“Excellence is the Result of Caring more than others think is Wise, Risking more than others think is Safe, Dreaming more than others think is Practical, and Expecting more than others think is Possible.” - Ronnie Oldham
One thing I learnt young was, to aim for excellence in what you do. Excellence does not equal perfection, but excellence was the constant effort to raise the bar and do better than before.
When I was looking for some beautiful quotes on excellence, the one above really caught my eye. The Risking, Dreaming, Expecting factors raised above are what I was pushed to believe in.
But the journey of learning this was the interesting part.
We watched my teacher perform this for the first time in a competition, and were awestruck by it. Then came the wish to learn, and push my boundaries (my mom's wish to push my boundaries 😀).
The dance included some swift spins, both done standing and on knees. Especially the knee-spin was a challenge. She made me learn how to perform these spins. Step by step, spin by spin, first excellence in standing spins, followed by excellence in knee spins. And a lot of practise every day before I could do these spins with ease. It was those days when we did not have tiled floors, it was either cemented floors or slate tiled floors. Really rough. But that didn't deter her or me. Once I could manage the spins, the request went to the teacher if he could teach. Obviously, seeing I could manage, he didn't refuse, and I learnt to do the Ugra Shiva tandava.
Learning this dance was not about perfection, but it was really pushing ourselves, trying to reach the next level of dancing. Initially before I practised the turns, the teacher was skeptical. And that's exactly where dreaming more than practical, expecting more than possible came in.
Building Excellence : Means to success
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| At a competition where I won the gold medal |
Set your bar high(er) : Excellence can be achieved, only if you constantly aim higher. The moment you reach your planned goal, do not relax with status-quo, but think of what next to better what you have done. The bar can never come down.
Give more than 100% : I strongly believe that if you want to achieve a 100%, you should aim atleast a 120%. Only then you reach a 100% of your goal. If you wish to be "good", target "excellent".
Let yourself fail : Failures should act as a stepping stone to success. Failures should only push us to try harder. Do not let failures bog you down from your goal of excellence.
As a leader, building excellence takes a different direction. Here the excellence does not get limited to self excellence, but the teams excellence.
Have a vision that pushes boundaries: A team will follow you as a leader, only when they see a vision that goes beyond their expectations. The leader's belief in reaching that goal, that vision, will build trust in the team. The vision should push the team to also think beyond their boundaries, and excel in their goals.
Communicate, Set challenges : You want your vision to turn into a reality, then simply communicate and communicate and communicate. It's imperative the team understands where and WHY they are headed. Only then the accountability sets in. Every vision definition should be followed with shorter goals that stretch the capabilities of your team. This brings more engagement.
Accept changes, be resilient : Nothing comes easy without any changes attached to it. Be ready and open for changes. Sometimes the changes should also be defined by you if not headed in right direction. Be ready to let go of old plans and move to better ones. But whatever comes, be resilient to change.
“Excellence Is Not A Skill. It Is An Attitude.” – Ralph Marston
PS: The video of this dance, recreated with my daughter, is present here :
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