Welcome to the Success Architect, where we don't just build homes, we build legacies. I'm your host, Jake Lewendal, custom home builder and coach. Each week, I sit down with builders and entrepreneurs who are ready to 10x their business, their health, and their mindset. This is where blueprints become breakthroughs. Let's get to work. What's up guys, welcome back to the Success Architect. We have day two in the leadership capsule today. And today we're gonna be talking about the law of standards. This one's near and dear to my heart because it took me my entire life up until recently in order to understand standards. Now, the core idea here is that you don't get what you preach, you get what you tolerate. And I've always understood this scenario, but growing up, I was the nice guy. I had standards in my own life. I had standards for myself and how I act, how I treat people, how I communicate with people. But what's interesting is I did not, uh, I did not communicate those to the outside world. And I would tolerate people treating me with standards that were subpar to the standards I knew in my head. And so I was tolerating people treating me like shit. That happens to nice guys all over the world and it sucks. But the way that we do this is we change up how we communicate and what we tolerate. So key point number one, when it comes down to leadership mixed with standards, it comes down to culture in our business. So culture equals what we, what I consistently enforce in my business, which also is consistently what do I tolerate in my business. And one example of this that's very interesting is one of the benefits that we have in our business, unlimited PTO. It's a very interesting thing because when I tell other construction owners that we have unlimited PTO, they look at me like I have three heads. And they ask, how the hell did you do that? And the answer for me is that we did it from the very beginning when we started with one employee. And so we've held that culture now as we've grown now with 10 or 12 people, we have this unlimited PTO and it works because it fits the culture. We have trained accountability. We have trained each colleague in the business that they support their co-workers. And by taking too much PTO puts stress on their co-workers. And so everyone is very diligent about how the PTO works. It works super great. But as a leader, if I was to allow the PTO to get out of hand, which has happened in the past, then I all of a sudden have to make a drastic change, have a big talk with someone or the whole team in order to bring back those standards to where it has to be. So the way that we skip that is by having those conversations in the moment, at the moment it happens, because it's a hell of a lot easier than going backwards and trying to have a big talk with someone or the whole team. And I'll tell you exactly what that sounds like so that you can implement it today. Second key point is that standards create safety and fairness. And in leadership, leadership is really hard because leadership is about proper relationships and having good relationships with the people we are leading. But those relationships can't be so friendly that we don't have standards and guidelines that create safety and fairness. These standards create fairness across coworkers, across the entire company, and they create safety where everyone knows where the guardrails are, they can communicate, and they know exactly what their actions need to be within those guardrails. This is super fun because by having these standards, it lets humans be humans. It lets people be themselves and be authentic, but know where they need to sit within the guardrails of the company in order for the company to proceed forward in the most positive and growth-oriented manner. Last point comes down to essentialism. So what we need to be careful of is having too many standards. We need to pick a vital few that matter most. And that comes down to anything from creating a why statement for the company to just having a set of core values. Core values are probably my favorite and the easiest way in order for a company to set standards. in order to help people make decisions that allow the company to progress forward, hold its reputation, and hold the line with those said standards. If an employee understands core values in a company, it decentralizes the communication and the leadership in the company because they can make a decision if they know it matches the core values. If it matches the core values, it's a yes. If it does not match the core values, it's a no. Now, I don't have to be a bottleneck. I don't have to be the one making the decision as the leader because said teammate made the decision, move forward based on their knowledge of the core values. So that's how it makes the leadership easier, removes bottlenecks, and proceeds, pushes the company to proceed in a growth-oriented manner, hold reputation, and hold these standards we're talking about. So the two steps in the challenge to implement this immediately. First one is choose one non-negotiable this week, a measurable, and create standards around it. Start times, daily updates, cleanliness, choose a measurable. Create some metrics around it and who is going to own it, just like we talked about extreme ownership. and, uh, and implement this into the company. It might be one person that gets these standards. It might be a set of standards for the entire company, like core values. And if you're a big company and you've never done this before, yeah, you're going to have to sit down with the whole company and have a big conversation about it. But if you start having these conversations now, they're going to get easier and people are going to understand what you're trying to do as a leader. And people who don't like it will weed themselves out. People who do like it are going to be great people that are going to stick around with you for the long term. So number two in these steps is the 10 second correction model. So this is basically the quote you can use with a team member if they step outside of the standard. So here it is. Our standard is X. I need you to X going forward. Are you good with that? It's very simple. And like I said, when we are trying to put these standards into motion, it's way easier to have the conversation. As soon as you see a deviation outside of the standards, it's just a small one. You have you know, a two minute conversation about it, then letting someone step outside the guardrails or step outside the standards for two months at a time, and then having a big conversation about it that you usually leads to poor conflict. And honestly, that's not being a leader in my realm. So today, take the challenge. Choose one standard that you don't want to tolerate anymore. Take ownership for the fact that you have been tolerating it. And now go change it. Go talk to someone. Drop some comments in here. Let me know how everything is going with these challenges. And we're going to see you on day three for the next law of leadership. Have an awesome one, guys. Thanks for tuning in to The Success Architect. If today's episode helped you lay a stronger foundation for your business or your life, subscribe and share it with someone ready to do the same with theirs. You can follow me, Jake Lewendal, on social for daily tips on health, wealth, and building success that lasts. Until next time, keep designing,