Excellence

Excellence or mastery seem to be words falling out of fashion. Yet it is a gem when you meet people who are masters at what they do. My biggest heroes lately have been a plumber and a window restoration person, who are working on our historic house and seem to perform miracles on old pipes and old windows. I say “miracles” but actually that is what I would expect from an experienced craft person. They know what they do and they love what they do. I enjoy meeting people who have mastered their craft and are proud of it. The satisfaction when a project is completed shows on their face. 

I noticed that mastering something you touch with your hands is a bit easier to understand. But mastery in organizational processes, maneuvering government, carrying out productive meetings can also be done with mastery. At the end, there is nothing specific to touch, but we all know when things are done well, with excellence.

In government, many tasks are not glamorous. A budget spreadsheet, a zoning meeting, a permit issuing committee review, a conversation with an IT department on a “thing” that doesn’t work. Once in awhile you get to work on a new initiative and write up a new budget proposal. Your mastery may shine more on a new project, and, sadly, being excellent for an ongoing work is falling out of fashion. 

I once inherited a role to approve exceptions for a funeral assistance program. A program is paid by the state general purpose revenue money and helps families bury their loved ones when no one has a dollar available to pay for the funeral. When I worked on this, the support was about $2,000 and my role was to review and grant exceptions for a larger coffin or urn if the deceased family member was large or had a knee or hip replacement. Not something to introduce yourself at a pool party. But families that needed this program and funeral directors who worked with the state for this financial assistance expected a quick turnaround on the approval. The speed on the government side only came when a person doing approvals knew the policies and processes. Mastery of your specific small program, a zoning rule in your town, nuances of the tax code, formulas and pivot tables in the spreadsheets. Sound familiar?

The excellence in small tasks compounds over time. And you become a leader, a role model for others. Excellence requires preparation. Also, knowing rules, processes, policies, history, precedent or special cases helps to build mastery over time. When working in government, don’t fill your days with meetings and checking ins only, leave some time for increasing your mastery. Plan for outcomes, decisions and timely responses for items in your sphere of influence. It may be customer service, it may be expense reimbursement review, but you can have mastery in any role. And, remember, all roles are important. Block at least half of your time for needle moving activities. Pay attention to details. Double check your work. Be conscientious to who you are serving and helping. Not cases, subjects, recipients, filers, but actual people that live in your community or work in your organization. Your neighbors, parents or grandparents of your kid’s friends, that lovely older lady that walks the dog at 7:00am each morning and passes your house. Be the person that brings excellence back in fashion.