Over the years my understanding of the term excellence has changed. Excellence was often limited to the academic space since I was a student, but I've realised over and over again it extends to every area and mostly to the seemingly little things.
To me, excellence means I write in full when speaking to someone via WhatsApp because I have the skill of writing. It also means I need to read a text before sending it (though I've recently started doing this). Excellence means as a teacher in church, I take a sincere interest in each child - I try to see if they are able to grasp a concept I'm trying to teach and when I see a child lose interest, I try to see how I can draw them back to listen, aware that they might not even be familiar with my way of teaching and there might be environmental factors.
Excellence also means a taxi driver is mindful of the passengers - he drivers cautiously because the passenger's life is in his hands, so he won't text / answer calls; nor will he play loud, banging music which is deafening. So, will an uber / bolt driver offer such a service and will say when he's driving a different car with a different license registration prior his arrival.
Excellence means as a street vendor, I will not sell rotten fruit and vegetables to my customers or products that aren't fresh because I do not store them correctly.
It means not getting "bored" as an employee in a clothing store when a customer seeks help. Recently, I wanted to buy a traditional dress and it was torn (small tore); but because I always survey the clothes I buy I saw it including the doek I wanted to buy. How do you even sell that without sewing things appropriately and checking your work afterwards?
Excellence isn't for a certain class. Even as a cleaner / sweeper / rubbish collector you need to do your best.
It's really my prayer that I do my best this year in any sphere - even when I write my posts on here. I have the responsibility of pre-reading my work before publishing it. I often notice how content creators will produce quality material but their subtitles which they themselves provide are often filled with so many spelling errors. It's not nice.
I also think excellence is constantly communicating with a customer, answering texts, calls and emails in regard to the service you must render. Including updating information if there's any change in the business or any inconvenience on your part.
As black people we've gotten a bad reputation due to our service. It's easy to get good service from a white person than a black person; there are some whose excellence is overshadowed by the mediocre ones.
I pray we do better this year. Excellence is the standard.
Comments
Post a Comment