Achieving Excellence

Every now and then you encounter someone who demonstrates excellence on the job. It might be an exceptional waitress who anticipates your every need Or a manager who generatesboth high performance and loyalty in his teams. It could be ateacher with a knack for unlocking the desire to learn in eachstudent. Excellence, true excellence, is something we prizebut seldom see. It’s a joy to encounter someone who is trulyexcellent at what they do. Why is that so rare? Moreimportantly, how can you become known as a man or woman whoconsistently demonstrates excellence?

One comment that is heard time and again about those who demonstrateexcellence is, "He/she is a natural at it." They don’t seem tostruggle to be excellent; it just flows. That is always a sign ofmotivation, and therein lies the first key: Motivation is requiredfor excellence.

Motivation is what we like to do naturally. It’s like being rightor left-handed. We don’t even think about it. We just write. Thesame is true for people known for excellence. They have a group ofmotivations that work in concert to help them perform at a higherlevel. Like all motivations, these were inborn and are as much apart of them as being blue-eyed or tall.

But there is a second key: Motivation can be developed. People whodemonstrate excellence have identified their motivations and workedhard to develop them. They have added knowledge, skill, experienceand practice to consistently produce at the highest levels.

By the way, there is a flip side to these two keys, and it isthis: The best we can be with low motivation is adequate. Nomatter how hard we work and desire it, in the long run we willnever be excellent at something without high levels of motivationin that area. In other words, if we toil in areas where we have lowmotivation, we resign ourselves to mediocrity.

Who wants to be mediocre? Who wants to be known as "adequate?"Wouldn’t you rather have a shot at excellence? The first step tounlocking your excellence is to know what you do well naturally.What are your motivations?