Worth Doing
Excellence is rarely accidental. It is the product of process, consistency, and care. Especially in the little things.
What separates good leaders from great ones is not the grand vision, but the disciplined execution of the daily details.
On a recent client visit, I was reminded of this truth in the simplest of ways.
Upon arrival, I was cordially offered a cup of coffee from a high-end "K-cup" type machine. The kitchen area was open to the general meeting space and immaculate. When I grabbed a mug from the cupboard, the offering was simple, high-quality, branded, and on orderly display. A single matching mug was to the left of the sink on a drying towel.
After enjoying a cup, I offered to wash the mug. My host waved me off, and we continued our conversation. But as we wrapped up and headed toward the door, he paused, turned back, and went through a 30-second routine. He:
Checked the coffee machine to ensure the pod had been discarded (it was 😉).
Washed my mug with a precise system: detergent spray, hot water, and a sponge.
Set the clean mug on the drying towel to the left.
Rinsed and reset the sponge neatly in its chrome countertop rack.
Nothing elaborate. Nothing time-consuming. Yet this small act explained why the open floor plan kitchen space was spotless, inviting, and professional.
It was not about the mug. It was about a mindset.
He had a process for the simplest of tasks, anchored in an attitude of servant leadership. And that attitude has carried him through 25 years of business success.
This is how organizational culture is formed. Not through slogans on a wall or pep talks in meetings, but through the habits and disciplines that repeat every single day.
Excellence at scale begins with excellence in the details.
On the personal side, leaders must go first. Just like this business owner did. If you want your culture to value precision, order, and care, you cannot shortcut the small things yourself.
What you practice personally will become what others emulate organizationally.
Ask yourself: Does your organization have processes for ALL the things worth doing well?
If not, are those things worth doing at all?
Maybe the lesson is not about adding more to your plate, but about clarifying what deserves excellence and eliminating the rest.
Because as the saying goes, if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
And if it’s not worth doing well, maybe it should not be done at all.
Blessings to you, my friends!
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This Week’s Resource Recommendation:
"The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right"
- Atul Gawande
From Amazon: We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies—neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. First introduced decades ago by the U.S. Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple ninety-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third.
In riveting stories, Gawande takes us from Austria, where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. He explains how checklists actually work to prompt striking and immediate improvements. And he follows the checklist revolution into fields well beyond medicine, from disaster response to investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds.
An intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved, and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference, The Checklist Manifesto is essential reading for anyone working to get things right.
MMS 25-38
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