In the absence of leadership, he who holds himself and his peers to a higher standard than is demanded will rarely have 100% approval ratings from peers. Those peers who actively seek self improvement will show interest; those who don’t might show resentment. A key tool in leading peers, particularly without any given title, is to carefully monitor and manage your methods of communication.
This doesn’t mean you will gain the 100% approval rating, but it may help to ensure you don’t earn disapproval on account of unintentionally sending the wrong message. You may also need to check your own definitions, to ensure your own definition of seeking self-improvement and performance is not blinding you from seeing the ways others may do the same – just in different ways.
Still, I remain supportive of those who maintain a higher standard. Even at the risk of not, “pleasing everyone”. The reward of positively influencing one, or being an influence in the development and growth of another, far out-weigh the cost of an unambitious collegue. They are only the few, and will either catch on eventually, or just weed themselves out.
Whether it be the advances in technology that we use daily such as electricity, cell phones, refrigerators, fleece or the internet – or – the awe inspiring accomplishments of our world such as landing on the moon, the space station, virtual reality, olympic world records or your favorite theme park – We wouldn’t have any of it, if we all settled for the standard.
We’ve become the society we are, we’ve made many accomplishments and will continue to accomplish more – on the backs of those who didn’t let us just meet “the standard.”
#whoisleadingyou
Learning, Leading & Life 