Your core values will define your organization and your life. But you must commit to them. In other words, you need to WORK at them — every moment, every day. The words are powerful. But each value that we'll be exploring this year requires that we make them a part of each decision and a massive compass to point us always in the right direction.
What does it mean if you make Excellence one of your core values? Excellence starts at the extra mile. It is a commitment to being the best and always delivering the best. Note we did not say being above average and delivering acceptable results. Excellence means you demand more from yourself than your customers do. It means you work to exceed YOUR expectations which are higher than others have for you.
Being your best is personal. Your best can be world class. Sadly, some days it may suck. In your integrity though, you must be committed to always do your best. (The 4th of the Four Agreements by Miquel Ruiz - if you haven't read it, order it today!). Ruiz said "your best is going change from moment to moment. It will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse and regret."
Excellence means you do NOT allow yourself to ever just settle for good enough. Excellence is memorable. Others admire it. Don't just make it a statement, make it part of your brand. Excellence is the third most common Core Value at Fortune 500 companies. Tom Peters and Robert Waterman Jr wrote the best selling business book, In Search of Excellence in 1982 detailing how the practices of organizations who are known for Excellence.
Make Excellence one of your core values. Think about the word. Who comes to mind? What companies or organizations would you define as examples of excellence. What is that they do differently so that you perceive their excellence? When I owned a distributorship, we used Nordstrom as our excellence example. Even though a sales promotion agency is much different than a retailer — using this example made decision making easier. When asked to discount our products or services, we could follow their example. When we needed to resolve a client satisfaction issue, we remembered the famous story of the man who returned his snow tires to Nordstrom (they took care of it - no, they don't sell snow tires).
Excellence doesn't just happen. It's a personal effort and it's a team effort. Your entire organization must take pride in being the best and always delivering the best. When this happens, accountability happens. When we strive to be the G.O.A.T. (Greatest of all time) at what we do, nothing but our total commitment will do.
What do you need to do to be always delivering Excellence? You need to Listen to your clients. You need to Define their pain points and problems. You need to LEARN about their business, their market, their competition. You need to EXPLORE solutions that will work for them and give them your best thinking. You need to understand their processes and how to collaborate to the win/win solutions that will make them appear excellent.
It means you are the Expert. When your customers know that you won't accept anything less than Excellence, you have earned their trust and their business.
Are you willing to take on the work of making Excellence - YOUR Core Value?
Paul Kiewiet MAS+ is an industry speaker, writer, consultant and coach. He serves as the executive director of MiPPA. Kiewiet was inducted into the PPAI Hall of Fame and the MiPPA Hall of Fame. He served as Chairman of PPAI in 2007. A former distributor, he founded Promotion Concepts, Inc in 1982 and worked with some of America’s most valuable brands including Coca-Cola, Kelloggs, and Whirlpool.