Is your ministry excellent? If not, it can be!
Many ministries and corporations ask me to speak on the subject of excellence.
However, I always advise them that we cannot discuss Business Excellence
or Ministry Excellence without discussing Personal Excellence.
The excellence in any organization begins with individuals
within the organization. If the people are not excellent, the organization will not be excellent.
Bill Kimsey, CEO of Ernst and Young International, writes, “Winning
in this business is more about having the best people than anything else.” I
believe the same thing is true in ministry.
Webster’s Dictionary defines excellence as the
state of being exceptionally good in quality and character. The root word of excellence is excel which
is defined as to be greater or to surpass others. Henceforth, to be a person
of excellence is to surpass others by being exceptionally good in quality
and character.
A good example of a person whose personal excellence caused promotion, preferential
treatment and publicity in his life is Daniel, “Then this Daniel
was preferred above the presidents and princes, because
an excellent spirit was
in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm (Daniel 6:3).
Daniel’s godly character and tenacious stance concerning his faith
to God lead him to be preferred over other more tenured leaders. It
wasn’t
Daniel’s expensive clothes or neatly cropped hair that caused the king
to pick him out of the crowd. Daniel’s excellent spirit caused King
Darius to publicly proclaim Daniel’s promotion when others seemed to
be more qualified.
As the leader, when you live your personal life in excellence, it will lift
up a standard for your followers to reach for.
Ten Observations of Excellent People
People who have become excellent have several distinguishing facets. Here
are ten observations that I have made that will help you become excellent
at what you do along with several challenging questions to help you become
excellent.
1. People of excellence are honest about where they are, then they raise
the bar.
Excellence doesn’t suggest you are the smartest and wisest in the earth.
Excellence means you understand your current position in life and you seek
to raise it to another level. People of excellence understand their personal
strengths and weakness, but work hard to make themselves better at what they
do.
Do you work hard to constantly improve yourself?
2. People of excellence perceive average and stagnation as enemies.
A person seeking to be excellent does not tolerate average. Stagnation, mediocrity,
ordinary and complacency does not reside in the vocabulary of excellent
people. These words are enemies. Excellent people lose sleep when his or
her performance is mediocre or below standard.
How do you feel after a late or mediocre delivery of your service?
Do you find ways to improve your next opportunity or simply
accept complacency?
3. People of excellence understand the potential threats to their excellence.
Professional athletes understand they simply cannot gorge on hamburgers,
hot dogs and potato chips if they want to perform at an optimum level.
An undisciplined life only leads to destroy fulfillment of their dreams.
There are spiritual, political, social, physical and mental threats that
can hamper your daily success. A person of excellence is always prepared
and recognizes potential threats before they can cause any damage to him.
Let’s for a moment examine a few things we can do to ensure the threats
don’t overtake us:
1. Rise early and start the day off right – Spend time in the morning
by yourself preparing your attitude for the day. As a leader, you need to
understand that your mood affects the mood of everyone around you.
2. Always do the right thing – Everyone is constantly faced with integrity
issues. Perhaps adding a little more to your expense report or telling a
small lie can make things a little easier. A small fire can lead to catastrophe.
3. Watch and Pray – One well known preacher says that everyday he
reads the bible and the newspaper because he wants to know what both sides
are doing. You need to have your finger on pulse of your neighborhood, community,
the nation and the world. It is also to your benefit to find out what God
is doing now. What God was doing last year, He is not doing now. What the
world was doing five years ago, have now changed. Neither God nor the world
stands still. To be an excellent person, you have to watch and pray.
What threatens your excellence? i.e. Overeating, lack of exercise,
lack of knowledge?
4. People of excellence realize they cannot be perfect, but can come close.
As men and women of God, we know that there was only one perfect man who
lived on the earth, which was Jesus Christ. He was perfect because he never
sinned and completely obeyed God with his life. However, you and I were
born into sin (Psalms 51:5), therefore we make mistakes through our imperfections.
Perfection should never be the goal of any person. However excellent people
realize when mistakes are made, they ensure it’s never made again.
There are two benefits to making mistakes, 1) you learn what doesn’t
work and 2) you give yourself an opportunity to try a new approach.
What have you learned from past mistakes?
5. People of excellence excel from year to year.
To excel means to leap from one level to another level. A friend of mine,
Dr. Nathaniel Johnson, an obstetrician, became a wealthy man many years
ago through several practices he owned. However, he never lets his success
stagnate his educational and professional growth. Even now with all of
his houses, fine cars and money, he constantly attends seminars, reads
books and constantly studies his profession like a college student prepares
for a final exam. Each year, his expertise becomes more and more in demand
because of his commitment to excellence.
What have you learned this year that you didn’t know
or understand last year? _
6. People of excellence constantly work on themselves.
If you are not satisfied with your job or career, the best way to change
is to work on yourself. Excellent people don’t settle for excuses
for why they are not excelling. They constantly work on themselves. The
work never stops. If they are overweight, they work on it. If they need
to make more money, they work on it. Excellent people don’t wait
for someone to motivate them to action. Their motivation is internal.
Do you understand your personal motivations? What are
they?
7. People of excellence dress above their environment.
You can always notice a person striving for excellence, because of the way
they dress. They don’t necessarily wear the finest labels or the
most expensive suits, but the clothes they do wear are not tattered. If
they have to wear a uniform, it’s normally pressed. If they have
to wear a suit, their shoes are polished and their shirts are cleaned.
Their clothes fit. It’s not the actual clothes, but the way they
wear their clothes, which allows them to be noticed above everyone else,
even if everyone is wearing the same thing.
What can you do to improve your personal dress code?
8. People of excellence expect excellence.
God is an excellent God. Heaven is excellent. The earth is excellent. Everything
God made is excellent. God expects and deserves excellence from His people.
Do you expect excellence from your followers or do you accept
mediocrity?
9. People of excellence are influential.
Who are the people around you that are getting the promotions? Who are the
people whose advice always seems to be in demand? Whether you like them
or not, they have the power to influence the way other people think. Of
course there are class clowns that normally obtain a degree of influence.
That’s not what I am talking about. Class clowns can be funny but
never taken seriously. People of excellence leave a lasting mark on people
and organizations.
Are you a person of influence? If not, what are several
things you can do to become a person of influence?
1. ____________________
2. ____________________
3. ____________________
10. People of excellence are attracted to excellence.
I noticed in high school and in college that people of common personalities
and interests flock together. The cool guys hung out together, the computer “nerds” gathered
together, the beautiful people grouped together (they never let me be a
part of that group!). However, there would always be certain students who
were committed to excellence in education. These students would say “no” to
parties and stay up late to work on term papers and other homework. Their
commitment to excellence then, has caused many of them to be today’s
leaders.
Where to Begin
In our pursuit to become excellent and to help us get unstuck from dead-end
jobs, financial pressures and mediocre living, let’s determine what
we need to do to be a person of excellence, immediately. Remember that excellence
doesn’t mean that you are perfect; it means being the very best that
you can be.
1. Improve everything that is not excellent - Work on you. Stand in the
mirror and take an honest to goodness check up of you.
2. Challenge the status quo in your life - Words like comfortable, average
and mediocre are enemies to excellence.
3. Get rid of bad habits - You may say, “but I don’t smoke,
drink or gamble.” Perhaps not, but do you eat more than you should?
Do you watch more television than your share?
4. Develop new relationships - The next person you meet could be an important
relationship. You should seek out relationships that help you excel to the
next level in a certain area of your life.
5. Expand your knowledge base - Knowledge is power. Without it, you are
powerless.
6. Create a mission statement – A mission statement defines your reason
for being. It reflects your ideals, vision and dream.
7. Develop a long-term strategy – As you grow, you may notice that
you get so wrapped up in the day-to-day concerns that you stop planning for
the future. Excellence demands preparation.
8. Conduct a personal survey – Get in the habit of surveying your
customers and parishioners. This is a sure-fire way to get better at what
you do.
A Few Excellent Thoughts to Help You “Stand Out”
Let me provide for you a few thoughts to help you create an excellent spirit.
Apply the following lists to your daily tasks. They will help separate you
from those who just want to “get by.” People, who are “stuck” in
life, do the exact opposite of the list below.
Write the following list down and store them in a place where you visit
often.
