It always surprises me how few people decide to be exceptional. Some don’t want the attention, others lack the confidence … or maybe it is just down to a lack of imagination or motivation?

What being exceptional is not about is being a genius. You do not need an IQ of 150 or a PhD to do something better than anyone else. Having a passion for what you do and striving to improve are the sole prerequisites. You don’t need to have an incredible job to demonstrate to the world that you are exceptional …

You can choose to do any job exceptionally...

The above image has been doing the rounds on the Web as a funny illustration of what a valet parking attendant with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) might do. I tend to think that it is actually a great use of spare time to make his or her car parking something memorable and different … i.e. exceptional. If I was this person’s boss I would be extremely pleased and make sure I kept them as an employee … if I had several different locations with car parks I would make it company policy!

Small innovations can have big effects on your customers and your reputation. I was on a customer support call the other day and the person in the call centre said “I’m going to put you on hold. I estimate it will take 4 minutes to get you a definitive answer, but I will come back in 2 minutes to update you”. Any possibility of me getting frustrated by being on hold was eliminated with that simple line … I imagine they have far fewer people hanging up mid-call than other call centres.

So, whatever your job or business, have a think about some small things you can do to become exceptional. The small, thoughtful things make an impression and can create free word-of-mouth marketing for you or your company … or, like the photo, may cause it to go viral!