A couple of events recently have got me thinking on Excellence – what is it and how do we recognise it
As a starting point John W Gardners states that “Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well”
This was really brought home to me during a recent Excellent Awards event I attended held at Manchester Museum of Science and Industry Arriving just as the museum shut I watched in awe as the staff set up tables and created the perfect space to celebrate individual achievements in excellence in a small matter of 30 mins.
And the striving for Excellence hadn’t finished there – during the meal I had to wait for my starter(not a huge amount of time) and when it did arrive I was offered a genuine and friendly apology from a member of staff. In fact the genuine friendliness of the staff was one of the elements which made the evening a huge success even at 1:00 a.m. in the morning one staff member said to me “It has been a pleasure for us hosting this event” – a big WOW moment for me.
The event itself celebrated both individual and team excellence (including an award for one of my lovely new colleagues) and it was fabulous to see everyone recognised for their achievements with clear summaries shown on the screen outlining the reasons why. If as Aristotle outlines “Excellence is a habit” then these summaries help highlight what excellence looks like in the business and how it is demonstrated. One of my favourite concepts to discuss in ‘Whale Done’ which focuses on positive feedback and in particular the idea that managers should do cheerleading walks – giving positive feedback. The Excellence Awards were an amazing example of this – clear constructive and positive feedback which celebrated amazing work.
Equally important was the opportunity for both winners and runners up to be on stage and be celebrated and recognised by their peers.Now I am acutely aware that this recognition in front of others isn’t for everyone – at this years Learning Awards a Management Development Programme I designed and delivered was nominated for People Development Programme of the Year. As part of this activity I was invited to attend the award ceremony which I declined – although as you can see from the image below I did attend virtually
For me – the recognition was enough – my lack of social skills (limited by conversational topics of Man Utd, F1 and Strictly) and my lack of dressy clothes would have made attending the event uncomfortable and dare I say it I would have gone bright red which makes for a really attractive photo! What was important to me and will live long in the memory is the outpouring of texts and messages I received after the programme won the award. Hillary Clinton’s book ‘It Takes a Village’ talks about
“When I am talking about ‘It Takes a Village’ I’m obviously not talking about just about or even about geographical villages any longer, but about the network of relationships and values that connect us and binds us together”
Those networks of relationships are hugely important and I found the support in that moment of overwhelming joy incredible and it had such an emotional impact – I am not ashamed to say I cried a lot of tears on Thursday evening and Friday. The genuineness of the comments and interactions moved me more than any award ever could – thanks to everyone who got in touch.
It also strikes me that excellence can be subjective i.e. one person’s excellence is another person’s ordinary. Currently on Sunday nights between 18:00 – 20:00 there is a series of texts between me and my mum about the latest Dancing on Ice performances. Usually there is at least one performance where what I think is excellent and what my mum thinks is excellent will differ – and of course there is the Ice Panel who are suitably more qualified than either of us! Maybe our own version of excellence stems from our own personalities – I am never going to be sold on a romantic skate – as my husband will tell you it’s just not my way. However – give me a routine to a Spice Girls song and I will be away…
As a final thought – in our constant quest for excellence is there a price to pay. In one of my other blogs on Mental Health I have talked about Brian C Hall’s idea that if we were at our best everyday then it becomes ordinary. Maybe there are moments when as someone once suggested to me sometimes good is good enough.
There is also the idea that if we constantly strive for excellence what does that cost us from a personal point of view – it might be the things we miss out on – for me this is reading a good book with a latte, having breakfast at Middleport Pottery on the weekend with my husband or even writing a blog…
So here’s some questions to provoke some thought
- What does excellence mean to you? How does it look and feel?
- How can you recognise excellence in others?
- When is good, good enough?
Here’s to us all being excellent in our own ways….
Ken Blanchard et al Whale Done: The Power of Positive Relationships https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whale-Done-Power-Positive-Relationships/dp/1857883268/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=whale+done&qid=1582273787&s=books&sr=1-1
Hillary Rodham Clinton It Takes a Village https://www.amazon.co.uk/Takes-Village-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton/dp/1847390560
https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/ordinary-extraordinary.html
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