Have We Lowered the Bar on Excellence?
When I hear or read the word, “excellence,” it captures my attention. My expectations rise. I like the sound of the word and what it implies. But I have begun asking “What is excellence?” Perhaps, a better question is whether there is a bar defining excellence. Do you have one? Does anyone have one? Do we have a context for excellence? Are we talking about modern excellence or our grandparent’s excellence? Do different groups define excellence differently? Is it about quality, character, skill, and effort, or just money?
Anyone who sells excellence is in a difficult business. Trust me. I know. It might seem everyone would want excellence, but that is not true. It might seem excellence would be apparent to someone who wants it, but that is not true. It might seem a person who wants excellence will pay for it, but that is not true. This is because excellence is not independent of our background, point of view, experience, knowledge, and even moods. In other words, we don’t all agree on what excellence is. Excellence is a personal matter. It certainly is no longer a collective standard. Excellence depends on who you are speaking to. You must therefore get personal to be successful at offering excellence to the public.
The challenge is that words like, “excellence,” “elevated,” and of course, “luxury” means different things to different people. I’ve noticed the word excellence used at various events where the speakers are poorly dressed, speak terribly, lace their comments with profanity, and conduct themselves in ways that don’t measure up to excellence in my book. But then, everyone seems enthralled with the experience. Call me old-fashioned, but excellence should be much different than what I see and hear on typical street corner. I must be careful here as I don’t want to be perceived as one of the grumpy old men, in the balcony, on The Muppet Show. (Am I giving away my age?) Frankly, I think we are in a time where if you define something as excellent, you also must become an advocate for a certain kind of excellence, just so we know what you are talking about. That, of course can be problematic in our society.
While excellence used to come with a few rules, particularly demonstrating manners, refinement, and class, we are in an “anything goes” era. That means even prestigious businesses I work with that define themselves as luxury brands are now accepting things they never would have before. No one wants to challenge what has become common place; thus, we keep chipping away at what we mean by excellence.
I have entire courses and training programs, devoted to shaping excellence in your career and business, so I won’t go into further detail here. If you’re not a member, I invite you to become one. I will just say, you must decide what excellence is in your business, and certainly not believe the definition is commonsense. Today’s brand of excellence proves there is no common sense, and excellence is not common either.
Write me at: info@andretaylor.com for details on our membership programs, supporting your excellence.
At Taylor Insight we help premier and luxury businesses excel and grow by attracting, retaining, and growing with affluent clients. We provide exceptional strategic, marketing, sales, and service guidance, and a portfolio of high-impact learning programs.
