PARENTS, TEACHERS, COACHES, and business leaders all have goals for their children, students, athletes, and employees, respectively. Championship- caliber families, schools, athletic teams, and business organizations also have standards.

A “standard” is a set level of acceptable behavior that reinforces an organization’s Core Values. Goals are performance based. They reinforce what we want to achieve. Failure to meet it means reattacking it tomorrow. Standards are behavior based. They reinforce who we are (our Core Values). Failure to meet a standard carries a consequence.

Some teams don’t perform well because they don’t have the talent to compete. That isn’t “underperforming.” Underperforming is when a team performs at a level below what their talent should allow them. In these cases, it is almost always due to poor culture. A culture’s foundation is its Core Values, which define what it means to be a member of that team. Those values are the behaviors that every member of the team is expected to embody, but a t-shirt or a lobby poster reading “Discipline” does not make that team disciplined. An adherence to standards that reinforce Discipline does.

Once we determine our Core Values and how we define them within our organization, we must then figure out the standards needed to reinforce them daily. It is easy to say that our culture is based on the Core Values of honesty, commitment, and passion, but are we proving it every day? Adhering to our standards does!

For example, at The Program, our Core Values are Selflessness, Toughness, and Discipline. It would be easy for us to print “Discipline” on our t-shirts, but this doesn’t make us disciplined. Instead, our standard to reinforce Discipline is that we respond to all internal or external communication (emails, voice mails, text messages, etc.) within 24 hours. For The Program team, adhering to that standard does reinforce our Core Value of Discipline!

Standards are easily understood, defined, and actionable. They are not open for interpretation. Did you or didn’t you? When working with clients, The Program helps guide the “best” people as they determine their standards. We will task the “best” with creating a standard that reinforces their Core Value of Commitment. Typically, their initial attempt will be: “We will be prepared and on time for every meeting.” This is good, but not great. We push back on it. It is easily understood, defined, and actionable. Unfortunately, it is very much open for interpretation. What some people consider “prepared and on time” is not necessarily what others consider it. Does it mean sitting in our seats five minutes early with a notebook and pen, or does it mean sliding in and sitting in our seats ten seconds before the start of the meeting?

“We are sitting in our seats with a notebook and pen five minutes before the start of any meeting.” This is also easily understood, defined, and actionable. It is also not open for interpretation. It allows for greater team accountability because it is now no longer a personal judgment call. “Prepared” to one person may not be “prepared” for someone else, but five minutes early with a notebook and pen is the same for everyone.

Goals are performance based. They reinforce what we want to do. Standards are behavior based. They reinforce how we are expected to behave. Almost every family, school, athletic team, and corporation has goals. World-class families, schools, athletic teams, and corporations have both goals and standards.