What does excellence look like?
I saw it when I attended the rehearsal for a presidential inaugural gala. Watching Aretha Franklin consider everything from the sound, the lighting, down to where she needed to stand on stage. She was exacting and collaborative. When she ran through a song she had sung a thousand times before, the musicians, the sound engineers, and the event team all leaned in. Excellence has a gravitational pull.
She knew what she wanted. She communicated it directly. She did not apologize for her standards. And when she was satisfied, she moved forward.
Five things I took from watching her work that apply directly to how we lead, build, and grow businesses.
Aretha did not lower her expectations to make people comfortable. She set the bar and expected everyone around her to meet it. In business, the leader who tolerates mediocrity creates a culture of it. Standards communicated clearly and held consistently are one of the most powerful leadership tools available.
She rehearsed. She knew every note, every cue, every moment. The performance looked effortless because the preparation was relentless. The executives and founders who show up underprepared to the moments that matter — the board meeting, the client pitch, the team conversation — are trading short-term convenience for long-term credibility.
She worked with her team. She listened. She adjusted. But she never lost the thread of what she was trying to create. Collaboration is not the same as giving everyone equal weight. The leader holds the vision. The team helps execute it.
Because she had mastered her craft, she could make choices others could not. She could slow down a phrase, take a moment, command a room with silence. Mastery gives you options. Competence gives you a job.
Every person in that room deferred to her not because of a title but because she had earned it. She had shown up, done the work, and delivered across decades. That is the kind of authority that cannot be manufactured or assigned. It is built.
The question worth sitting with: where in your business are you tolerating a standard you would not accept from yourself?
