Football coaching great Vince Lombardi communicated a powerful line around perfection and excellence: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Excellence in everything is the foundation for many successful leaders, teams, and organizations. When individuals decide to set a high standard, it often becomes a lonely, challenging road. Conversely, chasing excellence also helps people stand out and raises them to the top of their work. Here are specific ways that chasing excellence shines a spotlight on individuals and teams:
- Competition: People and teams who chase excellence quickly find they have less people surrounding them in both positive and negative ways. Although the competition is challenging, the crowd becomes significantly smaller for those who really pursue excellence. In some ways, that is more challenging because everyone competes against you. In other ways, it’s less challenging because fewer competitors exist at the top.
- Criticism: People and teams who chase excellence receive more criticism from others. Observers and onlookers are significantly more likely to criticize those who work hard, overachieve, or set a high standard. Much of the criticism comes from a place of evaluating how high-performers choose to live their lives, the choices those people make, and the high standards they set for themselves.
- Expectations: People and teams who chase excellence create larger expectations for themselves. With more success comes significantly higher expectations from ourselves to achieve a standard. Even though high achieving people have already reached a certain level of success, they put even more pressure on themselves to chase larger goals. Those personal expectations don’t always match outside expectations.
- Opportunity: People and teams who chase excellence create more opportunities for themselves. For people who really excel in their work, opportunity often follows them. The simple fact that they’re willing to work harder and take larger risks puts them in a position to earn opportunities. The challenge for high-achievers is discerning the right and wrong opportunities when they present themselves.
- Development: People and teams who chase excellence continually develop into better versions of themselves. When they make mistakes or fall short, they use it as a learning opportunity to improve the next time they face a similar challenge. This continuous development moves people and teams further up the mountain and closer to excellence.
We all have a specific choice in life: we can chase excellence or pursue much less. Both of these paths have challenges, but chasing excellence often comes with significantly more opportunities to make a positive impact. The path to excellence places people and teams into a unique category that comes with both challenges and opportunities.
How does the path to excellence set people and teams apart?