My friend Ian coined the Deperdussin Theory.
The Deperdussin was the first aircraft to serve in the Australian Flying Corps, the predecessor to the Royal Australian Air Force. The Theory is that if a lost tribe looked up through the forest canopy and saw a Deperdussin flying overhead (max speed 210 km/h), they would declare it was the most remarkable and awe inspiring magic flying machine. It would become the benchmark against which they would measure everything else they saw or did.
Only because they'd never seen an F-111 (max speed 2665 km/h).
What does 'Excellence' look like?
It looks like the last thing that we thought was excellent.
So boss you'd better hope that it was an F-111 and not a Deperdussin.
Or better still - don't assume we know what you mean by Excellent. Instead, show us your Excellent. Or whatever other Adjective you want us to be.
(I think that's called 'Leadership'.)
And boss - keep innovating your Excellence because the RAAF retired the F-111 from service 18 months ago.
(Even good theories need updating.)