As a child, the only standard my mom held me to was that of doing my best. She never compared my efforts to anyone else’s or asked if I’d made an A. She asked, “Did you do your best?” I was simply expected to live up to my potential. Her “coaching” on this matter has stayed with me throughout my career.
Understanding what excellence means to you is key to achieving personal and professional success. My mother’s guidance taught me that it’s not about comparing yourself to others or aiming for perfection but about defining and meeting your own standards of excellence.
This blog explores identifying your best work, creating conditions that support your performance, and aligning your best efforts with organizational expectations. Let’s dive in.
Define What It Is to Do Your Best
In setting your own standards, it’s crucial to define what doing your best work means to you. Look back at your personal and professional successes and identify instances that you consider your best effort. Keep in mind that giving it your all doesn’t always result in perfection, and expecting flawless execution at all times is setting yourself up for failure.
Once you’ve identified a few examples, start looking at the factors that surrounded those successes. Was there a specific process you used to achieve your goal? If so, is it something you could replicate in the future? In what ways did you use your natural abilities to your advantage? How did you navigate your weaknesses under the circumstances? This kind of purposeful reflection will help you define your idea of excellence.
Prepare for Excellence
In addition to knowing what your best work looks like, it’s also important to know what conditions were in place to get you there. So many factors in our lives can affect our work. Yet, we often expect the same results no matter what might be bearing down on us.
The amount of sleep you’ve gotten, how you nourish your body, and what substances you ingest in your off-hours all have an impact on your performance. What conditions support you being your best at work? Building a routine that’s tailored to help you perform makes a difference. Maybe you do your best after you’ve worked out and eaten a protein-packed breakfast. Or perhaps you respond well to starting your day by reading or listening to guided meditation.
Everyone’s success-boosting efforts will look different. Whatever you discover, understanding what you need to do outside of work to maintain your standard of excellence promotes consistency and negates unintentional self-sabotage.
Know What’s Expected of YouTo find success within an organization, there must be a crossover between what you see as excellence and your employer’s standards. Do you thoroughly understand what’s expected of you and your position? Surprisingly, this matter can be fuzzy.
Don’t hesitate to talk to your manager about what they believe good performance looks like. Try to ask specific questions. Here are a few questions to help you start the conversation.
- Tell me about your expectations for my role. Does my work meet those?
- What areas of improvement should I prioritize? Do you have specific suggestions for doing so?
- What indicators do you use to measure my performance?
- Do you feel I am focusing on the right things in my role?
- What would you like to see from me before our next conversation?
When you ask specific questions, you’re more likely to get quality feedback about your performance and what’s expected of you. Continually check in with your manager’s standards to ensure you are on the same page.
Stick to Your Standards
Lastly, stay dedicated to meeting your expectations once you’ve defined what excellence means. Sometimes, due to circumstances out of your control, you might be held to a different standard than someone else in the same role. This can happen because of office politics, personal biases, or any number of other reasons. It can feel like the goalpost is moved depending on who’s making the play.
As a person of color in today’s workforce, I’ve found that maintaining my own standards is a powerful tool for navigating inconsistent outside expectations. By defining what I consider my best, I provide myself with an unchanging metric for gauging performance. Now, I know that no matter what standards those in power hold for me, I’m staying true to what I define as excellence.
By defining your best work, you give yourself an unwavering measurement for success. Don’t worry about chasing perfection or keeping up with what others are doing. Just focus on consistently maintaining the level of excellence that makes you proud.