Excellence in Service

Key: Deliver WOW through selfless service.

Make everything better not only by bringing our personal best but also by bringing our collective best.

Insist on the high standards.

Deliver results.

Deliver WOW by standing on the shoulders of giants that went before us.

“Just because you are doing the best you can do doesn’t mean that you are doing the best that can be done.” Andy Andrews

Our work is our worship. Excellence in all our work is offering God spotless sacrifice or worship that is worthy of our God. Being excellence-driven is living as fully devoted worshipers.

As excellence-driven people, we always do things the best way it can be done, not simply the best way we know how to.

We empower our people: Every Member is a Minister; Serving is ministering.

We imitate Jesus in sacrificial service

Serving is leading. We are servant leaders.

We go above and beyond the call of duty. We give up things we highly value for things we value even more.

We are out to serve, not to be served; We are contributors, not consumers.

Stewards are Servants.

Stewardship is using our time, talents, and treasures (money and possessions) for Kingdom purposes.

We were created and called to join God in service. We are called to work with God, not for him or without him.

A dictionary defines the verb to sacrifice as “to give up one thing for another thing considered to be of greater value.” It defines the noun sacrifice as “the act of giving up something highly valued for the sake of something else considered to have a greater value.” Excellence in service means we give up things we highly value for things we value even more.

To be a servant means to have the heart, head (mind), and habits of a servant. Jesus is our model for sacrifice and selfless service. We serve people because we care. We value people, and so we add value to them. Serving is how we minister.

There is a type of excellence that is superficial and focuses on mere appearances. As has been said, everything that glitters is not gold. The excellence we talk about is deep, functional, minimalist, and beautiful. It’s divine excellence.

What happens when we hold ourselves to the standard of doing something the best way it can be done, not simply the best way we know how to do it? We become innovative, push the envelope, stretch our faith, and challenge ourselves to grow in the process. We consult experts or others who have done the same thing before; we do research; we run small test experiments to test out hypotheses before implementing them large scale. We do work that stands the test of time. That kind of excellence glorifies God and relies on him.

Our best is not the goal, the best is. If we need to up our best to get to the best, then that’s what we must do.

An excellence-driven person understands what London Business School professor, Herminia Ibarra, calls “what got you here…won’t get you there” moments. They understand that there are moments when whatever made you successful in the past (i.e. got you here) is not going to make you successful going forward (.i.e. get you there). In fact, it can get in the way of your future success. For example, she says, people who are great at delivering personal results through individual effort may be promoted to roles where they have to deliver results through others. Ibarra says, “what’s tricky about these transition points is not that those new skills are hard to learn. It’s that the old ones have become core to our sense of who we are our identity and so not sticking with them feels like we’re somehow being inauthentic.”

Definition of excellence
Excellence is not elegance. A culture of excellence for us is not a culture of extravagance, flamboyance, or ostentation.  Excellence is simplicity and a deep connection with the simple things of life. Being excellent is not the same as being luxurious. Excellence is simple, not complex. Excellence is minimalist. It focuses on functionality and minimizes complexity. Less is more. There is beauty in simplicity. For us, excellence is focusing on a few things and doing them really well. Excellence is doing more with less. Excellence involves continuous innovation. Yet, excellence doesn’t take too much time to reach. Excellence is not perfectionism. Excellence gets the job done in a relatively short amount of time. Excellence is making everything better through continuous improvement and simplification. Excellence is emptying the self, becoming a servant, and doing things that are simple but not simplistic.

Some favorites quotes.

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.” – Amelia Barr

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“The greatest ideas are the simplest.” – William Golding

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Aristotle.

Excellence = Effectiveness + Efficiency + Exceeding Expectations. 

Effective = doing the right things that deliver the right results.
Efficient = Doing things the right way such that you end up with little waste (that’s frugality). You are able to do more with less. To put it differently, being effective is about doing the right things while being efficient is about doing things right.
Exceeding Expectations = Delivering WOW through excellent service.

 Excellence, therefore, has to do with doing the right things, the right way, and producing results that exceed expectations.

Sample Behaviors for this value:

• Insist on the Highest Standards.
• Deliver results.
• Makes everything better. Is committed to making everything in the organization better (continuous improvement).
• Delivers WOW in all they do by standing on the shoulders of giants that went before us.
• Is committed to excellence in all things. Creates excellent work. If they can’t do it excellently, they don’t do it at all.
• Produces much fruit at work (John 15).
• Seeks to do the best that can be done, not just the best he can do. This means stretching himself, consulting others, etc.
• Craves and delivers superior performance.
• Maintains an up-to-date process for everything in the approved location.
• Possesses and demonstrates broad business knowledge.
• Believes it’s best to do one thing really, really well
• Customer obsession. Puts the Customer first. Serves God by serving the customer. Serving the customer is an act of worship to God. Always puts the interests of others first. We start with the customer and work backward. We work tirelessly to earn and keep the customer’s trust.
• Has the heart, head, and habits/hands of a servant. Sees himself as a servant.
• Has and pursues the Attributes of a Servant.
• Stewards his/her gifts and calling to serve with God. That means every team member must know their gifts and be called to this ministry.
• Stewards resources well. Lives a lifestyle that affirms that everything we have belongs to God; We are only stewards.
• Is humble, caring, and values people.
• Treats everyone with respect.
• Strives to meet the diverse needs of team members and customers.
• Reflects the love of God through caring, compassion, respect, and empathy.
• Servant leadership.
• Proactively gives friendly customer service. Has a “how-can-I-help” attitude.  Jumps in to help others. Goes out of our way to help.
• Is adaptable, flexible, and proactive.
• Serves sacrificially and selflessly.
• Does above what is expected of them.

Serving says with our actions that we care.

Q: In what ways are my increasing imitating Christ in sacrifice and selfless service? How am I giving up things I highly value for things I value even more?

Sample Verses

• Serving is leading. The leader is the servant of all everybody else.
  “But Jesus called them together and said, ‘Among the heathen, kings are tyrants and each minor official lords it over those beneath him. But among you, it is quite different. Anyone wanting to be a leader among you must be your servant. And if you want to be right at the top, you must serve as a slave. Your attitude must be like my own, for I, the Messiah did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.’” Matthew 20:25-28 TLB
• Luke 17:7-10 MSG: Serving doesn’t earn us any bonus points.
  7-10 “Suppose one of you has a servant who comes in from plowing the field or tending the sheep. Would you take his coat, set the table, and say, ‘Sit down and eat’? Wouldn’t you be more likely to say, ‘Prepare dinner; change your clothes and wait table for me until I’ve finished my coffee; then go to the kitchen and have your supper’? Does the servant get special thanks for doing what’s expected of him? It’s the same with you. When you’ve done everything expected of you, be matter-of-fact and say, ‘The work is done. What we were told to do, we did.’”  Also, read this in the NIV and ESV.
• With humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves
  “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:3-11 NASB
• “Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank” (Prov. 22:29 NIV).
• “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24 NIV).
• “Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going” (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
• And this I pray, that your love may abound (i.e., excel) still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God (Philippians 1:9-10 NET).
• But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in all eagerness and in the love from us that is in you—make sure that you excel in this act of kindness too (2 Corinthians 8:7 NET).
• And may the Lord cause you to increase and abound (excel) in love for one another and for all, just as we do for you, so that your hearts are strengthened in holiness to be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13).
• Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more (1 Thessalonians 4:1 NASB).
• “for indeed you do practice it (love) toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more (NASB)
• 1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God (1 Thessalonians 4:10 NET).
• Jesus said to him, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 22:38 This is the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38).