10/06/2021
Proud leader moment:
Perfection is in the name; it’s this company’s ideal. It’s the aim at which I’ve shot every single day for the past 12 years. It’s the aim at which I direct my staff to shoot. As with all ideals, they serve as something to aim at. Something to set as your goal, knowing that you did everything you could to achieve it, despite your shortcomings.
On Monday, we had a shortcoming. The wrong spray bottle was grabbed to disinfect surfaces at one of our commercial buildings, leaving an awful white film everywhere, after drying. A noticeable white film. An unacceptable white film. As the leader, I did the only things I could do: apologize sincerely, take full responsibility for the incident, address the incident with my client-laying out the steps I would take to resolve the problem, and communicate the incident to my staff, to avoid repetition.
These kinds of things are never fun. Except, this one was. Because I have managed to convince some very wonderful people out of the population to join me in my vision, with this ideal, and they take it seriously. I got an email today to prove it.
To paraphrase,
Subject Line: Great Job!
Message: “Jenna, thank you for personally coming to fix the issue. Your attention is appreciated, and we can always count on you!”
Except. I didn’t personally fix it. Katrina and Sammi did. I did the really scary thing, and let other people, good people, genuinely caring, motivated people that I trust, fix the issue.
You guys, I have never had so much fun or joy responding to an email of that nature, giving full credit to this wonderful staff of mine. At great cost in terms of time and effort to them, they scoured the whole building and removed every streak of film, and paid attention to every additional detail, without my oversight-to make sure it was, you guessed it, perfect. It’s one thing to have people respond when you point and demand, it’s quite another to have them give their all for the sake of a higher ideal and true quality of performance. Without the shortcoming, these amazing character qualities wouldn’t have been revealed to me. I am so proud and humbled to be their leader.
Perfection will remain the ideal, and with great pleasure I can confidently say that within my ranks, I’m in good company with high quality people whom have adopted the same. ❤️