Instilling excellence into your organization is a cultural thing. It must be woven into the very fabric of your business, and evident in the way you do everything, every day. The key is, as the leader, you must be the role model and demonstrate, consistently, whatever it is you want your team/organization to do. As my mentor, John C. Maxwell says so eloquently, “People do what people see.”
People do what people see. ~John C. Maxwell
So, how do you do that? You must establish high standards and inspire others to adopt them, as well. You must be fully immersed in, and committed to, raising the bar on all aspects of your performance, continually striving to get better. You must be willing to banish a “check the box” attitude because you know that “good enough” is not good enough! You must understand you aren’t done, until YOU are done; you don’t base your success or completion on other people’s standards, you keep going until you know you have achieved excellence.
Of course, these things are not possible without high levels of integrity. Will Durant said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Every day, you have the opportunity to influence at least four people (and I do mean “at least,” because I believe the true number is significantly higher), which means you have the opportunity to be an excellence role model and encourage others to focus on and demonstrate excellence in what they do, as well.
Having focused on excellence over the past four weeks, what have you learned about yourself? Your organization? How do you rate yourself on this aspect of your leadership performance?
