For those of us who aspire to be a servant leader who truly cares about team members, it can be easy to fall victim to the tendency to be overly accepting of mediocre work because we want to be “nice.”

Although being kind and compassionate towards others is an essential trait of being a servant leader, accepting mediocrity is not.

Accepting anything less than excellence is actually a failure to serve others.

When we accept mediocre work from a team member, we actually do him a terrible disservice.  We are enabling him to stop growing and, even worse, to think that mediocrity is acceptable.  Thus, we prevent him from advancing within our organization, and we set him up for failure should he move to another organization one day.

Also, when we accept mediocre work from one team member, we tell everyone else on the team that mediocrity is okay.  This can crush motivation and create inertia.  As team performance declines, mediocrity can spread like a disease.

This is a disservice to the entire team.  No one gets excited about being on a team that sucks.

A servant leader works to help team members grow both personally and professionally, and to reach their full potential.

To assist in this process, there are several things we can do.

1.  We should involve the team member in the goal setting process. We could allow her to consider what would be some goals that are challenging, and set goals that we both agree would be examples of excellence.

2.  We should make sure that any expectations we have – whether created by us or co-created with the team member – are crystal clear. There must be a clear vision of what success looks like.

The clearest expectations are binary.  They either are achieved, or not achieved.  This eliminates subjectivity and ambiguity.

3.  We need to let team members know that they will be held accountable to the expectations set, and that not holding them accountable would be a disservice to them and the team for the reasons mentioned above.

4.  We need to make sure the team member has everything she needs to meet expectations.

5.  We should be firm about not expecting anything less than excellence.

6.  We should celebrate every single example of excellence.

What are some tools that you employ to create a culture of excellence on your team?

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As we near Thanksgiving Day this year, which  reminds us to be grateful, I thought it would be appropriate to offer a gentle reminder to show our gratitude for the people on our teams.

According to my good friend John Spence, named one of the top 100 business thought leaders by Trust Across America, if team members don’t receive genuine, specific appreciation for a period of 7-10 days, their engagement levels decrease noticeably.

A simple way to keep engagement levels higher is to make sure we show appreciation as frequently as possible.

Some leaders hear this and think that they should put a note on their calendar to go around appreciating people for whatever they notice.  But that is not likely to be very effective.

A better approach is to create a new habit of mind – a habit of catching people doing things right.

Although simple, this is certainly not easy.  The human brain is naturally hardwired to pay more attention to what’s wrong than to what’s right.  This was pretty important for us as a species for quite some time back in the day when we had to be constantly on the lookout for animals that could eat us.

With practice though, we can improve.  And it could start by noticing little things that you appreciate.

You could make a note on your calendar to take 2 or 3 opportunities to observe team members and look for things you appreciate about their work, or about how they’re living the values of your organization.

You could make a new habit of simply asking in your mind, “What’s right about this?” when reviewing a team member’s work or behavior.

You could have a brief weekly meeting that starts with pointing out something positive you’ve noticed for each person in attendance.

You could make a commitment to celebrate all goals achieved, not just goals exceeded.

Gradually, we want to create a habit that allows us to be on the lookout for people doing things right so that we never miss an opportunity to show a team member genuine, specific appreciation for work or behaviors that we’d like to see more of.

What are some of the ways that you’ve found helpful for showing genuine, specific appreciation every 7-10 days?

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The world is replete with organizations with great strategies. But how many of those great strategies are actually executed?

Less than 15%. That’s the number that John Spence shared with me when we spoke recently.

John is the author Awesomely Simple, and an executive trainer and coach who has worked as a trusted advisor with numerous Fortune 500 companies over the last 20 years.

When we spoke, we discussed what he’s noticed about organizations that are very successful at building and sustaining high performance teams that effectively execute strategies.

Following are the highlights from our discussion. (If you’d like to watch the video of the interview, click here.)

John’s advice is to focus on creating and sustaining a winning workplace culture. If we get the culture right, we can create the conditions for excellent execution.

My discussion with John revealed 6 powerful, easily-actionable ideas for creating and sustaining a culture of high performance.

1. People need to feel safe in the workplace.

Of course, people need to know that they’re physically safe. But they also need to know that they are emotionally and psychologically safe.

A winning culture must include an environment where people know that they will not be attacked emotionally, and they need to know that they can openly and safely share ideas.

2. People need to feel that they belong to something that matters.

As humans, we naturally seek out something bigger than ourselves to belong to. We can help fulfill this deep, human need by creating a workplace where people are inspired by the work we do, and can see how their work is tied to the big picture.

Knowing how important this sense of belongingness is, when taking on new team members, we should also pay close attention to whether or not a person would be a good fit for our culture. If a person doesn’t feel that they fit in, they could quickly become disengaged.

This article was originally published on the Huffington Post.  To continue reading, please click here.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to see Tom Gardner, CEO at The Motley Fool, talk about some of the ways that this multimedia financial-services company has built such an incredible workplace culture.

One of my favorite examples was a simple idea the leaders had a few years ago.

Up to this point in time, the annual bonus that employees received was based on performance metrics. The leaders decided to make a change. They announced that 20% of the annual bonus would be based on a challenge.

The challenge was this: each employee had to be able name every other employee. They would be tested online via a simple app that showed the face of an employee, and tested one’s ability to name the person.

At the time, The Motley Fool employed 250 people. So, of course, there was a lot of kickback. People complained that it wasn’t fair that a significant portion of their bonus would be dependent on the abilities of other people.

The leaders held their ground though. Once people realized that this was a reality, they got to work.

When the end of the fiscal year approached – appropriately it’s April 1st for The Motley Fool – everyone in the company had passed the test except for one person.  In the typical “fool” fashion that is part of the culture at the company, the person asked for free lunches and other kickbacks in exchange for completing the test.   After having his fun, he too passed the test.

The results of the experiment that year were fantastic. People across all departments got to know each other, which led to greater collaboration, teamwork, and innovation.

As leaders, we should make it a habit to learn the names of others as quickly as possible. I find it helpful to apply this habit to everyone, not just team members.

Whenever I see a person for a second time, even if I haven’t interacted with her, I ask her her name. I presume that if I’ve seen her twice, I’ll probably see her again. When I do, I much prefer to call her by name, which immediately deepens our interaction.

Making the effort to know the names of everyone in our organization, even if they aren’t on our team, is a simple yet powerful way to build influence with others.

The most powerful example of this I’ve ever seen was when I was stationed with the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment, at Camp Pendleton, California. The regimental commander was an exemplary leader named Colonel Paxton.

Depending on deployment cycles, Colonel Paxton was in charge of anywhere between 2,000 and 4,000 Marines at any one time. He had unbelievable ability to remember not only the names of even the lowest ranking Marines, but often times details about their lives.

I’ll never forgot the example I witnessed of Colonel Paxton approaching a relatively new private first class. After exchanging salutes, Colonel Paxton asked something along the lines of, “Hi Michael, how’s your wife Sarah and your baby?”

The Marine was shocked. For private first class in a Marine infantry unit, a full Colonel might as well be God. This Colonel actually remembered his name, and that of his wife.

It was clear that the Marine felt as though he was truly loved. His shoulders pulled back, his chest pushed out, and he stood so tall that he seemed to grow two inches taller.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone look more proud to be part of an organization than that Private First Class.

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Although CEO and founder of tech company TINYPulse David Niu is considered a successful serial entrepreneur, things weren’t always smooth sailing for him.

On paper everything seemed to be going smashingly with Niu’s first startup, BuddyTV. He was even able to secure $10 million in VC funding for the company. But Niu quickly realized that he was burning out; he simply wasn’t passionate about his work anymore. Around this time he also got married and had a baby girl in quick succession.

Niu told his team he was going to step down. He decided to sell everything he owned and take a trip around the world with stops in numerous cities.

He had two goals:

• Have great quality time with his wife and daughter Interview as many successful entrepreneurs as possible who were not in the tech space about leadership and workplace cultures
• The results of his journey around the world included great memories with his family and a world-class education from successful entrepreneurs.

Here are the top four lessons he learned as the result of his unlikely journey:

1. HOW TO ENSURE ALIGNMENT OF VALUES

Although we certainly want to bring talented people on our teams, it is even more important that we find people who share our values. If values aren’t aligned, the relationship we have with someone is almost guaranteed to be a rough one, and will likely end quickly.

It can be quite costly to have someone on the team who does not share the team values. Such a person can be like poison for the other team members, costing us productivity. Eventually, we will likely have to replace the person and incur the cost of rehiring.

Niu learned a great tool for ensuring values alignment of new hires from a CEO in Seoul, Korea. This CEO uses very precise interview questions to ensure that a new hire shares the same values as his team.

His team asks every candidate to explain situations where they lived the team’s core values. If a candidate is unable or unwilling to answer each question satisfactorily, she or he is not offered a position, regardless of how talented she or he is.

This article was published by Fast Company.   To read the entire article, please click here.