Excellence Is Not an Accomplishment

Topic No. 1: Excellence is not an accomplishment. It is a spirit, a never-ending process. A very famous line by Lawrence M. Miller. In order to develop excellence as a leader we must be willing to acknowledge that developing it is not an accomplishment – it’s a never-ending process. It’s a process full of many awesome moments and many lonely days. It’s fun and exciting one day and then the next day we wonder why we ever wanted to lead in the first place. Many of us secretly fantasize about being a greeter at Walmart or on any other platform .
Being a leader isn’t easy – it requires commitment for the long haul. It’s not something we can just accomplish and then move on. Being a leader requires hard work, sacrifice, commitment and a willingness to grow ourselves. The leaders I admire most are the ones who give selflessly of themselves and make personal development a priority. I can not give of myself as I leader if I do not first take care of myself. Great leaders balance personal development and organizational development.
Both are important and one without the other does not work. As I have observed great leaders, I find they all have some things in common. “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. ” ~ Steve Jobs Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. ~ Aristotle