“I personally hate the term ‘best practices’ because it’s almost like a way to race to be just like everyone else,” Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, says.
And that, in a nutshell, explains Zappos’ meteoric rise. Hsieh and Zappos rose from practically nothing to a billion-dollar powerhouse specifically because they didn’t race to be just like everyone else. Specifically because they’re original with everything they do — hiring, customer service, training, performance evaluations and shipment practices.
If Zappos could do this with an everyday commodity product like shoes, why can’t you?
In fact, especially if you have an everyday commodity product or service, it is mandatory you be original with everything you do. Remember, Zappos is renowned for its legendary customer service and its uncommon culture, not its shoes. They sell pretty much the same shoes everyone else sells.
Now, here’s an interesting twist to this story: Zappos’ next practices have now become the ‘best practices’ everyone else wants to follow. Hmmm.
Real leaders don’t follow best practices. Only ordinary leaders do.
The world of business has changed so dramatically. Yet, it is amazing that most individuals and companies today are still pursuing best practices, still racing to be just like everyone else, still racing to remain ordinary.
Very few companies are pioneering new ways of doing everything — from customer service to leadership, product design, retailing, marketing and training. The subject is not even on their radar.
Quick Test to determine
if you’re the architect of Next PracticesDo others learn your next practice and adopt them as the new best practice?
The few that are (such as Apple and Southwest) enjoyed their best years during the Great Recession, emerging completely unscathed. And they succeeded precisely because they’re original in all their practices.
Extraordinary companies don’t avoid best practices just to be different from the crowd. It’s because they know that answers [best practices] from others are inherently flawed.
Following best practices sounds easy and feels safe. But it is in fact the most dangerous place to be today. It is your surest guarantee you’ll make a ton of mistakes and you’ll get trampled with the crowd.
On the flip side, when you refuse to follow best practices, you uncover new ways to excel — and your mindset sweeps across everything, propelling you to excel across everything.
The net result is that becoming extraordinary is actually far easier than following best practices and remaining ordinary.
Think about it. Extraordinary companies like Apple, Southwest and Zappos don’t work any harder than you. After all, everyone gets only 24 hours in a day — no one gets more. Yet, these companies excel across a very wide range of skills —
Southwest has become the largest airline, remaining consistently profitable in an industry legendary for losing billions because it, too, shunned the best practices in practically every discipline — including operation design, customer boarding systems, customer service, employee job descriptions, online ticketing.
These companies shunned the best practices. And as a result, they became the architect of next practices.
Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.Steve Jobs
What’s required is a simple shift. Stop pursuing the answers (best practices) everyone else is pursuing. Start mastering how to consider the
The end result is you become an original. You raise the bar with everything you do — from the back office to the front office. You become original with how you hire, lead, train, meet, execute, promote, recruit, evaluate performance, empower, serve customers, motivate, brand, market. You become original even in how you innovate.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.Mark Twain
Despite all of the above, the reality is most are going to stick with pursuing best practices because it’s the [seemingly] comfortable place to be. This means you don’t even have to be that good at considering the right questions. As the old saying goes …
“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”
If you follow best practices, you are basically a follower. Claiming you’re a leader won’t change that. Not at all. Time to step up to Skills 2.0,
