating standards, that information that you expect to be known and then applied to a future scenario. Too often times, leaders of organizations do not invest adequately in training and as a result their organizations to not perform to their full potential.

Failure to communicate the expected standards will contribute to failing to achieve them. Take time and evaluate how effectively and frequently you are communicating with your organization. Once you feel that you have effectively communicated your standards, you are ready to move on to the next step of enforcing the standards you have set and communicated.

As a leader, how will you know your people received and understand your message? Simple, go out and observe your people and processes and what the results of those efforts are producing. Go out and Enforce the Standard! There are formal and informal methods of enforcing standards.

  

Formal methods of standard enforcement include testing, observed evolutions and inspections. Organizations that have effective programs in place to conduct these formal processes are setting a great foundation for success. How effective are your programs? Are your 3M spot-check and zone inspection programs robust? Do you conduct quarters

effectively and consistently? When is the last time you have observed training?

One of the best informal methods of enforcing standards is to walk around and observe what’s going on in your command. If you’ve ever watched the show Undercover Boss, you know what I’m talking about. Develop routines that provide you time every day to do this. Watch your people during evolutions, processes, exercises and maintenance tasks to see if they are performing to standards. Take time to talk to them and ask them questions about programs and policies you expect them to know. You cannot do this from your desk or computer. Your eyes and ears are the best tools for executing this step of the process and are crucial to help you determine if you have successfully performed steps one and two. You’ll quickly find out whether your message and methods of communication are working. If you fail to actively enforce standards don’t be surprised when you and/or your Sailors fail to meet the standards you are striving to achieve.

  

A job done to standards earns a paycheck and benefits. This group will make up a majority of your organization, those people who come to work and do what is required of them, no more and no less. It is important to praise them, but don’t over reward standard performance. Step four addresses Accountability and Rewards.

Rewards are reserved for the people in your organization who exceed the standards and are commended with forms of recognition you have available depending upon the degree they exceeded the standards by. These performers demonstrate that they understand and can meet the standard, but take the extra time and effort to make things better and go above and beyond.

Accountability is reserved for those who fail to meet the standard. As a leader, you will have to determine why they failed to meet the standard and then take action appropriately. The deficiency may be resolved with additional training or some type of discipline. When one of your people fails, it is worthwhile to self reflect. Often times, you’ll find that YOU are part of the reason they failed to meet the standard because you communicated ineffectively or failed to enforce the standards. Your failure becomes apparent when your organization performs poorly as a whole vice isolated individual failure to meet standards. You can bet that if you perform steps one, two and three but fail to award and hold accountable your people will take notice. It can kill the initiative of the superstars and give the other 90% reason not to step up and perform to a higher level. Failure to hold your people accountable sends a message to your organization that what you say and what you do are misaligned, reducing reduce your leader effectiveness in achieving high standards.

The end of the process involves obtaining Feedback on the Standards. I use “end of the process” cautiously because you should be obtaining feedback throughout the process. Feedback is the process of engaging your organization to determine if the standards are realistic,

clearly communicated and how they could be adjusted based on other factors within your organization.

Feedback is a two way street and your people can and will often help you focus in on areas of the process that you are not executing well. Perhaps, the standard is not high enough or you are failing to communicate, or perhaps there are process improvements that could be incorporated into your programs to make them better. Your people are a wealth of information and can provide a much needed dose of reality. Take the time to talk to them and see what they have to say. Self reflection is also a part of the feedback process important to ensuring you are performing steps 1-4 effectively. Once again, communicate frequently and with all mediums available. As a leader in your organization you have the obligation to provide feedback regarding formal instructions and policy which can use improvement or change to your leadership.

My intent is to provide you’re with an overview of the five step process. Keep in mind that each one of these steps is a lengthy leadership and management topic of its own. Many books have been written on the art of vision and strategy, communication and goal setting. Take time to delve into these topics and improve. Additionally, look for opportunities to improve and refine your leadership style; it will help you execute this process.

If your organization is failing in an area or perhaps a part of your personal life is not where you want it to be, take an inward look at how you may be failing to achieve the standards in your life. Utilize the framework of this five step process and I’m confident you’ll find areas to improve your leadership and management skills and focus and the performance of your organization. Good luck!

CMDCM (AW/SW) Paul Kingsbury Command Master Chief, Naval Forces Japan