Perfection vs. Excellence (Business, Career, Life Coaching Series)



Learn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Perfection vs. Excellence (Business, Career, Life Coaching Series) article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

'(Howard) Hughes never learned how to convert his knowledge to practical application. Instead he sought a perfection that assured failure.'
- From Empire: The Life, Legend and Madness of Howard Hughes
by Donald L. Bartlett & James B. Steel

How many times have you heard someone (it may have been you) proclaim or complain that he/she is a perfectionist? You may have noticed that going for perfection is a fool's game. You simply cannot win when you set perfection as your standard.

There may be rare and unusual situations where perfection is assumed to be an appropriate standard. Frankly, I can't think of one - no, not even life and death situations such as heart surgery demand perfection in the process. Each stitch does not have to be sewn perfectly in order to affect the outcome. Perfection is present in the ultimate result, as evident in the patient's survival or death, not in the process.

When 'perfection' is the goal it is usually out of an exaggerated desire to be right, to avoid criticism or risk. The focus is on 'how am I doing?' rather than on producing a specific outcome. Excellence, on the other hand, is a way of life. It is the context in which high achievers and peak performers produce and contribute to the quality of life. High achievers and peak performers get things done by taking action looking for appropriate outcomes and measuring their success based on the quantity and quality of their results.

The bad news is that being a human being means we have the abilities and the failings of human beings. We make mistakes. We get tired. We get distracted. We fail to communicate clearly and accurately. When we set perfection as our goal, all of our actions are based on attempts to conquer our natural human limits with little or no intention on the ultimate outcome. The search for perfection limits our ability to act meaningfully.

Acting in accordance with standards of excellence allows us to produce superb results and opens the door to experimentation and creativity.



Royalty Free Coaching Products. - Keep 100% of the profits by selling your own royalty free coaching products!
Organizing Your Youth Soccer Team. - Youth soccer coaching book of over 100 drills, and exercises for beginning and experienced youth soccer coaches.


Article Index: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81



More Articles:


1. Boost Your Leadership Skills Simply By Answering The Question, "What Does Our Organization Really... By Brent Filson
The difference between leaders is ears. Good leaders not only ask good questions, but they actually listen to the answers.Ask people in your organization: "What does our organization REALLY reward?" Listening to the answer may help you achieve marked increased in results.Rewards and punishments make up the drive shaft of any organization. But my experience of working with thousands of leader during the past 21 years reveals that most of their organizations reward the wrong things.Such organi…

2. Agenda-ize to Make Your Meetings More Productive By Larry Galler
Every business that I have ever seen has meetings of some kind. Some are productive but the vast majority of meetings start late, rehash some old stuff, and end even later, rarely producing much in the way of progress. It seems that many meetings happen by inertia, existing because they always have existed and will always exist no matter if they produce anything of value. This is expensive in terms of wasted time and talent. If your business is in this endless loop of non-productive meetin…

3. Service Level Agreement (SLA) Boot Camp By Andy Quick
Service Level Agreements, or "SLA's" are tricky but useful mechanisms for managing the risk of an on-going relationship with IT service providers. Unfortunately, most SLA's that show up in service contracts as worthless, cosmetic paper additions. SLA's can be extremely powerful tools to help you and your service provider get the most out of a relationship.What is an SLA?A service level agreement (SLA), in its most basic form, is a contractual commitment to meet specific goals. If, for example,…

4. Problem-Solving Success Tip: Measure By Jeanne Sawyer
Measure.The first key question to answer in starting a problem-solving project is, “How will you know when the problem is solved?” Answer this question in measurable terms before you start trying to solve the problem. As you begin defining your problem, these success metrics help set clear expectations about what will be different when you finish. At the end of the project, the measurements will demonstrate that the difference has been achieved, i.e., the problem has been solved.To be useful, …