I think it was Winston Churchill who said “I am easily satisfied with the very best”.  I wonder if we always strive to deliver the very best to our clients. I wonder. Because to do so requires an unbelievable laser-like focus on their fears and frustrations, needs and desires, to the exclusion of all else.

I recently have experienced two offerings that are truly excellent – world class, honed, magnificent, near perfect.

C’est Magnifique…

The first was an overnight stay with dinner and breakfast at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons in Great Milton. I won’t go into the minutiae of what it was like to stay in a 2 Michelin star Oxfordshire country pile but suffice to say they know what they’re doing and they do it superbly and have been for 25 years. Right down to the perfect lemon cake with afternoon tea. And they make money.

Fruity…

The second magnificent experience is Blackberry. In October last year I changed my Blackberry for an HTC smartphone. Once my initial ardour had subsided I was left with something that, although brilliant for some, was not brilliant for me. Despite the massive capability of the thing, it couldn’t do well what I needed – to call the right number when I needed it to without having to push 8 buttons, and to send, receive and manage emails and texts efficiently and effectively. I got to the stage where I was scared to pick it up because to do so invariably activated some App, or called the wrong person.

So, I went back to Blackberry and was reminded all over again how their product, for me, is world class, honed, magnificent, near perfect. And they make money.

School’s out…

The reason I question whether we aim to be excellent is because we are taught to be average. Having just had parent’s evening for my two boys (held from 4 to 6pm – eh…don’t get me started) I am struck once again by the focus on “failure” – the areas where the child is excellent are “banked”, with relief, and the focus turns to the “weaknesses” in an attempt to get them to the average. Now don’t get me wrong, the basics must be secured at a minimum level – reading, writing and arithmetic. That’s fine. But once this has been achieved, the focus should be on excellence – focus on strengths, not weaknesses, whether it be academic, vocational, sport, art etc..

Role models…

Every business biography I read – the leaders in question focused on their strengths and managed their weaknesses – usually by getting someone else to do it.

Free transfer…

And in sport – do top sports teams try to get their under-performers up to snuff? No. They let them go and they focus on making the great ones superstars. A focus on excellence.

Business is not about being perfect. In business, value = money.

VALUE = MONEY…

The more value you give, the more money you will attract. At a high level, it’s a true differentiator and of course it fits with the well honed idea that there’s only two business strategies – niche or massive. Le Manoir or MacDonald’s. Each is valid but for the small business person where customer intimacy is often key, the customer will be disappointed if you put a burger down in front of them.

So, for all of you who have “tart up the website”, “rewrite the brochure”, “redesign the logo” etc on your to-do list today – score them out, now. Ask yourself what fears, frustrations, hopes and desires you fulfil for your clients and how can you do more of this and do it better. A relentless focus on this will make your business even better than it is and maybe one day some idiot will be blogging about your lemon cake and in so doing generate more custom for you.

Have a week of excellence. Have an excellent week.

Martin Seligman became President of the American Psychological Association in 1996. He made a bit of an impact straight away by telling his fellow psychologists that through their focus on illness they were missing an important point.

He suggested that if they focused on what was right with people and learn how to help people to stay that way, many psychological issues would either never occur or would disappear – prevention being better than cure.

It’s amazing how many professions get this wrong – if you’re 7 years old and a great creative writer, but cannot tell the time, your teacher may focus on the fact that you cannot tell the time, as if it is likely you will grow into an adult who cannot tell the time.

Almost all managers focus on the poor performers and not the star performers. They assume the high performers have little more to give. But surely it will be more rewarding to focus on those who are talented right out the box, rather than trying to drag those who are below average up to the average?

Some industries do get it right – top flight sports teams get it right. They do not focus on trying to raise the game of those who are below average. They let them go and they focus on the best – helping them to raise their game. This is leadership.

Jo Owen touches on this area in the recently published 2^nd edition to his book How To Lead.

He interviewed 700 leaders and came up with the rather obvious conclusion that successful leaders are more positive that the rest. Now to me, “positive” is a state of mind that drives “positive” actions. This is not to be confused with wild optimism.

Owen suggests 7 areas where you can assess how positive you are -

1. Focus on strengths, not weaknesses.

You cannot succeed by dealing with your weaknesses. Successful leaders focus on their own strengths and find others who have as strengths the leader’s weaknesses. Symbiotic or what? We are all animals after all.

2. Manage your feelings.

Emotional intelligence. If you are upset or angry – accept the emotion but then choose how to react to it. Do not be angry or upset. Feel the emotion, do not be the emotion. Chose how to be. Be engaged. Be positive.

3. Visualise

Visualise success. Focus on the goal and how to get there.  Can you articulate in simple words where you’re going? Clarity of purpose. And ambition. But don’t be scared…it is better to aim for 100 and hit 80 than aim for 40 because that’s what you normally get, and then actually hit 40. Only you will know if your goal is really challenging, and if it is, and you miss by a bit, that’s OK. The real problem is those who aim for 40, or, even worse, those who do not aim at all.

4. Do something worthwhile – which may or may not be in work.

If you are not doing something worthwhile, where you feel real purpose, you will struggle to remain positive. Leadership is not for everyone, and that’s OK. But maybe you are a leader – just not where you are right now.

5. Move to action

Do not conduct a post-mortem on the past. It’s gone. Do not have a victim mentality – don’t blame others for your past misfortunes.

6. Wear the mask of leadership

No matter how you feel and sometime you will feel like a bag of nails…no one wants to know, not really. Sorry about that. When they ask you how you are, they want you to say “great”.

7. Take control

Even with your back against the wall you will have something you can do; something within your sphere of control; a lever you can pull. Do not worry about the things you cannot control. Stay focused on what you can do. And do it.

This is all obvious stuff.

If you find yourself getting any of this wrong today, pull yourself up.

Why?

Well think of the alternative – ignore your strengths and try to eliminate your weaknesses; be at the mercy of your emotions;  have no idea what success looks like; spend the prime of your life on stuff you don’t find worthwhile; dwell on the past; moan; focus on what you cannot do and don’t do it.

Yuk!