Here is the exact source of excellence vs. mediocrity

This weekend the exact source of excellence vs. mediocrity revealed itself to me in one giant, now obvious moment. The truth is probably politically incorrect, but here it is....

First, let's be honest with each other. Mediocrity is everywhere and seems to have an easy time spreading. Even thinking about the businesses I frequented this weekend, it was loud and clear:

• My family stayed at a Quality Inn this weekend. We registered for a non-smoking room and all they had when we checked in was a smoking room. It stunk. Meanwhile, the bathroom was filthy, with bugs crawling in a brown-stained shower tub, and the sink still had toothpaste from the previous user. A line of guests was fuming because they had made registrations and there were no rooms available for them. That's mediocrity.
• We ordered four drinks at Starbucks and the barista got half of them wrong. How hard is it to say "Two black tea lemonades, sweetened;" have the cashier repeat back, "That's two black tea lemonades, sweetened;" and then serve up two sweetened black tea lemonades? Apparently it is really hard, because we received two unsweetened iced teas. Again, that's mediocrity.
• We had ordered some curtains for our house. The company told us it would take 8 weeks for delivery. Twelve weeks later, just before the weekend, they finally delivered the curtains. It turns out that they had measured incorrectly and had to redo the order. This will be another twelve weeks. Meanwhile, the billing office called asking for the rest of payment, and three people from the office called us to "coordinate" with no idea that the order was wrong. Mediocrity -- this time in a family-owned business that has to compete against lots of competitors in town. You would think they would do everything in their power to get it right. Their explanation: "No one in town wants to work. Half of the people here are addicted to opioids and you can't even trust them in your home."
• We dropped our car off for a quick oil change at our dealer. Ninety minutes later we received nothing but excuses about why it was taking so long. Excuses come from mediocre mindsets.

I have no doubt that if you think back on the past week, you can come up with plenty of examples of mediocre service and products.

What is the exact source of this mediocrity? My answer might not be politically correct, but I saw it as clearly as a message coming from heaven this weekend. We had driven 8 hours to an out-of-the way area in Molena GA to see our son compete with his team against 100 other teams in the JROTC Raiders National competition. If you've never heard of this sport, it's really interesting. Boys, girls, and mixed teams compete on things like 5k runs up and down a mountain; building and going over a rope bridge (over a river); and working their ways through obstacle courses that include climbing walls and going through mud holes.

On the 5k event, parents on our team stationed ourselves up the mountain to cheer on our kids as they ran up the hill. Note that in this event, the team has to finish together. It's not like a typical cross-country race based on the fastest runner. It's all about teams working together to support each other. The weakest link determines the final time and score.

Anyway, teams have had months to prepare for this national competition. You would expect a certain standard of quality among the teams. But that's not what we witnessed. What we saw was that some teams were sprinting up the mountain, some were walking, and some were in the middle. None of the kids looked any stronger or weaker than any of the others. There was a diverse representation from many ethnic groups, and I know from our own team that the kids came from a big mix of socio-economic backgrounds. The difference was in their commitment to training and mindset about getting up that hill together.

The variation in results was huge.

For me, the source of mediocrity vs. excellence was screaming out loudly during that event:

It starts young. It's a habit we form. It's a choice.

Even with 100 teams from around the country, with the kids having every opportunity to step up and give maximum effort, we saw huge differences in quality, positive mindset, and discipline. Some kids, coaches, and teams had it. Some didn't.

I suppose some people can make a commitment at some point in their lives to say, "I've been mediocre, and now I'm going to stop it and become excellent." But I think that the younger one starts, the easier it is to build on excellence. I'm not sure if a 20-something young adult who is addicted to video games and smoking pot is ever going to be able to make the transition, is ever going to care enough or have the mind strength to suddenly show up as excellent. Excellence is a habit. Parents can help. Teachers and coaches can help. But eventually the individual has to step up and own it.

I know: It is certainly easier in some environments than in others to generate and keep this kind of mindset going. But I have to tell you that this weekend we saw teams from all sorts of backgrounds, and the variation would not be explained by the usual sociology variables. It was something else.

This has massive implications for our workforce. How many people get left a little bit more behind, simply because for one reason or another they never developed the habits of excellence -- even if they were given every opportunity? And then what happens as success continues to go to the successful, per Peter Senge's Fifth Discipline? Most fall further and further behind. Many are likely to blame others. Some politicians are likely to want to step in and help them in order to win votes, furthering a cycle of dependency and making promises that are not especially sustainable for long-term fiscal strength of a city, state, or nation.

Another perspective: What about all of those lackluster, mediocre kids we grew up with and that now, somehow, have managed to become leaders in business and in government? These were the mediocre kids who somehow figure out how to ride the Peter Principle to its full limit. Remember all those kids in your class growing up, and you wondered how they would ever make it in life? Some had the charisma to get elected, faked their way, or used nepotism to land themselves in positions of power. That's scary, no? We trust these leaders (they are on both sides of the political spectrum) with our national security, financial futures, food safety, healthcare quality, and whether the brakes on our cars work.

I imagine a mathematician could create some sort of algorithm that shows that, over time, mediocrity spreads and is hard to contain. The movie Idiocracy is a mediocre movie, but does illustrate this principle over time on the big screen. Maybe, mathematically, there is no way to keep mediocrity from spreading and from dumbing down our society over time. All it takes is tolerating lower and lower standards. The principle of entropy is all we need to know that things move to more and more chaos unless we put in energy/work to keep things more orderly.

Like it or not, excellence is a habit. I believe it starts early, and I believe it is increasingly rare. It takes work. It takes a commitment to fight entropy. It takes the strength to not tolerate mediocrity. It's all hard, and that's why mediocrity is common.

So, what to do? What does this mean for us as leaders, executive coaches, and parents? I think we have one strategy: keep the bar high, keep raising the bar, and refuse to compromise. We need to support initiatives that support excellence in young kids, model excellence as best we can, and keep raising the bar on our own performance. Fight the good fight!

Oh -- and know whether you are mediocre or excellent; many of us lack awareness and need a reality check. How are you doing running up that 5k hill, even when your legs and lungs are burning and your team is yelling at you to step it up?