As I mentioned in my last post we have recently had the hardwood floors refinished in my house. It seems everything in my life is an analogy of the current experience we are having with completing this house project. I love it when life experiences coincides with life lessons! Currently the lesson in front of me is whether or not I am an exceptional or adequate service provider.
Just this morning I was sitting on the steps that were refinished only days ago, cleaning them 😉 As I am cleaning each step I am seeing little things (truly minute things) that annoy me just a bit about the way the steps were done by our floor guys. I must say overall I am HUGELY impressed with the exceptional job these guys did… but even still there were a few elements in the steps that got me a bit annoyed. I started thinking about how I show up for my clients. Do they see me as being exceptional or simply adequate in the work that I offer? Over all I would say that our floor guys were exceptional but for some reason on the steps… well lets just say I would only rate them adequate. That annoys me!
The way we work will always out perform the action of work we do. You can be the most brilliant copywriter on the earth but if there are spelling and typo errors throughout your copy that will become more glaring then your actual brilliance. It’s not always about what we are doing but instead how are we doing it. Is it being done with the expectation of, this is my very best, or is it being done with a good is good enough mentality? I ask because only recently this has been one of my life lessons.
For the most part I would say I have had a good is good enough mentality. It has served me well and I know I have done great work in the midst of doing good work… but I am not sure I have done my best work yet. As I am always on a growth journey for my own personal development it has really gotten me to think. Where in my life do I see this good is good enough mentality hindering me from being exceptional and causing me to live in the place of being adequate. Because essentially it’s my choice. I get to decide if I am going to give my best or give enough to get by, to do it good or to do it great, a spirit of excellence or just get it done, it’s a decision, and it’s mine to make… it’s also yours to make.
The reality is that although my floor guys truly did a great job, that step thing is really annoying me… and because of that, they don’t go down as exceptional in my book. Up until this morning they had 🙁
What areas of your service may be annoying your clients and ROBBING you of being considered exceptional in your service? Unfortunately you can do everything perfect and allow one area of good is good enough and completely ruin your clients perceived value of you.
After years of coaching and mentoring Online Business Managers as well as coaching business owners on leadership development I am most annoyed when I hear a business owner complain about a virtual service provider because that person simply isn’t making the decision to be exceptional in their quality of service. This annoys me because one person can make the entire industry look bad in that business owners eyes. Leaving every virtual support professional that follows to have to clean up the mess of the one. I wont lie this annoys me to the point of wanting to call some folks up and be all in their business (of course I don’t) but I want to!! Why? Because there are so many brilliant, exceptional implementer’s in our industry who deserve the respect of their expertise, and when one ruins that for them I take it personally!
So with that in mind ARE YOU an EXCEPTIONAL or ADEQUATE SERVICE PROVIDER? Ultimately the choice is yours 😉
(this article is all about having a leadership mindset… if you know you need to up your game and start playing bigger in your business I encourage you to take a peak at our LEADERSHIP RETREAT for IMPLEMENTERS IN BANFF, ALBERTA: