I went to lunch last week with a longtime friend, who is the owner of a local, successful 12-year-old business in a service-related industry.

When he walked to the table about 10 minutes late, I could see he was angry, agitated and red-faced. '

"It looks like you are going to have a stroke, what's up?" I asked.

"I'm sorry I'm late but just as I was leaving to meet you I got a call from a good customer that shocked me," he said.

It seems one of his staff had entered the customer's house smoking a cigarette. The customer, a fastidious homeowner, doesn't allow anyone to smoke in the house. She was livid.

"Steve knows that smoking on the job is not up to our standards," he said. "But he's a good worker and I don't want to fire him. I'm about to bust a gut and I don't know what to do about it!"

I suggested that he should be able to retain both the good customer and the good employee, but he would have to work at it by becoming a better leader. He had already handled the first issue by not charging the angry customer and promised it would never happen again.

But, more importantly, working on the "standards" issue should take care of the whole problem permanently.

I asked him one question: Why do people do below-standard work?

The answer is because they are allowed to.

It isn't enough to set performance standards like "no smoking." The standards must be enforced. It takes leadership to create standards and enforce them without exploding and causing an otherwise valued employee to leave.

If my friend was a great leader, he would frequently discuss the company standards, inspire everyone to exceed them and reinforce them instead of just having them written in the policy manual where they are read once then forgotten.

He's enforcing the no smoking policy by having Steve hand-write a letter of apology and forfeit his commission on that job.

I'll bet the price of our next lunch that if he works at becoming a better leader, he won't have to be "the enforcer" often.

Opinions expressed solely are those of the writer. Larry Galler, of Larry Galler & Associates, is a marketing and management consultant for small and mid-size companies. For more information or to get his free report, "Tolerations driving you nuts? Eliminate them now!" contact larry@larrygaller.com or call (219) 464-9463.