Cultivating an attitude of excellence

Excellence has been on mind for some time now as I sought to hire people for my business.

The business is starting to demand that I delegate or outsource some work so that I can concentrate on what I do best – coaching, writing and speaking.

At the same time, I’ve been looking for a new househelp after sacking the one I had. I’ve learnt how to create time for myself by delegating housework to a competent person who can work with very little supervision after I train them.

The Excellence Challenge

The biggest challenge in our society is that many people want to be paid well and get good jobs, but they don’t want to work hard and well for it. They ask for high salaries but do shoddy work.

It’s an interesting scenario in my case because I’m looking for people to hire, and there are people who want to make money, but there is a huge disconnect between us.

A few months ago, I hired someone to write articles for my business blog. This was meant to free at least a day for me as the writer was going to create enough articles for a month.

I got the articles…but they were so bad that I needed to re-write them completely in order to post them on the blog!

The writer edited the articles and I paid for the work done, but I’m having a hard time posting them on the blog because they still need more work.

…back to the drawing board…

I’ve seen this scenario in business, when hiring househelps, and when I was an employee. And there were also times when I was the one providing less than excellent work while demanding good pay.

Making Excellence a Habit

Excellence is seriously lacking in our society and we need to change if we’re aiming at becoming leaders.

I’m not talking about being an excellent student or professional here. I’m talking about taking personal responsibility for doing an outstanding job, no matter the position you’re in at the moment.

Here are some examples:

• Take a leadership role in your home so that your family and domestic workers follow you. Be the best parent that you can be for your children. Nurture and lead them while providing a live example for them to follow.

• As an employee, abandon hanging around the ‘water dispenser’ and being a member of coffee-break gossip groups. Use that time to start working as if you own or lead the organization. You’ll treat your time and output differently when you do so.

• If you’re a business owner, take personal responsibility for the results your customers are getting. This means that you take complaints and employees slacking off personally and seek to correct that immediately.

• If you’re a leader in your organization, then you lead by example and not by dictatorship, delegation, or abdication.

• Be responsible in your relationships so that you become the kind of person that you want others to be with you (especially with your spouse or significant other).

Treat people in the way you expect to be treated. Don’t expect others to be good to you first, before you can reciprocate.

Instead, be good to others first; without any expectations. It’s great if they reciprocate, but your life is not pegged on them being good to you.

Overall, have integrity, quality, standards, values, and work ethic. Be the best personally, socially, professionally, and in your relationships.

Excellence requires that we demand the highest standards for ourselves and the people around us.

We cannot afford to slack off or allow people with lower standards to determine who or what we are, or how we should live our lives.

We take 100% responsibility for our successes and for our failures. No complaining, blaming, shaming, or bargaining. We are responsible.

Are you doing that in your life, relationships, career, job, or business?

Excellence is not easy to implement because it requires you to take an objective look at your life, identify areas where you’re not excellent, make decisions about what you need to change (especially habits), and then make the change.

It requires you having to make critical decisions about the kind of person you want to be and then taking deliberate steps each and every day to become that person.

Benefits of Excellence

Excellence is a habit that will change your life forever and for the better.

Now change doesn’t come easily to humans and it gets harder and more painful to make personal changes as you grow older.

However, the benefits of having an attitude of excellence (and living it all the days of your life), is that you shed off people and habits that no longer serve you well; and attract those that make your life better and more meaningful.

You’ll also find that the more you implement excellence in a deliberate manner, the easier life becomes, and the faster you achieve your goals – including career and business goals.

And if you’re in business, read Sunny Bindra’s article to see how Amazon grew into a business giant based on one principle – excellent customer service.

It’s your turn now. How do you plan to make excellence a habit? Let me know in the Comments below.

(Image credit: Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos)