Sometimes we’re anticipating how things will go (negatively). Because one thing may not have gone the way we would anticipate, sometimes we view a negative event as setting the tone for what might happen the rest of the day.
We can equally focus on those good things that are happening within our lives. We can also say, “I’m going to experience the same level of excellence, but it’s just a different day.”
I sometimes get almost flooded with the word excellence. I get exposed to it at car dealerships and over the phone from utility companies, for example. I have heard workers at dealerships say that, if they don’t get an excellent evaluation, they may get fired.
I recently had a refrigerator delivered, and the worker said that when I get their phone survey, every mark has to be excellent or it won’t count.
Sometimes I ask my patients to tell me what’s going well for them today. There are so many things we can all get frustrated about, but I like to think about what good things can happen to us as well.
When I have asked my patients this question, most times they are able to tell me what’s going well for them. This also opens the opportunity to learn more about the patient’s point of view. Can we figure out how to create a better experience for our patients?
I think about this even when we look at our teams. Recently I have started telling my staff that we are not aiming for perfection, but excellence. This gets to be a fun situation, too because we can think about how to work as a team to be the best that we can be.
We’re aiming to be our best, and we can exceed expectations.
We can exceed the expectations of our patients and maybe even surprise ourselves as we work as a team. I recently listened to an audiotape which stated that many of us are not working at our full potential. We can all ask ourselves, “What else is possible?”
Many times when I round on my patients, I will call the nurses before hand and ask them if they have any nursing issues. Sometimes I rephrase the statement by asking if there is anything we can do to “kick it up a notch” for patient care. Did we reach our full potential?
Many times when I ask that first question about nursing issues, even if the answer is “no,” there is usually something nurses will bring up when it comes to reaching the best for our patients.
I don’t want excellence to become just a word that we say. I want it to be something that can be a part of our daily actions. We can view excellence as the way we work together as a team.
Sometimes excellence can be said so many times in different environments, and it can feel so commonplace that it doesn’t seem special. This can be the case especially during those times when we’re hearing it everywhere we go: at the car dealership and utility companies.
If we’re going to use excellence and strive for excellence on our teams, I think we need to find ways to go beyond just a commonplace use.
What have you done to bring excellence to your team?