That's ENOUGH. . . .

When you read this phrase, what emotion(s) does it trigger in you?

Negative - frustration, anger, sadness, annoyance, giving up?

Or positive - happiness, contentment, warmth, being fulfilled . . .?

In life we use this simple phrase in both positive and negative ways – It could be a parent rebuking a badly-behaved child, angry colleagues having a disagreement or arguing spouses. Alternatively, it could be that wonderful feeling after a delicious meal, or the end of a long day in the office, having achieved everything needed, or perhaps building an unassailable winning margin for your sports team, meaning you can now simply relax (or can you?!).

It’s a phrase that applies to money, relationships, work, sport, food, drink, weather, exercise - almost anything we do in life. And applies equally to positive and negative.

But, in the context of work, what is enough? 

Is it “JUST enough”, is it “satisfactory”, or is it a “good job done well”? Clearly it can be any one of these. But, looking at it from a customer satisfaction point of view, is doing enough going to earn 3 stars, or is it likely to ensure a full 5 stars as a rating?

Is enough just doing what it takes to hit your target and earn a bonus, or is it doing all you possibly could for your customer, so that dealing with you is such an absolute pleasure that they will not only come back to you as a first point of contact next time and help you hit your target again, but also talk about your amazing service in social situations and proactively recommend you to others? In short, are you being short-term, or long-term in your approach and through your investment of time and effort against your personal benchmark of what is ENOUGH?

Having worked in every step of the sales and project/delivery life-cycles, as well as operations for companies, large and small, over roughly half the globe, for about 30 years, I’ve seen every possible level of ENOUGH, in terms of how high people set the bar for themselves. I’ve seen people do not enough, just enough, and all the way through to above and beyond what could reasonably have been expected – Some worked hard at doing not enough, some worked smart for just enough, but sheer effort is generally far less important than the motivation and personal standards driving the effort, especially when combined with a clear understanding of what good looks like and a high level of integrity and self-respect.

Being motivated to deliver the 5-Star experience, not just for customers, but with your colleagues too is what REALLY matters: – Doing “Just enough” is often making it “Not my problem”, or “making the problem go away”, which means it’s now somebody else’s problem, or will come back to you as a problem again. This can be an unconsciously lazy decision to not really bother, or maybe it’s a conscious decision to live with bad process and work round the symptoms, rather than putting in the effort to fix the root cause once and for all, so it’s nobody’s problem ever again. Either way if “enough” will probably deliver an outcome worthy of a 3-star rating, then it’s probably NOT ENOUGH.

This is the first in a series of personal thoughts about “ENOUGH”. I'd love to hear your thoughts and stories.