Excellence: unreasonable, unpopular, or seemingly unachievable.

I once consulted with a business where the same mistakes and failures were happening, over and over, in every warehouse they operated.

Customers weren’t happy.

The staff seemed miserable.

The warehouses looked a mess.

The board’s verdict was always the same. “We can’t get decent operators on the ground, they’re not committed, they’re agency staff.”

Except there was one team.

A team where it wasn’t happening.

Everything ran smoothly, as expected.

In that warehouse the supervisors were happy. They had a clear system that worked. They understood the impact on customers if it didn’t.

The warehouse manager had implemented the system, set higher standards and expected them to be met. The supervisors held each other accountable to make sure those standards were met.

PRIDE.

That’s the thing that stood out for me.

That’s when I advised the board to stop looking for who was to blame, and start looking at who set the tone.

Excellence starts with someone setting a higher standard.

It may be unreasonable, unpopular, or seemingly unachievable.

But that’s how it starts.

Who’s setting the tone for excellence in your business?

💢 Back in August 22 I enrolled for #ship30for30 the online digital writing course. Since then I’ve done several sprints, publishing an atomic essay each day for 30 days.

This article is the 4/30 for November 2026.