excellence

When was the last time you went to something and thought, “that was excellent!”  I made that comment to my wife the other day after we watch the Bourne Ultimatum.  I sat on the edge of my seat throughout the entire movie.  The action never stopped.  My wife even remarked afterward that the Bourne movies are probably her favorite series hands down.

What makes something excellent?

What sets one restaurant above the others?  Why do you go to that place rather than this place?

Every church I know says they strive for excellence but so few actually possess it. (I’m not implying that we are there yet either)

I think achieving excellence begins by asking, “what can/do we EXCEL at?”  What can we become the best at? I believe that organizations start here but quickly drift from excelling to accomodating.

By asking the question, “what can we excel at?” you are simultaneously asking the question, “what do we NOT excel at?”  This is important to know.   To many organizations focus on improving what they don’t excel at rather than what they do.  When you do this you inevitably pull resources from your areas of excellence in attempt to boost your areas of mediocrity.  This makes sense but rarely works. Instead of pulling resources I would ask, “why are we not excelling?”  “Do we feel called to do this?  Is it the right time to do this?  Do we lack the leadership to do this?  Are we doing this because everyone expects us to do this?  Should we be doing this?”

In order to achieve excellence you must stay laser focused on the areas you can excel.  Fight the urge to accomodate and add the things you were never meant to do in the first place.

Excellence is a byproduct of excelling and excelling is a byproduct of calling plus passion.  You will always excel in your areas of passion and calling.  Stay there.  The most successful organizations in the world are rarely well balanced they are normally lopsided and focused.

Where can you excel?