I am writing today about Excellence. I think that if you are involved in something that is worth doing your should do it to your fullest. People will make mistakes and everyone accepts that, but if you put in no effort, then why do it? Think about church for a moment. At church I run the technical ministries. If there is a week that I am on to run the service, and I slid in at 9:45 in the morning, do you think the service would be the best it could be? I would say no. I need to set levels during band practice and run through the sermon to get the flow before the service starts. Do you think I could do that if I skated in under the wire? Nope.
Some people may say that Excellence is unattainable. Perfection is unattainable, but doing the best you can with everything you do is not. I am tired of excuses. I think it's OK to check people who are not doing their best. If you have someone who you are counting on, and they fail do you let them skate by and make them feel good or do you tell them they made a mistake? If you are on a baseball team and your pitcher decides to not practice and come at the last minute, do you think you have a chance of winning?
The thing people do not get is that you have 20 other people who put in their all. They are busting their butts to put in 100% and then one person takes the ship and drives it of the cliff. EVERYONE ELSE'S EFFORTS WERE NEGATED BY THE ONE PERSON. Now sure there will still be some good plays that happen despite the person, but the team will get no where close to where they could have been. Is that fair to the team? Is it fair to the person who was there 3 hours before the game to wash the bats and groom the field?
The "ahhh it was alright" attitude is not OK. Do you think that a team will get anywhere when key people have that idea? Do you think anyone behind them will give a rip about what they are doing? If "OK" is where you want to set the bar, then why have a bar? Is it incredibly hard to hold people you call your friends accountable, but will they grow if you don't?
2 comments:
um...wash the bats? ;)
Personally speaking...I like to learn a little bit of everything, and use that when trying to be a "pinch hitter." It concerns me that this might be a reason I am not "focusing" on becoming the best I can be at one particular thing...and I thank you for the reminder!
I believe that you are right Bill you should put your best if you are going to do something. Putting in No effort is a waste of time to the whole. I do however as a future teacher, have been observing the relativeness of performance.
Excellence is attainable but where is the measure of excellence taken from, the sole ability of that person striving for the excellence or from the measurement of someone else comparing an apple to an orange.
I agree with the accountability aspect of your idea on excellence. In order for a group as a whole to attain a goal then all parties must be in agreement and must be willing to work together.
If one cog of the machine fails then it must be repaired quickly or else the whole machine could be inoperable. As far as the aspect of one person making the cog of the machine drive off a cliff is a real issue it is one that can be averted with proper preparation. I can only compare this aspect to what I have been learning for being a teacher. What I learned and am still learning is that if there is a possibility of any sort of action, such as what you are saying Bill, that one person is making the everyone elses efforts go bad, then a plan of action must be concieved at what to do if someone is doing such a thing.
Say for instance my classroom, in my class I will have just about every action a child may do planned out, if a child is doing something to intterupt the whole then a disciplinary action will be made in the form of a verbal comment, then a choice, and finally an action.
If this person is lowering the standard then you must explain that there is a standard in the first place. Teach the person that this is how it is done, you can never assume that a person knows everything of what they are doing.
In my field experience as an acting teacher I have heard the excuse, "it was allright." That always meant that the student did not fully know what was told to them. They only did enough to get by. WHich really meant they only did enough of what they knew what to do. Think about that for a minute. When I realized this then it made sense to me why some students were only giving half hearted work.
I hope this helps if not it was quick primer in planning and prevention. Love Ya buddy.
-James Flores
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