So many companies today describe themselves as "leading edge," or they strive to achieve excellence or market leadership. And we all have our own ideas of companies that are leading edge, as well as the companies that may once have been market leaders and for any number of reasons have lost their edge. From time to time, I think about the idea of being leading edge and what it takes to get there and stay there, and inevitably it leads back to the question of people.

Organizations are the sum of its parts, which can be distilled all the way down to the individual person. And so the idea of "leading edge" or excellence is best achieved when all the individuals in the organization have the same vision of excellence and can be led to work together toward that shared ideal. But rarely is it smooth sailing.

My most recent chance to contemplate the idea (and challenges to reaching it) came yesterday as I read the print edition of the  Sunday newspaper while drinking my beloved café con leche. I came across a regular column I enjoy called "The View from HR" by Bruce Clarke. Bruce is the President and CEO of CAI, Inc., a Human Resources Management Firm and yesterday's column is titled,  Employees, managers should view problems as opportunities. What struck a chord with me was how he used the example of an airport scenario that I had personally experienced at the exact same airport & gate the last time I went on a business trip, which he described in this way:

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"...people standing, children complaining to parents, poor signage and unclear processes. Employees behind the counter shouted unintelligibly over loudspeakers, much like a poor quality drive-thru at a burger place. Their tone and body language screamed: I hate this, you hate this, listen up, and shut up!

At one point, an employee entered the mosh pit to loudly tell a family they could not stand there and would have to move. Another shouted, “Don’t go down there until your flight is called!” Observers exchanged glances of amazement and wonder. It was a parallel universe of sorts.

I asked an airline employee standing near me – who also was waiting for a flight – if this scene could get any funnier or sadder. He said the only thing sadder was that the airline employees earn about the same salaries they were making 10 years ago."

After I realized how uncannily similar my experience was at the same airport gate, I recalled how both Brian Solis and Scott Stratten have separately shared similar ideas to what Bruce Clarke alludes to in his excellent column - it's all about the customer experience and the way you equip/train/motivate/coach your employees that deal directly with the customer impacts the kind of experience your customer is going to have.

As I thought about those airline gate agents and other employees, I doubted that any of them started their work day intending to be grumpy or unpleasant. And bad customer service is just never associated with "leading edge" no matter how you define it. But does anybody bring malintent to any job? Fortunately, I doubt it's ever intentional, but when it happens (and it does), why does it happen?  In his column, Bruce went on to ask some important questions:

• Where was management?
• Where was the customer-focused employee?
• What was the bystander employee thinking?

And the marketing issue for all companies is increasingly that customers are now talking with megaphones and if you're giving your customers bad experiences, you can be sure they are sharing their stories. Does that affect their propensity to choose you over a competitor? You know the answer - and so much for all your positioning statements and branding efforts.

Lest it seem like I am going off on an airline-bashing tirade, I know that airline employee contracts are often governed by collective bargaining and that National Airport was built in the 1940s, so it may not accommodate today's ideal for air travel. Gate 35A is a far-from-ideal situation for many reasons. Bruce ends his column with a thought-provoking statement:
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So the real question becomes: Are we victims or are we human beings with purpose? As an employee or a manager, you can help create the kind of workplace where problems can be seen as opportunities to make a difference.

1. Do your people have the training and experience they need to perform their job at hand?
   While this question is considered basic management, it's not a question that should be taken for granted. When problems do arise (and they will), this is one question to consider.
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2. Are your incentives driving the behaviors you want?
   Most functions within the marketing deparment have changed dramatically in the last few years - so when's the last time you took a good, hard look at the objectives you've set for the positions on your team? Do those objectives align with an updated view of "leading edge."
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3. Have you defined excellence for your teams?
   Job descriptions define requirements and performance objectives reflect those definitions - so have you also defined excellence for each objective? In other words, with the same specificity that you lay out requirements to meet objectives, do you give details on what it means to exceed the objectives? For example, on a five-point scale where three is "good" because you're meeting your position requirements, have you defined what it takes to earn a four or a five? i.e. Have you defined your "edge?"

It really comes down to deciding what kind of marketing you want. If you want to be considered leading edge, then lead your edge. Anything else is leading your average - and that's probably what you'll get. Or something lesser.

Thoughts?