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. Dialogue vs. Discussion By Graeme Nichol
Have you ever sat in a meeting where everyone is busy giving their point of view and trying to prove why they are right? Where no one is actually listening or trying to understand other individuals’ points of view. The alternative meeting format is where everyone listens to and agrees with the meeting leader. No one contributes or adds ideas, they are just compliant.In my experience most meeting are either one or the other. But when you think about it, what is the point of most meetings? Meeti…

2. Recognition: A Quick, Low-cost Way to Motivate Employees By Marcia Zidle
Recognizing good performance through praise or other positive action is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to motivate people. It provides three major benefits: It lets people know that their performance was valued, and increases the likelihood that they will continue to perform well. It builds confidence so that people are willing to try new things, and develop further in their jobs. It leads to greater job satisfaction which in turn builds commitment to the manager and the e…

3. Margin Management - Using the Supplier Profitability Ratio to Hold Your Vendors Accountable By Rick Johnson
Margin management is not rocket science. Improving gross margin is simple. You must either raise prices or reduce cost of goods sold. But, there is a little more to it than that when you consider net profit. Consider doing an activity based costing analysis on your entire account base. There are plenty of instruction manuals published on how to do this. I guarantee you that you will find some surprises. You should also consider implementing a “Margin Hold” system that forces management approva…

4. Middle Managers Behaving Badly – How To Stop This Damaging Your Results By Bill Robb
More and more I hear and read about a looming crisis of leadership at the middle management level and the inevitable resulting increase in, poor performance, accidents and production mistakes and hence declining profits.I’m afraid to say these observations are not just rumours. In my own work as a management consultant I’ve noticed a distinct increase in negative behaviours in many middle managers in all sorts of companies.In this short article I’ll explain what I mean by “negative behaviours”…