When did mediocrity become the goal of personal and professional achievement? Tom Peters, author of: In Search of Excellence, relates a story where he was working with some executive clients to become excellent. After some time talking about moving the organization further towards excellence, an executive spoke. He said he was sick and tired of all this talk about excellence. After all, his company was no worse than everyone else’s! There is a motto for your company: “We are no worse than our competition!”

What does excellence really mean to a leader? Is it even relevant today? When I look around, be it the industry, the leaders, or just the lay worker, it seems that the desire for excellence may not be all that relevant. Somewhere along the way, we may have lost our way. In the global market in which we now operate, what separates us from the competition elsewhere in the world? Price cannot be the only consideration. As a consumer, I rarely buy the cheapest item because I know you get what you pay for.

Excellence can be defined from many different perspectives. It can be product or price; it can also be process-oriented. Take Johnson & Johnson, for example. The leadership of this company has made the decision to produce only environmentally friendly products. There are very few people on the planet who would not appreciate this corporate philosophy. That is excellence! It is a characteristic of which a company, a leader and the employee can be proud. It is a motivating achievement of business leadership. Knowing that you are a leader in a certain area is very motivating for the organization.

While it is understandable that there are limits to what a leader can do, there is still room for excellence. If we take one thing and work on it until we’re satisfied, it’s great now, we’ve taken one more step toward overall excellence on our journey. It really doesn’t matter so much what we choose to do in our lives, only how well we do it. Why not choose excellence?

Excellence is not only relegated to our professional life. Excellence in our private or family life is probably even more important. This is fundamental to our character. How well do we relate to our family or the people we know? Can we say that we treat people in an excellent way no matter who they are? As a pastor, mentor, and counselor I have had to work with some very rebellious people. I discovered that one can change the social environment over time by using compassion, kindness, and genuine concern. Everyone is potentially a diamond in the rough.

Excellence in our profession should be a no-brainer. It should be the standard for all areas of our work life. As leaders, we must continually evaluate and reevaluate ourselves to ensure that the best of us is truly the best. Is there anything new I can learn? Is there a better method that I can use to relate to those who work with or for me? What can I do to create an atmosphere of excellence around me? These are questions to ask yourself. Excellence does not happen by chance. You have to look for it and work on it.

It’s the little things that matter. Making that presentation a little cleaner; edit the note one more time; tell that person who works for you or with you that they are doing a great job; These are small steps, but in fact they are steps towards excellence. Never let “good enough” be good enough. If it’s not the best, do it again.

Henry Kissinger once asked one of his assistants to prepare a report for him. After Kissinger received the report, he returned it saying, “Redo it.” The assistant redid the report and returned it to Mr. Kissinger. Once again he greeted it with the words “Redo” written on it. After the third time, he told Mr. Kissinger that he had completed the report to the best of his ability and that it could not be improved. Mr. Kissinger replied, “In that case, I’ll read it now.”

I’m lucky. My father taught me that only the best of me was good enough at everything I did. He would tell me that if I wasn’t ready to sign my name so everyone knows I did, then I should just keep working on it until it’s correct. In some cases, this meant additional work that potentially no one would notice. However, he knew he could be better and that made all the difference. It’s so much easier to accept criticism when you know you’ve done your best.

There will always be room for excellence. When the world strives for mediocrity, being the best will make you stand out. Quality means a lot to many people. Whenever we recruit people and / or train our team here at our company, we always emphasize that we seek the best because we want to remain the best. You can see it in the eyes of the individual. They want to be part of something great, something important. Most people want to be encouraged to be great.

It is as easy to fall into mediocrity as it is to float down the river. If we don’t fight the current of mediocrity, we will succumb to it. America didn’t get big because we wanted to compete in world markets and win. America became great because people pursued greatness and excellence! We didn’t get to the moon mediocre.

Whether in our elementary schools or in our company, we must begin to revive the drive and desire for excellence. If we don’t, we will lose our place as a leader in the world market. There is nothing wrong with trying to be the best by pursuing excellence. Tom Peters’ Pursuit of Excellence is as important today as ever.

However, I think you should consider the alternative and that in fact I may be wrong about it. After all, I guess we are no worse than any other country!

Why should we or should we not pursue excellence?