One-and-Done Leadership: Why the Problem You Already Addressed Keeps Coming Back
Have you ever had this happen? The team meeting went great. The leader stood up and said, “Starting today, every customer email gets answered within 24 hours. No exceptions.” Everybody nodded, and somebody even wrote it on the whiteboard. (In red marker, so you know it was serious. 😂) Three weeks later, the whiteboard still says it, yet nobody has mentioned it since that meeting.
When a leader tells me their team just won’t change, what I tell them next is never easy to say, but it’s something they need to hear:
“Your team heard the standard one time. After that, it was never reinforced, and no one was held accountable to holding it.”
Why Does the Standard You Addressed Last Month Look Optional?
I call it ‘One-and-Done Leadership’: saying the standard once, then hoping it holds up on its own. (Unfortunately, ‘hope’ is not a strategy.) I see this happen all the time in family-run businesses, Fortune 500 companies, and everything in between. The leader has the conversation, checks the box, and moves on to the next problem. No one on the team decides to ignore the standard on purpose. They just do what every human does, which is to focus on what’s reinforced.
If nothing is reinforced, they draw a very logical conclusion: the standard was a suggestion. It’s the workplace version of the parent who says “this is your last warning” for the fourth time that week. (We’ve all been that parent, or been raised by one. 😂) The kids figured out the real rules a long time ago, and so has your team.
What Do Your Best People Learn When You Don’t Hold Them Accountable?
Picture an employee who brought a team standards problem to their manager. They had a conversation, and they felt relieved the manager was going to do something about it. Then they watched the same behavior show up the next Monday, and the Monday after that. So they stopped raising problems, because why bother?
In the
National Workplace Trends Study, we asked 750 working adults whether conflict is everywhere at their company with no plan to resolve it. Almost one in three said yes. That means many of your people don't expect anything to change when they bring a problem to your attention. (Makes you wonder who stopped bringing issues to your attention altogether.)
Isn’t It Your Team’s Job to Get It Right the First Time?
I can hear some of you already. “Betsy, I’m not a babysitter. Adults should do what they’re told the first time.” Partly true. Your people are adults, and the ones who meet the standard without a reminder are exactly the people you want to keep. Here’s the valuable question, though: what did those people learn when they watched someone else ignore the standard and nothing happened? They learned that doing it right is optional, and your best people won’t stay on a team that continues to lower the bar for long. They’ll take their talent and raise the bar for your competition.
Setting the standard once isn’t leadership. Setting, modeling, reinforcing, and rewarding consistent standards is. That’s why you must build what I call ‘Maximum Ownership’. It’s #6 out of
12 Bar Raiser™ traits, and it means you own what happens after the announcement, too. And this trait doesn’t just belong to you; it belongs to everyone on your team.
Here’s the ROI of getting this right. Three out of four working adults in that same study told us
a manager has the biggest impact on whether an employee stays at their job. Every time a good employee leaves because the standard stopped mattering, you pay a new hire training fee, plus months of lost productivity while the new person gets up to speed. Reinforcing a standard costs you a few minutes a week. Doing it consistently will save your company thousands to millions down the road.
How Do You Keep a Standard From Sliding After the Initial Conversation?
I call this the
Bar Raiser™ Standard Loop. It’s four steps, and you run them in order, every week, until the standard is simply how your team operates.
Set it in plain words. Say exactly what the standard looks like, when it’s applied, and why it matters to your customers or your team. If two people could read it two different ways, go back and make it clearer before you ask anyone to meet it.
Model it first. Your team will copy what you do long before they copy what you say. If the standard is answering emails within 24 hours, your own inbox is the first place they’ll check. (And trust me, they’re checking. 😂)
Reinforce it every week. Put the standard on the agenda for your next four team meetings. When someone misses it, have a short, private conversation that same day, because a week later is too late.
Reward the people who meet it. Name them in front of the team, and be specific. “Thank you, Jordan, for closing every ticket before Friday” tells the whole team the standard is real in a way “great job, everybody” never will.
The Tolerator Tell: A Tolerator isn’t a bad person. They’re a comfortable one, and comfort is how standards slip. If you’ve said “I already talked to them about that” more than once this month, you’re tolerating it.
The Bar Raiser™ Move: Pick one standard you addressed in the last 30 days and bring it back up, by name, in tomorrow’s team meeting. Your team already heard the speech. Now they need the second conversation.
If you want every leader in your company running this loop every week, that’s exactly what we build together in the
Destination Workplace® leadership development program.
Tell me, what’s one standard on your team that needs a second conversation this week? Go have that conversation, and keep raising the bar! 💪
Frequently Asked Questions
What is One-and-Done Leadership?
One-and-Done Leadership is when a leader addresses a standard or behavior one time, then never follows up and expects that single conversation to change behavior. Betsy Allen-Manning, creator of the Bar Raisers™ Movement, identifies it as a leading reason team standards slide within weeks.
How often should leaders reinforce a team standard?
Reinforce a new or reset standard weekly for the first 30 days, recognizing people who meet it and addressing misses the same day. After that, keep it on the regular team meeting agenda so it stays visible.
Why do team standards slip even after a leader addresses them?
Employees watch what happens after the conversation, and if nothing changes, they conclude the standard is optional. In the National Workplace Trends Study, almost one in three working adults said conflict is everywhere at their company with no plan to resolve it.
SHARE THIS: Send this to the leader on your team who always follows up, so they know it gets noticed. And if you lead other managers, share it with them this week, so ‘One-and-Done Leadership’ stops with your team.
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About Betsy: Betsy Allen-Manning is the wake-up call you didn’t know you needed. She’s a high-energy leadership keynote speaker and creator of the Bar Raisers™ Movement: a proprietary system redefining how organizations are approaching performance, leadership, and culture. Featured on FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, and TEDx, Betsy works with organizations across corporate, franchise, association, nonprofit, and government sectors. She’s the lead researcher behind the National Workplace Trends Study, and delivers programs around her Bar Raisers™ and Leadership Mastery frameworks. She is the founder of Destination Workplace®, an award-winning leadership development firm in Dallas, Texas.
