The Case for Exceptionalism in a World of Mediocrity

Have you noticed that we have largely achieved the goal of making it safe for people to be comfortable? Nearly all people in modern society do not make do with the threat of being eaten by predators and the vast majority of us do not worry where their next meal will come from.

We have built a safety net that many work to constantly expand with noble purposes around protecting innocent children, healing the sick, aiding the infirmed and caring for those feebled by their advancing age. We house people who cannot provide their own shelter. We extend life expectancy, provide comprehensive education and myriad cultural experiences that enhance our overall quality of life.

With the rapidly accelerating pace of new technology we can control nature's elements with heat and air conditioning, connect voices from practically anywhere on earth, offer nearly limitless access to ideas and information - and offer those with even a modicum of affluence luxuries that not long ago were barely available to only the extremely powerful and wealthy.

All this would seem good, except for one likely unintended consequence. It is when we are uncomfortable that we learn, grow, adapt and thrive.

When we are couched in things that make us comfortable we tend to embrace the status quo.

It's not that we necessarily get "fat and lazy" (though clearly some of us do) - it's that the drive to advance, the grit that comes from expanding our reach beyond what is comfortable, and the conscientiousness that we derive from pursuing objectives that are not just about our own personal needs and interests - amount to getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Just as you cannot go to a gym, sit idly on an exercise bicycle watching The Ellen Show - and expect to strengthen and tone your body, you cannot grow your mind without challenging your thinking, your beliefs and even your values. Resistance is what makes us stronger.

Why It's Not Safe to Protect the Status Quo - When it Seems to be Working Just Fine

We are all either growing or dying. This is a simple fact of life. Try as we might, we cannot stand still. The average adult must replace between 50 and 70 billion cells that die in our body each day. By broadly accepted scientific consensus we produce more than 220 billion new cells in our body every single day.

Change is not just inevitable, it is unstoppable until we die.

In this sense, there is no maintaining the status-quo in life; the current state of affairs is one of flux and flow and we are free to either drift - or design our prefered course.

In the lull of your personal comfort-zone you might be seduced into drifting. Like a warm breeze on a secluded tropical beach in some exotic paradise that lifts our thoughts and carries away our worries, we allow ourselves to let go and fall into deep, self-healing meditation. But don't be fooled.

If life is growth, learning is the foundation of maintaining life. We must adapt to the ever-changing conditions of our world.

Purposeful drifting, when we allow our mind to explore and ponder in creative ways, is powerful and necessary. But aimless drifting almost always brings us to mediocrity.

The problem with mediocrity is that when we are comfortable we accept it. We forgive the inconveniences of things going wrong. We tolerate and even normalize dysfunction. Our standards are dulled and our expectations become focused on balancing the discomfort of doing something to correct the problems we experience - versus interrupting our current state of "flow."

We can sit back and literally watch the world deteriorate around us - until we have no choice but to react. Think about lying nestled in a hammock as the weave unwinds, and you eventually fall to the ground.

Accepting the status quo is a perfect way to avoid the discomfort required of real learning. Before we learn anything we must accept what we do not know- and if a lifetime of formal education has taught us anything - it is simply that not having the correct answers to the questions we are tested with is dangerous. When we supply the correct answers we are rewarded - and when fail to do so we are punished.

If a lifetime of formal education has taught us anything - it is simply that not having the correct answers to the questions we are tested with is dangerous.

Mediocrity is the the slow deterioration of life. It doesn't just slow our advancement, it actually impedes us. Accepting mediocrity is a function of incompetence. We know better but we choose to avoid doing what's right or necessary.

You suffer personally from mediocrity in how you experience (or don't experience) life. Accepting dysfunction when we have the opportunity to contribute and change things robs us of the satisfaction of what we might otherwise accomplish. The joy we might experience from accomplishing things that are meaningful and significant and positive in our lives is dashed when we hit the snooze button and drift back to sleep.

Organizations Particularly Suffer from Mediocrity

When companies embrace mediocrity they lose their competitive advantage.

When a company's leadership tolerates mediocrity - the malaise spreads and eventually infects the entire organization. Those who are most susceptible adapt their performance downward towards the lowest common denominator. Those who are truly immune will find their way out.

Because mediocrity and dysfunction have become seemingly the status-quo, the objective for many leaders is to simply be less dysfunctional than your competitors. The goal is to do better - not to be the best that you can possibly be.

The hallmark of high-performance organizations is a constant thrust towards being the best. They aim to improve constantly and adapt relentlessly towards a level of performance that will maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Mediocrity is unacceptable and not tolerated. Incompetence and the dysfunction it causes is eradicated by making it necessary and possible for people to become fully competent in their roles - starting with the leadership. Competence isn't measured by action - but by the meaningfulness and significance of what you accomplish by the action you take.

In a world of mediocre performers, to be best means to be different; to be exceptional.

The Case for Exceptionalism

There may be safety in conformity, but that really depends on the company you keep. Your mother may have suggested that doing whatever other people do is a poor strategy for life. "If you friends jumped in front of an oncoming train - would you follow?" If you surround yourself with non-conformists - might you may very well become just like them?

The celebrated business author, Tom Peters suggested the path to follow is "the search for excellence." I would suggest that there is no such path. Instead there is a journey we can lead in pursuit of exceptionalism.

This does not mean being different for the sake of being unique. It is about being uniquely prepared to perform at your best. It is about being different than the status quo of mediocre organizations that struggle to survive - even when they become seemingly unstoppable in their success. We all know what happened to Blackberry, Kodak, Blockbuster and Sears.

Exceptionalism is only attained when an organization's leadership understands what it means and what it takes to be a fully-competent organization. It is the competence of the leadership that keeps the journey aligned with a great cause or noble purpose that can inspire the exceptional performance of its people. It is what Peter Senge referred to as "a learning organization" - one that is constantly evolving and adapting.

Exceptionalism requires constant change. It is what Harvard University researchers, Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey describe as the generation of creative thinking that is required to survive in a VUCA world defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.

Exceptionalism isn't the cure for mediocrity, but it is the way we move away from it.

There will always be a pull towards comfort and people who cannot resist. Just as the solving of any problem invariably creates some new problem, we cannot expect to ever eliminate dysfunction from the world. The forces of nature that provide the basis for all life seem to also thrive in a certain amount of chaos and dysfunction. It is the exceptional people and organizations that learn to adapt, grow and innovate in this environment. Exceptionalism is what will move society forward, even if it drags the rest of us along kicking and screaming.

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Phil Liebman is the Founder and CEO at ALPS Leadership - Where we help people fully competent, truly exceptional leaders. www.ALPSLeadership.com.

Phil is also been a Group Chairman with Vistage Worldwide since 2005 - where he helps leaders realize their potential by learning with and from other leaders. He is the author of the soon-to-be published book, "Cultivating MoJo: How competent leaders inspire exceptional performance."