Blog # 3 – True Excellence in Business Management and Life

Jan 24, 2019 · 9 min read –

“Excellence is not a skill, it’s an attitude.” Ralph Marston

Several months ago, I was cleaning out some boxes in my garage rafters and came across a box of college papers I’d written. It was fun to read stuff that I’d written 35 years ago. My manual $10 garage sale Underwood typewriter had served me well, (along with lots of white-out). I came across my final paper for my Senior year business internship, a requirement for graduation. Ah yes, the Athletic Department Supervisor position I’d held for two years had qualified as my internship. Challenges included taking over a mess of organization and staffing. Problems with finding good employees, dealing with falsified timecards, treating my peers as peers and also as subordinates. Delegating and training. Confrontations with administrators. It had been a great experience to prepare me for managing people and business. I read it and smiled at the circled “A” grade noted in red pen at the end. “Nice job“, I thought to myself.

Then I saw a little red notebook in the box and picked it up and flipped through it. It was pages of each day I’d worked at my job and noted what I’d done each day. A duty log of sorts. I started to read some entries and remembered a few of the events in there from my college days. Then some handwritten notes in green pen showed up. My Faculty Supervisor had made comments in my daily duty log. I’d forgotten about this. My stomach churned as emotions that have been buried for over 30 years grabbed me. I wanted to put it down and toss it in the trash can. But I’d kept his words for a reason and decided to read on. Comments about frustration, not having feelings for my staff, carrying the burden alone, solving others’ problems to get the job done, loneliness in the role, etc. He said he saw signs of bitterness and a negative attitude in me my last semester. He commented that the daily log was mainly factual and only once mentioned “signs of life and emotion”. I looked around for some matches to burn this 30 + year-old little red notebook but thought better of it and put it back in the box instead. I needed to figure this out. He’d challenged me back at the end of my Senior year and dug deep and struck some nerves. How could these few comments in the margin of my daily duty log still make me upset?

I attended a small Christian college in the Chicago area in the early 1980’s. After my sophomore year, I took a year off to work as I’d not picked my major and had run out of money. I was taking out school loans, used up my savings, and was working to put myself through. My year off allowed me to grow and mature, with new responsibilities in challenging environments. I’d taught high school overseas, been a logistics coordinator, and had big responsibilities for hauling freight and negotiating customs and duties on large shipments of equipment and hospital supplies. Furthermore, the year included traveling all over the African continent. Upon my return to college, I was determined to finish as soon as possible. My target was to get back in the real world, put college behind me, and start my career and make some money. Being chained to the tough schedule of carrying 18 credits, working part time, and playing varsity soccer, I had little money or life to speak of.

My Junior year, I was MVP of the varsity soccer team, co-Captain, had qualified for All District Team honors (5 states), was on the Dean’s list and been put in charge of the Athletic department. As my dad would say, I was “a big man on campus” heading into my Senior year. I was in command and cruising to graduation. So who is my Faculty Advisor telling me that I’m not doing a good job?!

I’d broken up with my girlfriend the end of my Junior year and we’d tried to restart the relationship in the fall semester of my final year, but it didn’t work out as I found out a few months later she was also dating another guy at the same time. Not cool. That hurt. So heading into my final semester, I was ready to be done with college. I had found a job working for a company as an independent contractor for 30 hours a week and was enjoying that while taking just a few remaining credits to finish off my requirement to graduate. My company promised me a full time job the Monday after graduation with the promise of relocation to warmer climes. My sights were not focused on the present. I was looking forward to graduation, and getting on with my life.

The learning objectives of my Internship included organization and responsibility. When I took over as the Athletic Department Supervisor my Junior year, I had to organize the department both physically and personnel-wise. Frustrations abounded with undependable staff, cheating employees, and the end result that if something needed doing, I had to do it. We had very positive progress that year and during my Senior year, I was transitioning and training my replacement. The heavy lifting had been done, but some challenges remained. I’d been a good leader and worker. And I’d been carrying the burden alone for a long time. I could see the end and wanted to get there for so many reasons.

“Good description of what you did. But it’s hard to tell how you felt about staff, relations with people. Major interactions, (particularly with your use of authority) omitted, re: Epps. Yet these constitute the heart of your learning experience and memories that will linger long after you’ve forgotten about hauling around the spotlight at an event or other duties. P.S. Mark (my boss) thought this was a hard semester for you and the “A” grade was given to reflect the last 2+ years rather than this semester which really ended on a lower note than the overall quality of your effort.”

“I wish you well and pray that you will overcome evil with goodness rather than take it upon yourself personally to solve other people’s problems.” Professor J.E.F.

I thought long and hard about those notes in the margin. After 30 years from first reading his comments, I had to admit he was right.

My career and personal life have been all about working with people, and managing people and processes, and to be a leader (usually reluctantly). My current position has me being responsible for overseeing 75 people and hundreds of millions of dollars of commercial real estate assets. I thrive on organization and processes and growing people through responsibility and trust. So regardless of how well technically I do the job, if I am not approaching it with the proper attitude or harbor any type of distrust with my staff, the overall work will be substandard. Colossians 3:23 notes: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men”. There is wisdom in this. We should be pursuing excellence in all we do. So while I had all the exterior makings of doing a great job at the Athletic Department to warrant an “A” grade, he wanted to give me a “B” for that last semester. He extended grace, and maybe didn’t realize the life lesson he was teaching me. I was glad for the “A” as it kept me on the Dean’s list, and I was righteously indignant that I deserved an “A”. So now reflecting on it, I wonder if a “B” or “C” grade would have been better at that time. Might I have learned and accepted the lesson he was trying to teach me sooner?

Management and one’s career is about performing the duties as required in the job description – true. But it’s also about where you are inside as a person when doing the work and in managing the people. I did have some frustrations my last semester: I’d been two-timed by my girlfriend, was physically and emotionally tired of school and work, had tasted life, and couldn’t wait to close my life chapter of academia. I was tired of carrying the responsibility and load of the Athletic Department supervisory role with undependable employees. Furthermore, I (still) worry too much and take on too much angst about my work and responsibilities. Professor Jeff F. was right at the time. He’d expected excellence, true excellence and I didn’t deliver. I’d written a good Final Report, delivered a good product and done all the duties assigned. I’d done them well and to a high level. But my heart wasn’t in the job, nor with my staff. I had done enough to get by, and satisfy the requirements to an acceptable standard. The reality was that I wasn’t fully engaged with the work, nor had a proper attitude or invested in the human element. This may be intangible or unquantifiable for some tasks and careers, but is a necessity for success in a management intensive career. And in my ongoing attempt to live my life as a Christian, it’s key. His discernment saw through it all and he exposed it through a few sentences written in the margin. I didn’t like it then at all.

Fortunately, I heeded those words. I’ve slipped back only a few times in my career to not doing my absolute best, and not being as engaged with my boss, peers, and staff as I should. Caring about their well-being, their career growth and their personal lives is now integrated into my management and relationship style. Being conscientious. Valuing everyone regardless of their position or title in the company. I call every person on their birthday, even if it falls on a weekend or holiday. I say “good morning” to everybody in the office, every day. I try to be the servant-leader, doing the menial tasks along with the rest of my staff.

I’m striving for true excellence in management and career (and life for that matter). I’m trying to differentiate the fact that while someone can do all the stuff required per the job description, unless one is engaged with the people, invests in them, trusts them and has an inner peace about the work and environment, it’s not true excellence. As Believers, that is what we should be striving for. This, in spite of the world thinking our results have earned an “A”, God may not.

True excellence is not only the job performance and duties but also one’s heart, attitude, and relationship with one’s boss and peers and subordinates. My professor noted “…overall quality of the effort”. He saw beyond the end product of my doing the job to the proper standard. Going through the motions to achieve the set standard might bode well to the world, but Christians should strive for more. He knew I could do better and wanted me to do better.

This principle of excellence impacts my personal commitments. I get asked to be on various boards or committees and unless I can be “all in” and devote 100% to the effort, I will not accept the commitment. I want to be able to provide excellence versus being partially engaged. I don’t like what I call “skipping rocks” in various projects; being involved to know what is going on, and often getting by satisfactorily, but not having a full grasp of the job. My boss or client might be happy with “satisfactory”, but I’m not. I have fulfillment by investing more in the people than in the job duties.

“Every job is a self portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence.” Jessica Guidobono.

What should be the standard? Enough to fulfill the job description? Or should one invest in a positive attitude, experience the joy of helping and investing in people? Should we grow our subordinates and associates? Should one engage with the project or job to be “all in” with preparation and understanding? Or should one do a good job that is satisfactory but still leave some of one’s effort, attitude, and heart off the table?

After drafting this article, I found Professor Jeff F. on the internet. He’d received his PhD, been ordained, had served a congregation for over 20 years, then returned to teaching, specializing in linguistics and Bible translation at the collegiate and graduate levels. I connected with him and shared this issue of excellence and standards. I reminded him of the grade he’d given me and the comments he’d made and how they’d positively impacted me to set a higher bar for myself. He told me that from his perspective, he felt extending grace over the long run would balance out the harshness of those earlier words. He did think that I needed a low grade or some hard words but that doing both would have been “over the top”. In retrospect, I believe he handled me correctly at the time with making his comments, giving me the “A”, but indicating that it should have been a “B”, and why. We all know the concept of parents teaching their children without exasperating them. Just as teachers, parents, coaches and managers must balance the delicate task of speaking to the heart of a matter with the plain fact that another may not wish to listen. The mature person, however, must find the right balance of disciplinary feedback without crushing the spirit — all the while maintaining healthy communication, active listening, and (here’s the rub) gentleness.

I told my college Professor that his job as faculty advisor was to teach me about business and management; both for the then-present (1980’s) and also for me to learn for my own future endeavors. He accomplished that. His example motivated me to be a better manager, associate, employee and person. And for that, I thanked him…finally…. more than 33 years later.

Congo Kid – Article # 3 – January 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Jeffrey W. Eales. All rights reserved. No portions may be reproduced or transmitted in any format without the prior written permission of the author.