Every leader thinks they want high quality work. They often overestimate what it takes to get high quality work. Getting high quality work is one of those things that is simple but difficult. All it takes are three things:

• Assign the work to people who are capable of high quality work
• Reject anything that is not high quality work
• Pay what it takes in money and time

Almost all of the time that someone is not getting high quality work, they’re skipping at least one of these.

A lot of leaders emphasize the importance of hiring the right people. That’s necessary but not sufficient. Even the best of us gets lazy sometimes and needs some reinforcement to keep our standards up. They may want high quality work, but they don’t have the discipline to insist on it. They aren’t willing to reject low quality work because they think they’ll be a jerk. There’s certainly a jerky way to do it, but you can reject work without being a jerk.

Then there’s cost. What’s often happening when leaders complain about not getting high quality work is that they’re really complaining that they’re not getting high quality work cheaply and quickly. That’s just not being in touch with reality. Complain all you want, but if you’re not willing to pay up, the people who can produce high quality work won’t bother with you. They’ll go with someone who appreciates what it takes.