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.
- 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.
|
More Articles:1. Character -- Why It Matters In Leaders 'Character is much easier kept than recovered.” - Thomas Paine “The best index to a person’s character is (a) how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can’t fight back.” - Abigail van Buren “Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are to some extent a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece…by thought, choice, courage, and determination.”- John Luther Long________________… 2. Eight Skills of Highly Successful Consultants By Kevin Eikenberry With deference to Dr. Covey and his very popular Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (all habits that will make us better consultants!), here are eight skills that all of us as consultants can work on to improve. This article will start with three overarching skills, then describe five more specific skills to consider in your ongoing development. One way to look at your total skill set as a consultant (internal or external), is to consider your relative strengths in the three major porti… 3. The Supervisors 14 Essential Truths For Communicating With Direct Reports By John Robertson One amazing, but sadly true, fact of today's advances in communication tools is that we really don't communicate much better than in the past.Indeed one recent study determined the number one advancement in communication tools was the availability of cheap on-line airfares.The airline trip was needed to clarify some earlier communication sent out electronically!Therefore a Manager/Supervisor must be able to clearly communicate to his/her direct reports in an effective manner.The following are … 4. How to Leverage Your Strengths for Peak Performance By Dr. Robert Karlsberg Ask almost any business leader how to most effectively develop people and build teamwork and you’ll hear, “tap into employees’ strengths.” Yet when it comes to their own careers, many managers still focus the majority of their personal development efforts on shoring up areas of weakness.Sometimes this is due to well meaning critiques by superiors. Other times managers moving up the career ladder try to emulate those who have gone before.While all managers need to hone their communication and … |
||||
