The sad costs of mediocrity
By As far as I am concerned, mediocrity is more expensive than excellence! I was with a friend in recent times and he said to me that anytime anyone who romances mediocrity hangs around him, he always finds a way of pushing him or her out, because mediocrity is very contagious. If you are not run of the mill now, with time, you’d become one, once you keep rolling with men and women who do not have any value for excellence.
In my own life too, I do not allow men who do not value excellence to be in my core circle of friends. It is too poisonous to my purpose! It is too costly and expensive to allow men and women—who detest excellence to hang around me. Remember, you are defined by those whom you surround yourself with. This is an evergreen truth.
Once you begin to think that you have gotten to the peak of development and feat, it is a sign that you are beginning to knock on the door of mediocrity. Real men and women of excellence are always improving themselves. They are always journeying towards a destination that they will never reach. Men and women of excellence consistently raise the bar on how splendidly and superbly they can perform!
Taking the issue before us today a little further, it has been said that there is no universal agreement to the meaning of excellence. This is because excellence is a journey that will yield different results at different stages. Excellence is simply putting in your best effort to get your best result with what you have. Also, excellence is a mind-set. It is an approach to life and work. The net result is that you will stand out of the crowd. Excellence makes you stand out of the crowd while mediocrity gets you lost in the crowd.
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Many argue that there is a cost-element to excellence and that the more resources you have, the better you are at delivering an excellent customer experience. Indeed excellence may mean you putting extra staff to work to deliver greater value to your customers or you spending extra-time at work to pay greater attention to details. In other words, excellence does cost money and time! And this is why middle-of-the-road folks always like to avoid excellence. Mediocre are usually lost in the crowd—because they passionately detest adding extra time to everything they do.
A man or woman—who avoids excellence while writing and publishing a book will pay dearly for it in the long run. Mediocrity has robbed a lot of people of high-finances and significance. Many are poor today because they detest a life of excellence, but the truth is, mediocre will never become successful, productive and prolific.
Once again, to put the price of excellence in context, think of what it will cost you not to have excellence. Mediocrity births inferior services, inferior quality and stagnation. A man or woman who renders inferior services will never be able to keep customers. In-fact, inferior services repel high-paying customers. As an effect of excellence, being one of my core values, inferior services and I are as two-parallel wires!
Kindly understand me that to become successful in life, business and leadership, 99.9% is not enough. Dan gamble, the Olympic Games Wrestling Gold medalist best known for his tenure as University of Iowa head coach who won 16 national championships puts it this way, “I am a believer in starting with high standards and raising them. We make progress only when we push ourselves to the highest level. People will not remember the nine hundred and ninety-nine times you got their product or services delivered right. It’s that one bad customer experience that gets spread over social media. Excellence means getting it right all the time!
Men and women of excellence under-promise while they over-deliver, mediocre over-promise while they under-deliver! Remember, mediocrity will always cause you to lose high-paying clients. Buddy, you need to find out what best looks like in your job and then exceed it. Excellence is an attitude that says, “I will exceed the expectations of my customers, my employees and finally my shareholders.
Mediocre do not evaluate and learn, but feedback they say is the food of champions. The only way to learn, grow and get better is to have your performance evaluated. You learn from and improve on the evaluation received. Many years ago, American Automobile Manufacturers would slow down the speed of the assembly line to avoid breakdowns. In contrast, Japanese car manufacturers would put the line to its paces until it reached break point and the assembly line was stopped. The Japanese would then intensively study the source of breakdown and put in place preventive measures. While one manufacture avoided mistakes by slowing down and introducing slack, the other sought breakdowns by pushing boundaries, taking corrective action and then pushing boundaries again. Needless to say, both had different results.
Mediocre do not pay rapt attention to details and it does cost them a fortune! If I were you, I would detest mediocrity, because it is costing you a very high level of success. Remember, excellence is found in the little things—the smile on the face of the customer attendant when welcoming customers, the cleanliness of the display counter—and the orderly arrangement of flowers at the reception desk. Excellence is found in the clutter free work environment, properly planned and spaced out appointment schedules and the starting and finishing of meetings on time. The little things add up to make a big thing.
Mediocre do not like continuous improvement. This is why they lead today and fail to lead tomorrow. Leadership mastery answers to continuous improvement! You have to consistently challenge the mindset that wants to rest on its laurels. Mediocre always worship at the shrine of their past successes. Men and women of excellence have experimenting mentality that says if it’s not broken, break it up and then put it together to make it better, faster and deliver more value to customers. If you leave it unbroken, then you can be sure that your competitor will come out with a superior product and take your once satisfied customers away from you. This is what mediocrity does cost a lot of people that do not esteem the value of continuous improvement.
Till I come your way again next week Monday, see you where successful leaders are found!
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