Sydney Smith was not having a great performance review.

As first mate aboard the Cutty Sark, Sydney had authority, responsibility, and a crew that already found him difficult. What he did not have—at least on the day in question—was restraint. During a dispute with fellow sailor John Francis, Sydney struck him on the head with a capstan bar. Francis died three days later.

This is, by most HR metrics, a suboptimal outcome.

Sydney’s story is useful precisely because it is so extreme. In other words, he took the wrong bar and ran with it. He wasn’t the best of employees.

Now, to be fair, this incident occurred in the 19th century, on a British clipper ship, at a time when workplace policies were… less developed. Still, even allowing for historical context, cultural differences, and the absence of an HR department with laminated posters, it’s safe to say Sydney made a poor choice.

When we talk about “raising the bar” at work, we mean professionalism. Judgment. Accountability. The ability to make things better rather than worse. And that’s why he’s the perfect place to start.

If we can all agree that this is not the bar—literal or otherwise—then we can have a much more productive conversation about what actually makes a great employee. The kind who builds trust and who solves problems (instead of becoming one).

So let’s leave Sydney on the deck of the Cutty Sark, capstan bar firmly out of reach, and talk about what the best employees do differently—starting with the traits that keep HR from needing a very long incident report.

What Exemplary Employees Actually Do

If you want to know what makes a great employee, the answer is not brilliance, hustle, or working the longest hours. Those things help, but they’re secondary. The best employees share something far less dramatic and far more useful: they are steady, credible, and disciplined under pressure.

Which is precisely where Sydney failed.

So let’s talk about what the opposite of that looks like—and what exemplary employees do instead.

Tell the Truth, Even When It’s Inconvenient

Great employees don’t manage perceptions; they manage reality.

They tell the truth about what happened, what’s happening, and what might happen next. They don’t hide mistakes, massage facts, or delay bad news hoping it magically resolves itself. Leaders can work with the truth—even unpleasant truth. Surprises suck.

Answer the Question That Was Asked

Exemplary employees are precise.

They don’t turn simple questions into speeches. They don’t overshare, derail meetings, or introduce unnecessary complexity. They understand that clarity is a form of respect.

Most importantly, when answering a question, give the facts first and then your opinion. When you are about to give your opinion, be clear and state that now you are giving an opinion. This discipline is difficult and necessary in order to be a clear communicator.

Don’t Speak for Others or Speculate

Great employees don’t guess, explain what someone else “probably meant,” or present opinions as facts.

Don’t guess. If you don’t know, say you don’t know. This is not weakness. It’s being professional.

The best employees ask follow-up questions. They restate instructions when accuracy matters.

“I’ll find out” is one of the most valuable phrases in the workplace.

Know When to Pause

Strong employees know when not to respond immediately. Not having an immediate answer is not a weakness. It’s a strength. There’s nothing wrong with saying “I don’t know.” If your boss explodes when you say this, then you have the wrong boss.

In heat cases, excellent employees pause before reacting emotionally. Sydney didn’t pause, so we are still talking about it.

Stay Calm And Carry On, Especially When Things Go Wrong

Professionalism is most visible when circumstances are tough. And, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Embrace Nuance: It Matters

Get into the nitty gritty. Find out the facts. The facts matter. The best employees know when context is required and aren’t afraid to provide it in a clear and concise way. Oversimplification can create other problems. Bosses can be short and can only listen to so many stories. Practice explaining complicated stories in the briefest way possible. If the boss doesn’t have time to “listen to a story,” politely ask when it might be convenient to go over the issue “because details matter.”

Prepare

Preparation is invisible when done well. Prepared employees reduce risk downstream.

Risk Mitigation For Auto Dealers

Auto dealers don’t have capstan bars, though the employees do have access to a lot of tools.

What they do have are employees, pressure, deadlines, customers, regulators, auditors, lenders, and manufacturers. The occasional, perfectly normal Tuesday turns into a full-blown incident by lunch. That’s when the dealer needs to Tuck The Octopus and by getting the flailing tentacles and getting them neatly and tightly wrapped so they are not flailing all over the place. Contain and control the chaos once you learn about it.

And this is where Sydney stops being a history lesson and starts being a warning.

Most dealership risk does not come from bad intent. It comes from bad reactions under pressure. An employee guesses instead of asking. Someone fills silence with speculation. A manager reacts emotionally instead of pausing. A shortcut gets taken “just this once.” A problem gets hidden because dealing with it feels awful and uncomfortable.

Nobody sets out to create a compliance issue. They just grab the wrong bar.

Employees Are Mitigation In Human Form

From a risk perspective, exemplary employees are not a “nice to have.” They are a control. They are mitigation in human form. The employee who tells the truth early prevents the problem that becomes a chargeback later. The employee who doesn’t guess avoids the misrepresentation that triggers a regulator. The employee who pauses instead of reacting keeps a customer complaint from becoming a lawsuit.

This is what risk mitigation actually looks like in a dealership. Not binders. Not posters. Not policies that look great until someone is stressed, rushed, or annoyed.

Raising The Bar

So when we talk about “raising the bar” in a dealership, we’re talking about professionalism, consistency and discipline. Because in auto retail, just like on the Cutty Sark, most disasters aren’t caused by storms. They’re caused by people grabbing the wrong bar.

In the end, Sydney Smith reminds us of something important: when things get hard at work, the goal is not to grab the nearest object and swing. And “raising the bar” has never meant swinging the actual capstan (which is quite large, by the way).

The best employees don’t escalate chaos—they absorb it. They stay calm, tell the truth, ask questions, and make things better rather than louder.

When people say “raise the bar,” they’re talking about standards, not hardware. Sydney missed that distinction. The risk showed up immediately and consequences followed and were unavoidable. The best employees don’t create these situations – they prevent them.