Podcast Transcript

Heather Wright:

Hello, and welcome to this Advance Performance Podcast Today. With me is John Bullock.

John Bullock:

Hello.

Heather:

And I’m Heather Wright. And we’re going to have the subject today of raising the bar. And there’s a reason why this one has come up. It comes up quite a lot for us in business, and we were with a company only last week, and this was one of their values, if you like, raising the bar or one of their strategic points that they were putting with their people. And so I thought it’d be a really good point to start talking about. Okay, so I thought we’d start off with why. Why have people got Raising The Bar as one of their strategic points, John?

John:

Okay, so it’s about. Well, first of all, Raising The Bar. It comes from the original concept of raising the bar comes from the high jump, as in raise the bar, keep getting higher, getting better, if that makes sense.

Heather:

Okay, Higher is better.

John:

Absolutely. So if we take some of our clients that have got this value in place about raising the bar, it’s about taking it to the next step. We’ve done this. We’ve done it well. How can we get even better, that constant improvement piece? Because if we stand still, then there’s a chance we’re going to get overtaken. So, it’s about constant improvement.

Heather:

Well, funnily enough, I was with some clients the other week, and we were talking about being better, and one woman said, towards the end of the day, why do we always have to be. Why do we always have to be getting better? When are we going to be good enough?

John:

Well, it’s an interesting statement that. But sometimes we can get used to the status quo. There’s that old phrase, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. However, there might be a better way of doing it.

Heather:

Yeah, But I also see it from another point of view, which is motivation and a sense of purpose. So, yeah, we understand that organizations want us to raise the bar because they want to make more money or spend less money. And that’s all very kind of fine for them, but as people, as employees, raising the bar for me is about my motivation. There’s some things, all right, I’ll do. They’re mundane things I have to do every day. But there’s certain things that getting better at it gives me a sense of pleasure. So, I think it’s also a motivational thing.

John:

I think it is. And it’s the only way, really, that we ever kind of extend our comfort zone. We learn more about ourselves. We keep pushing to go. I didn’t believe I could do that. And now I. Now I do. Which, again, will give you the motivation at the same time.

Heather:

Okay, now, when people moan about the idea of somebody, the boss is pushing me to raise the bar, they’ve often got a few myths in their head. Tell me what raising the bar doesn’t mean.

John:

Well, it doesn’t mean running the hundred meters faster than Usain Bolt. It doesn’t mean you’ve got to be somebody else or aspire to be somebody else. It’s about raising your internal bar, getting the best out of you. That’s what a great leader will ultimately do, try and get the best out of their people.

Heather:

Yeah. And I think one of the other things is we tend to think it means trying to do the impossible, you know, and we kind of. We get this a lot with sales teams. They keep raising the targets and raising the targets, and it just eventually becomes impossible. So eventually you get resistance, don’t you? Well, I’m not going for that target because if I achieve that, they’re only going to raise it next year. So, it doesn’t kind of mean becoming sillier. You’ve got to kind of have it just slightly out of reach, I suppose, just to inspire, but not silly.

John:

That’s the comfort zone bit for me. If you drop somebody massively outside the comfort zone, you might cause them damage. But if you just step slightly outside the comfort zone and raise the bar just slightly at a time, then actually it’s going to help them progress. It’s going to help them expand as people.

Heather:

So achievable in small steps.

John:

Yeah, achievable in small steps. It’s that old phrase, how do you eat an elephant? Piece at a time, Piece at an. Elephant burgers. Elephant burgers, yeah.

Heather:

So, this one’s about which end I’d start with.

John:

Yes.

Heather:

The trunk or the leg?

John:

So, moving on. Okay. Okay.

Heather:

I just wanted to know that. So, right then. So that’s kind of about what it means or what it doesn’t mean. So, we’re being careful here because we need it to be, for want of a better word, realistic.

John:

Yes.

Heather:

But it needs to be exciting.

John:

It does indeed. So I think what we probably do. It’d be great for the podcast for the listeners. Now, let’s just. There’s one little tip I use. Oh, go on, then. Okay. When I’m trying to raise the bar, if it’s like, with my thinking, I want to think that little bit higher than normal. I want to achieve something, and I need to think differently to do it.

Heather:

Okay.

John:

I’m going to ask you a question. Imagine there was a….we’re in a room, the listeners can’t see it, but imagine there was a six foot wall in this room.

Heather:

Yeah.

John:

Okay. You can’t go round it, through it or under it, which means you’ve basically got to get over it.

Heather:

Okay.

John:

Okay. Just how could you get over a six foot wall?

Heather:

I could build a five foot step ladder.

John:

Okay. So, we could get a step ladder, climb over it.

Heather:

Yeah, I could climb up it with my climb.

John:

Climb up it.

Heather:

Probably about strong enough to get over.

John:

Six foot, I think. Yeah, you could probably jump that to be fair. At least jump and haul yourself up.

Heather:

Yeah, you probably could actually. Six foot’s not too bad.

John:

So, there’s a number of ways, isn’t there?

Heather:

Yeah.

John:

Now I want you to imagine for a moment that that wall now is a hundred foot high. Okay. And anything goes. Now how could you possibly get over it?

Heather:

I get hire a helicopter.

John:

Okay. Helicopter, yeah. Rope ladder.

Heather:

Yeah. Pyramid of people.

John:

Pyramid of people.

Heather:

I’m going to get stronger for me climbing.

John:

Yeah. Now isn’t interesting. You went with helicopter before. Rope ladder. But that’s the point of thinking that way. Sometimes we actually go, we go a little bit crazy, but then get rope ladders. Pretty good idea. Anyway, everything you’ve just told me that would get you over the hundred foot wall, would it also get you over the six foot wall?

Heather:

It would. It might be a bit of overkill.

John:

But everything you’ve just told me for the six foot wall, that wouldn’t necessarily get you over the hundred foot wall, would it?

Heather:

No. Fair point.

John:

So, when we set out to think about a task and we want to raise the bar, why don’t we do some hundred foot thinking instead of six foot thinking?

Heather:

Because then the six foot becomes easier.

John:

You straight over it, you fly straight over it. So that’s my little tip. When you’re coming up to try and raise the bar about achieving anything, I’m always aim try and even double the issue or double the thing that you want to achieve and make your thinking up there because you’ll generate a load of solutions that will easily get you clear.

Heather:

Oh, great idea. Okay, well thank you for that. This has been an Advance Performance Podcast. The subject’s been Raising The Bar and I hope you’ve really enjoyed it.