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Posts Tagged ‘Excellence’

Intentional Leadership — D2, W3, M3 — Excellence

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Today, let’s consider organizations you believe have exceeded your expectations with products or services. What did they do to impress you?

With that in mind, let’s now spend some time on a self-evaluation. Does your performance consistently go beyond what others expect of you?

On a piece of paper, make two columns. Title the left column: Top Five Responsibilities. Title the right column: Rating

Now, list your top five responsibilities in the left column — and you can do this for all the various roles you play…Leader, direct report, peer, mentor, coach, partner, or even roles you play in your personal life. Then, in the right column, rate your performance in each responsibility as Average, Above-Average, or Excellent.

Once you’ve done this exercise, I encourage you to spend some time thinking about why you rated yourself as you did in each area.

What one thing could you do right away to improve any of those rankings?

What can you do to exceed the expectations of your employees?

What can you do to exceed the expectations of your manager/leader?

Remember…your effort, in your leadership role, sets the standard for excellence in your team/organization. I encourage you to be intentional about what it will be.

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W3, M3 — Excellence

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

To achieve excellence, one must consistently exceed expectations.

We’ve discussed that leaders are continuously working to improve themselves and their team’s/organization’s performance. Those who truly excel are frequently raising the bar on performance, because once you achieve a certain level, that’s the “new normal,” and you know there is something beyond…Settling for average is never an option. When you role model what you expect from others, it’s easier to influence others to perform at their best.

The next step is being ever observant of your team’s performance. When you are familiar with their strengths and abilities, you will be able to quickly recognize when they are not performing at level of their true capability. This is when it’s important for you to connect, provide feedback, discover what’s happening, and inspire your team to perform at higher levels.

Again, people do what people see, so if you aren’t performing at the top of your ability, others will notice and will fall into line with where you are. So, be sure to look within before you comment on what’s happening around you.

Over the course of my career, I have lead a number of projects and project teams — typically comprised of people I had no formal authority over, and yet, the projects we worked on were of high importance to the various organizations we worked for. Before I learned the lesson that I could accomplish more by connecting with and including others, I used to take on a lot of responsibility and completed all the work myself. So, my big lesson was learning to delegate and rely on others to do their part. The benefit from learning project management from this approach was that I have always been a working leader, for lack of a better term; not just the person who doled out a lot of work and waited for others to perform.

As part of the project team, I take on my share of the responsibilities, and hold myself to higher standards, usually, than I do for those around me. So, modeling what I expect from others has come easily for me. I have been told, on occasion, that my expectations for others are extremely high…and I admit it’s true. In part, it’s because I want to be successful; I want those I work with to be successful; I want the project to be successful; and, I see the potential in others, which leads me to believe they can achieve at higher levels.

What are your challenges in this area?

What can you do to set the tone for an organizational culture that exceeds expectations — one in which people are driven to achieve at ever-higher levels?

How are you modeling exceeding expectations? Remember, as John Maxwell says in the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,

People do what people see!

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Intentional Leadership — D2, W2, M3 — Excellence

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , on March 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Have you given much thought to your values? Or, let me refocus that — how much thought have you given to your team’s or organization’s values? If I asked you to list them for me, could you write them down? What do you think the list would look like if we had the rest of your team, or the key leaders in your organization, write down what they think your values are?

It’s important that you can articulate them clearly, and even better if you are all on the same page in this respect.

The next — and very critical — step is to live and embody your values in every area of your business. Meaning, effective leaders driving healthy, smart organizations ensure values are the foundation of hiring decisions, strategic and tactical decision making, and even daily operations.

In order to move on, I encourage you to create two columns: One outlining your team’s/organization’s current values; one providing an example of how each value is being consistently demonstrated within your organization/team.

Is excellence on your list?

If not, would you benefit from including it?

Or, how do you ensure that excellence is the measure for how you embody the other values on your list?

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Intentional Leadership — D4, W1, M3 — Excellence

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , on March 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Well, what did you learn yesterday?

Now let’s take the next step along this path…If you were your customer, how satisfied would you be with the products, services, or interactions provided by your organization or team?

Based on this change in perspective, what investments should you make as a leader to lift the quality of your products or services?

Short post today, as there is more value in your reflection in these areas than there is in my adding more words…

Can’t wait to hear what you’re coming up with. HINT — see the “Comments” box below? Please, use it!!!

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Intentional Leadership — D3, W1, M3 — Excellence

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , on March 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

As we have in the past, today we will survey others about our month’s topic. Typically, one would survey external customers about their perception of the quality your team or organization offers. Instead, let’s start a little closer to home.

Today, I encourage you to speak with three people within your team or organization and ask them a few questions about your products/services/customers.

Start with these:

Are we providing the best possible product/service to our customers?

Is our product/service worth the price we put on it?

What can we do to better serve our customers?

What impression do we make on our customers?

What should I know about how we interact with our customers, that I’m not aware of?

What questions should I have asked you that I didn’t?

If you can approach this with a genuine desire to know the truth, and truly listen to what your team members tell you, you may gather some invaluable information that can help you improve your offerings to your customers.

What responses did you receive and what did you learn?

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W1, M3 — Excellence

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on March 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

If we begin with the premise that excellence requires superior quality, first we must define what that means…to ourselves and to our customers — both existing and potential, and for each of us this may be very different.

For me, it requires ongoing education and keeping up with the latest developments and thought-leaders in the areas of personal growth, leadership development, team building, and communications. It means being solely focused on the success of my clients. It means being an outstanding listener — which we all know is an active process, requiring my undivided attention and ability to tune out my own thoughts as I listen to what my clients need to discuss. It means functioning intuitively and perceptively to discern what the true issues and challenges are that my clients face. All of these things will allow me to tune-in to my clients and really understand their unique needs. Then I must be able to tailor what I have to offer to be able to actually help them move through, around, or past these obstacles and challenges to perform at higher levels and achieve their goals.

There are a lot of other factors at play here, other actions I need to take, other behaviors I need to demonstrate, as you can imagine. But for purposes of getting your thinking started, I think this is a good beginning place. Clearly, your inputs and outputs are likely very different than mine, but the thought processes around what excellence means and how you demonstrate it are the same.

The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor. — Vince Lombardi

What edge could your organization gain by committing to, and delivering, superior quality…at a level higher than that of your competitors?

In what areas are you already known for superior quality — at your team’s level or for that of your entire organization?

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Intentional Leadership — Month Three — Excellence

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on March 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Beginning tomorrow, we will begin Month Three of our Intentional Leadership journey, focused on excellence. According to Merriam-Webster, excellence is the state of being excellent — superior, first class.

In practice, it is the difference between average and exceptional. It is the ability to not only meet, but to exceed, the needs of your customers (both internal and external), consistently delivering superior quality in whatever services or products you provide. This is how you — as an individual or an organization — stand out from the competition. But it doesn’t stop there. Truly excellent performers understand they must embrace a continuous improvement mindset, knowing that excellence is not a destination!

Think for a minute about organizations you would classify as excellent; there is likely one in at least each category of business and industry. In the hotel industry, it’s long been the Ritz Carlton. They strive to give every customer a “Wow” experience every time; pampering customers more than they could have possibly imagined. If you think about it, this philosophy requires everyone in the organization to be in top form at all times, thinking about what more they can do to out-do what they are already doing. It’s an on-going quest, requiring creativity, consideration, intentionality, and close attention to the wants, needs,  and desires of its customers, as well as staying in-tune with the changing of the times in terms of tastes and preferences of luxury travelers.

As we prepare for this next leg of our journey, take a little time to consider these questions:

What level of excellence do you/your organization provides today?

How can you improve the level of customer service you/your organization provides today?

In what areas of your business do you need to be continuously improving to succeed?

How do your team members define and demonstrate excellence in your organization? Does their definition of excellence match yours?

This will be another revealing month of exercises, if you are willing to truly dive deep and examine your thinking and behaviors.

“See” you tomorrow.

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