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Consistency is a concept that gets a bad rap from time to time.\u00a0 Playwrite and poet Oscar Wilde once wrote, \u201cConsistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.\u201d\u00a0 Author Aldous Huxley was even more blunt when he said, \u201cConsistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life.\u00a0 The only completely consistent people are dead.\u201d\u00a0 So some very bright minds trash talk consistency, yet for many of us, consistency is an essential part of what we do.\u00a0 Consider, for instance, a brain surgeon who has a sign above his door that reads, \u201cYa win some, ya lose some.\u201d\u00a0 Is that someone you\u2019d want poking around in your skull?\u00a0 Obviously not.\u00a0 Professional athletes need to perform at a consistently high level.\u00a0 Likewise professional musicians.\u00a0 And for those of us in business, consistency plays a vital role in a variety of situations.\u00a0 For more on where you need to be consistent in your business, please read below.<\/p>\n
Actually, it\u2019s best not to be Attila the Hun at all, but that\u2019s not the point.\u00a0 The point is to be consistent.<\/p>\n
Leadership plays a critical role in every business, and consistency is an integral part of good leadership.\u00a0 Consider a boss who is inconsistent in his actions and behaviors.\u00a0 Sometimes he enforces policies, other times he doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 Sometimes he\u2019s easy-going and personable, sometimes harsh and explosive.\u00a0 Maybe he doesn\u2019t always follow through on the actions he announces he will take.\u00a0 Employees can\u2019t trust him if they never know what he\u2019s going to do, and trust is the bedrock of leadership.\u00a0 People aren\u2019t going to follow a leader they can\u2019t trust.<\/p>\n
How about quality control?\u00a0 Whether your business involves products or services, don\u2019t your customers expect consistent performance?\u00a0 McDonald\u2019s is a prime example of this.\u00a0 If you order a Big Mac, it\u2019s going to taste exactly the same, regardless of the time of day, day of the week, in Portland or Miami.\u00a0\u00a0 They get the concept of consistency.\u00a0 Airlines, on the other hand, may understand the concept, but they are often unable to practice it.\u00a0 Sometimes flights depart and arrive on time, sometimes they\u2019re late . . . maybe even hours late.\u00a0 Sometimes luggage ends up where it\u2019s supposed to, other times it ends up some place we\u2019ve never even heard of, much less been to.\u00a0 Are you satisfying your customers\u2019 needs with the consistency of a McDonald\u2019s?\u00a0 Or more like an airline?<\/p>\n
Are your field sales people, inside sales people, and customer service people all in lockstep, communicating a consistent sales message?<\/p>\n
Are your employee policies, payroll procedures, and benefits administration consistently applied?<\/p>\n
Are you consistently living up to your commitments to vendors and suppliers, and requiring them to do the same?<\/p>\n
As a leader of your organization, you need to be vigilant for output that is inconsistent.\u00a0 Such output may be within a department or between one department and another.\u00a0 It may occur laterally between employees, from the top down, or from the bottom up.\u00a0 It\u2019s anywhere, really, that an individual or group of people is dependent on the output from another individual or group.\u00a0 In those situations, when the quantity, quality, or timeliness of the output is inconsistent, friction will occur and teamwork will start to breakdown.<\/p>\n
Obviously (at least I hope it\u2019s obvious), all this consistency stuff only has value when we\u2019re talking about positive activities and behaviors.\u00a0 That is, there\u2019s little value to consistently delivering a crappy product, consistently late.\u00a0 Nor is there much value in management consistently saying one thing and then doing another.\u00a0\u00a0 But applied correctly, consistency breeds efficiency, cooperation, and trust.\u00a0 And I\u2019d say that\u2019s a way better payoff than consistently being Attila the Hun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Consistency is a concept that gets a bad rap from time to time.\u00a0 Playwrite and poet Oscar Wilde once wrote, \u201cConsistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.\u201d\u00a0 Author Aldous Huxley was even more blunt when he said, \u201cConsistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life.\u00a0 The only completely consistent people are dead.\u201d\u00a0 So some<\/p>\n