Maintaining a culture of excellence in leadership is one of the hallmarks of leadership. When we talk about excellence, it simply means: being the best we can be through the grace and abilities that God has deposited inside of us. It could also mean doing seemingly ordinary things in an extra-ordinary way.

One thing we must understand as leaders is that excellence does not fall on anyone like a ripe pawpaw. Excellence cannot be gotten through mere wishful thinking. When we look at the work of God when He was done creating everything He wanted to do, God looked at everything and He remarked: it was good. God Himself is a God of excellence and He created us even excellently well. A leader who would be commended for a job or an assignment well done cannot afford to do it outside of excellence.

But first, we must understand that excellence has a spirit. Those who are excellent in everything that they do are driven by this spirit of excellence. That tells you that as a leader, you must covet the spirit of excellence if you really want to succeed excellently well. The Bible recorded the story of Daniel in Babylon. We read that Daniel succeeded because an excellent spirit was found in him. Daniel 5:12 says: “Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, now let Daniel be called, and he will give the interpretation.”

What does this then suggest? As a leader, the first thing you are seeking for should not be glory, it shouldn’t be relevance as well. Your first preoccupation as a leader in leadership is to pursue excellence. How do you pursue excellence? It is by allowing yourself to be enveloped by the spirit of excellence. You must understand that excellence is beyond what you do, excellence must be part and parcel of your reality, it must always flow from your core. And that is exactly what happens when you allow the spirit of excellence to indwell you as a leader.

Now, what will maintaining a culture of excellence produce in leadership? Let me show us just three points that we must run with.

Number one: Maintaining a culture of excellence will distinguish you and your leadership. To be distinguished means to be separated or set apart. In other words, what you do and how you do what you do cannot be compared with what all other leaders are doing. You see, a culture of excellence becomes like a “trade secret” so to say that gives you an edge ahead of your competitors. In Daniel 6:3, the Bible says: “Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm.” Daniel was not the only leader so to say in Babylon, but we saw that the spirit of excellence distinguished him and placed him above the rest.

Number two: Maintaining a culture of excellence would make other leaders to consult you and ask for the secret to your excelling in leadership. Many leaders are out there looking for a way out of their leadership quagmire. But when you maintain a culture of excellence, your leadership would become a beacon of hope to such leaders and those that surround you. In 1Kings 10:1-3, the Bible says: “Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. ² She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels that bore spices, very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. ³ So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her.” Did we see that? The queen was a leader in her own country, but she travelled several kilometers to go learn from the excellence of Solomon. This is exactly what happens when you maintain a culture of excellence in your leadership.

Number three: The quality of your effectiveness in leadership would be to the degree of how excellent you have been or how excellent you would be. So, the starting point to your effectiveness in leadership begins by you thinking excellence, doing excellence and manifesting excellence. Paul said in Philippians 4:8: “finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything, worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” So, from here, we can see that excellence can be thought about and when you think about excellence, you produce excellence.

Alright. This is where we are going to draw the curtains on today’s edition of Leaderview, I believe you have learnt something. Please don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends and people within your influence, and also, you can drop your comments in the comment section so that you and I can interact on the things you have learnt. Till next time on Leaderview, I remain Abiola Obayomi. Stay blessed and God bless you.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

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