Our company, Building Champions, has five convictions that act as filters for our decisions and clarify what our teammates belong to. One of those convictions is as follows: “We are lifelong learners. We can only give away what we possess.”

I think most of you would agree that at the end of the day — or at the end of your life — you want to have led a life of contribution. You want to have made a significant difference in the lives of those around you at home, at work, and in your community.

My encouragement to you is to get off the fast-moving treadmill once in a while. Make sure that you are continually challenging yourself to learn and grow in the areas of your life that are most important to you. This is where having a Life Plan can really make a difference.

Be proactive and create a development plan that is so specific with how and when you will grow that your actions are schedulable. Don’t just hope that you will lead a life and business of value. Instead, be one of the very few who are clear on this conviction of lifelong learning, so that you can give away more as the result of possessing more.

At this year’s Experience, our theme is Contribution. We all have more to give, and if you are serious about developing yourself so that you can contribute more, consider joining us in September.

Here’s to living and leading proactively and intentionally, and to ultimately making a greater difference!

A few years ago, I started working with the leadership of a UK based petroleum additives firm. One of their primary initiatives is “organizational excellence.” Last week, I spent time with the leadership of a huge restaurant chain whose first principle of success is “operational excellence.”

Tomorrow I will be with a mortgage banking firm, and “manufacturing quality” is one of their guiding principles. Now, “manufacturing quality” does not have the word excellence in it, but as I read what it means to them the word excellence jumped right out.

As leaders, we must closely examine this trend.

Today’s consumers are experience minded. They like to buy from those they have relationship with and who have the ability to deliver excellence in their buying experience.

I have coached many leaders who have overlooked the need to make organizational, operational, or service excellence the foundation of how they deliver their products or services. They spend all sorts of time and money sending their clients handwritten notes and elaborate Harry and David gift baskets, hoping this will result in raving fans.

What we all must remember is that no matter how much fruit is in the gift basket or how nicely worded our notes are, if we did not deliver our product or service with excellence, the note and basket won’t matter.

Offering excellent services or products is the starting line; it is what allows us to compete in today’s business environment. If we don’t have excellence as a deep conviction tied to clear behaviors, we are likely to have businesses that are very much like leaky buckets. We will work hard to attract new customers today as we lose yesterday’s customers due to mediocrity.

At Building Champions, one of our Convictions is that we exemplify excellence in all we do.

Striving for Excellence,